By Mike Barnhardt
Enterprise Record

Davie County Planning Board members voted 6-1 last week to recommend a heavier industrial zoning for 667 acres off Baltimore Road in Advance.
Karen Daugherty cast the only opposing vote, citing some of the uses in the I-3 zone that she says aren’t appropriate for the residential area. “There are things permitted that may not be appropriate based on our land use plan,” she said.
County commissioners are expected to make a final decision on the rezoning request on July 11.
The site is the former RJR facility, which has plenty of buildings and buffers to make it attractive to prospective industries, said Terry Bralley, president of the Davie County Economic Development Commission.
“We want to bring manufacturing back to our country,” Bralley said. “It’s our largest industrial footprint with the largest building. (The zoning) puts us at a disadvantage.”
Most prospective new industry wants an existing building, with zoning and infrastructure in place.  If occupied for most industries, a sewer line extension would have to be built from US 158 to the site, he said.
Bralley said jobs are needed here, citing the fact that 70 percent of Davie residents work in another county. Davie is close to major airports and interstate highways – and to two major geographic regions – the Piedmont Triad and Charlotte. The community …