Saturday's Internet Edition, 01:16 PM, March 13, 2010.
Pay Off Big
For Clemmons?
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- You had me at “Hello,” actress Renee Zellweger said famously in the movie, “Jerry McGuire.”
Clemmons didn’t fall headlong for Novant Health.
The village played the part of a reluctant lover with Novant, using another line from that movie: “Show me the money.”
Novant did just that, agreeing to pony up nearly $8 million in assorted amenities — a site for a much-needed elementary school, a lake, sidewalks, bike trails and a new street. Novant delivered on all the zoning requirements Clemmons has long dreamed of but been unable to afford.
Sometimes it pays to have the reputation of being unpredictable. Other communities would have accepted much less. Some have even famously pay to seduce developers.
Clemmons doesn’t approve every zoning case. That was not always the case. One of the first zoning requests to hit the fledgling village council 20 years ago was the proposed Cracker Barrel restaurant. Citizens packed the council chambers, demanding their buttermilk biscuits regardless of sign ordinances or other provisions meant to control runaway growth on Lewisville-Clemmons Road. The council wilted.
The board now sometimes rejects zoning petitions, most recently a bid to build a second McDonald’s restaurant on Lewisville-Clemmons Road across from Immanuel Baptist Church.
Novant dazzled the village board in ways that would have earned actor Tom Cruise an Academy Award.
Instead of their original 40-acre tract, Novant expanded the plan to 124 acres and created a huge development plan that included every item in the Clemmons wish list. The lynchpin was a site for the elementary school. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system had been unable to locate its own site. Novant offered one on the edge of the big Waterford development, exactly where it is needed. Some students will potentially be able to walk to school. The site can also be linked to the West Forsyth Family YMCA for after school care.
Once Novant linked its hospital to a school, the public mood shifted. Once concerned about ambulance noise, Harper Road area residents understood the tremendous benefit of having a neighborhood school.
Another key ingredient to Novant’s success Monday night in winning a zoning change for its hospital site had less to do with the Clemmons council than with the architect it hired. Doug Stimmel lives in Clemmons, and he developed a site plan with all the bells and whistles he could imagine.
During the hearings, he told the Clemmons leaders that he expected Novant leaders to shoot holes in his expensive ideas. They didn’t. They embraced them all, determined to put their best foot forward.
It also didn’t hurt that Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital wants to build a nearly identical facility across the Yadkin River. Baptist already had its zoning permits in hand and the enthusiastic support of Davie County politicians. Clemmons leaders were noncommittal. Baptist Hospital chief Donny Lambeth even came to the installation of John Bost as mayor after his upset win in 2007 over Mayor Ed Brewer, who had enthusiastically endorsed the Clemmons hospital.
If Clemmons was slow to be seduced, Novant eventually turned almost every head on the village board. Board member Al Harbury tried to postpone the vote Monday night, but the rest of the board wouldn’t hear of it. He didn’t appear to voice a vote, but the outcome was recorded as unanimous.
Novant promises to become the biggest fish in the Clemmons pond, and the most generous. Already the corporate leaders are helping the Clemmons Fire Department seek grants, and they are also helping find solutions to the Reynolds Lake rehabilitation.
The Clemmons citizens and the council Monday demonstrated that they have swooned at last for Novant.
— Dwight Sparks
