Public request portal in works, rezoning changes made at commissioners' meeting
- Chuck Thompson
- Sep 18
- 2 min read
A new public portal is expected to make public records requests a lot easier soon. And, four requests were made for rezoning at the Cleveland County Commissioners’ monthly public meeting Tuesday night.
The Planning Director for Cleveland County presented the rezoning request at the regularly scheduled public meeting on Tuesday night.
The first rezoning request was the consideration 2218 Emerald Mine Rd. located just south of Shelby, below Broad River, just off Hwy 18. The rezoning request was for an 85 acre parcel from regular residential to rural residential. Which will allow more lenient lot restriction and more flexibility uses, such as Rv parks, farm uses, veterinary offices, and farm equipment stores.
Next, 154 Runyan Rd, Grover, technically just south of Patterson Springs, requested change from rural residential to residential of 67 acres.
Most of the current uses are for single family homes and some agricultural. Martin noted the land use plan has no rural preservation plan. Traditional residential was requested with one acre lot sizes.
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The third rezoning request involved 135 Dixon Dairy Rd. A 15.8 acre lot rezoning from heavy industrial to residential. Located just off I-85 in Kings Mountain, near Bethlehem Road. Martin stated with it being heavy industrial there is some heavy travel by trucks and other industrial vehicles than your usual residential car traffic. It was deemed compatible to be residential.
The final rezoning request Tuesday night for the board of commissioners to consider was a parcel between 130 Tack Rd and 330 Oak Grove Rd.
All rezoning requests were approved unanimously.
Shifting focus, Cleveland County Attorney Jonathan Sink discussed a public records policy change.
“Why are we here today, why are we doing this?” Sink said to the board, as he began to explain the change.
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Sink explained the public will soon be able to go about putting in a public records request through an online portal, making it more efficient and transparent for everyone. Sink believes a new public portal will streamline the process.
“The transparency is important,” he added, addressing the commissioners. “Y’all told me that before I got here.”
“We are a high-volume request county. The portal is really going to be a big help when that is ready,” Sink added. “We’re going to get it out as promptly as possible.”
The new online portal will direct all public records requests to the county paralegal. The new portal is expected to bring about increased clarity, increased transparency and efficiency.
The Cleveland County Board of Commissioners approved it unanimously.
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Chuck Thompson is a reporter for The Shelby Independent.
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