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Sylva leaders to consider requests to close BroadWaffle House to locate here if street remains openBy Lynn Hotaling |
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Sylva will soon get a Waffle House - if the national chain can be assured of necessary access, a local developer said Monday.
Wayne Smith said he has a signed lease with the restaurant that is contingent on food trucks being able to exit through Smith's property and down Broad Street to West Main. Waffle House will locate on property Smith owns on Asheville Highway between McDonald's and Green's Auto Service. Large food trucks will need a rear exit, Smith said, and the deal revolves around access to West Main Street via Broad. Sylva town board members, faced with two requests earlier this month to close Broad Street, will hear comment from those on both sides of the six-month-old controversy Thursday, April 6, at 6 p.m. Action on the street's status could come during the 7 p.m. meeting to follow. Business owner Marie Searcy and Smith have both requested the town close the street but at two different places. Searcy and all Broad Street property owners except Smith want the road closed at Community Bank. If board members honor Searcy's request, Waffle House will not locate here, Smith said. Smith prefers that the street be closed after it enters his property so it can be used by Waffle House trucks as well as for access to a trailer park he is building just off the Broad Street right-of-way. Searcy, who told board members last October that she believed the street ended at Community Bank, said earlier this month that, based on a recent court ruling, she accepts that Broad Street continues past her property. Searcy and her husband, James, filed suit against Smith last fall, charging the developer with trespass. In a preliminary ruling pertaining to the Searcys' complaint, Judge Richlyn Holt in February found in Smith's favor and offered the opinion that the Broad Street right-of-way is a street. He based the decision on North Carolina case law that indicates if any portion of a proposed street is opened, then the street is open in its entirety. As a result of Holt's initial ruling, the Searcys dropped their lawsuit earlier this month. Marie Searcy then asked town board members earlier March 2 to close Broad Street before it enters her property. Smith asked board members in October to decide the status of Broad Street, which is town-maintained only from its origin on West Main Street between Performance Motors and P&M Automotive to Community Bank. A right-of-way for the remainder of the street was drawn and platted in 1924, but the rest of the road was never constructed. After Searcy's March 2 request that the street be closed at the bank, Smith asked that it be closed after it enters his property. Also scheduled April 6 at 6:30 p.m. is a hearing to take comment on a zoning classification for the newly-annexed REACH property in Lovesfield. |
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