Coming Monday to Cornelius: Car Wars Episode III: The Elantra strikes back

This is the third elevation for a proposed expansion of Lake Norman Hyundai submitted to the town of Cornelius in the past year. Rendering courtesy of the town of Cornelius

CORNELIUS – If at second you don’t succeed, try, try again, again.

That’s the latest tactic being taken by car czar Rick Zoerb in his yearlong battle to make a major expansion of his Hyundai dealership, prominently positioned at the town’s only interchange with Interstate 77.

On Nov. 11, the Cornelius Planning Board unanimously approved the third set of plans to be submitted by Zoerb and architect John Fryday.  Lake Norman Hyundai initially applied last November for a rezoning of 5.6 acres near the existing dealership from rural preservation to highway commercial.

But the appointed Planning Board, which also approved the first two plans, hasn’t been the roadblock. It’s been the elected Board of Commissioners, which will take a look at the newest set of plans at a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.

After the Planning Board approved the first plan back in February, the wheels started to come off the project the following month when the mayor and a majority of the Board of Commissioners severely criticized the plan at its initial public hearing, saying it did not fit their vision for what Mayor Lynette Rinker called the town’s “front door.”

Rather than hand Zoerb a 3-1 defeat, the commissioners agreed to table the proposal until Zoerb and Fryday came back in May with a sleek new second set of plans.

The plans for the proposed expansion of Lake Norman Hyundai calls for three new buildings to be constructed just to the left (or south) of the existing dealership on Interstate 77 at Catawba Avenue in Cornelius. The current building would become a used-car dealership. File photo by Tony Brown

Despite being a car dealer, Zoerb could not close the deal.

The souped-up plans did win over one more commissioner, Dave Gilroy, but that was not enough. The board’s 2-2 deadlock was broken by a “No” from the mayor, who said she wanted something more along the lines of the Lake Norman Infiniti dealership next door – which is also owned by Zoerb.

In the latest chapter of the saga, the Planning Board on Nov. 11 OK’d the third set of plans with 16 conditions, most of them routine procedural directives, and recommended the commissioners approve it, too.

One of the twists in the rezoning is that rather than an expansion of the existing dealership building, Zoerb is essentially asking to build a new, three-building showroom, service and office complex, and intends to use the existing building as a used-car dealership. At a combined 45,000 square feet, according to Cornelius Planning Director Wayne Herron, the new buildings would dwarf the existing building’s 16,873.

Cornelius long ago outlawed building car lots within the town, which has four new-car dealerships on or around the intersection of I-77 and Catawba Road, and a smattering of used-car stores, too.

“We’re already the new-car dealership capital of Mecklenburg County,” Gilroy quipped at the March meeting.

But a quirk in the Cornelius zoning ordinance allows existing dealerships to expand on adjacent and even non-adjacent tracts.

Also complicating the rezoning, Rinker and the commissioners have said they want any new construction in the area to compliment a new bridge that will carry Catawba Avenue over I-77. The town is in the midst of investing $2 million of its own money in a brick façade and sailboat theme – complete with masts and rigging – that will dress up the basic bridge the state Department of Transportation’s is constructing over the interstate.

The bridge, which was scheduled to begin a two-year construction process last month, will also feature the N.C. DOT’s “diverging diamond” interchange.

The diverging diamond in Cornelius will be one of the first highway interchanges of its kind in the state. It will direct traffic in both directions to temporarily cross over to the left side of the road, theoretically making left-turns to interstate entrance ramps in easier to negotiate.

Monday’s Cornelius Board of Commissioners meeting will be at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, 21445 Catawba Ave. Also at the meeting, the commissioners will continue their consideration of a proposed new land-use plan, which will also be the topic of a 6 p.m. work session of the board.

For more details on Lake Norman Hyundai proposal, go to cornelius.org, click on Your Government, and follow the links to Departments, Planning & Zoning and Projects. Information about the land-use plan and the bridge project also can be found on the town’s homepage.

This is the souped-up second version of the proposed Lake Norman Hyundai that was rejected by the Cornelius Commissioners a 3-2 vote decided by Mayor Lynette Rinker’s “No.” Rendering courtesy of the town of Cornelius