SNOW HILL — A food pantry in Snow Hill that is relocating is causing a stir with some residents.
The Greene County Interfaith has applied to amend the town’s zoning ordinance to allow food distribution as a special use in an R10 residential district. The request will go before the town planning board at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the town hall.
The organization hopes to relocate to a house at 106 W. Harper St. in a residential area. A sign stating the zoning request is pending is posted in the front yard.
Pastor Martin Armstrong said his church, Calvary Memorial Methodist Church, which adjoins the property and faces Greene Street, had purchased the brick house last year.
“We’re a landlocked church,” he said. “… We saw it as an opportunity to look to the future.”
Armstrong said he was told Interfaith was being forced out of the building where they have been housed at 398 N.C. 58 S.
“They were being evicted,” he said, “but not by anything they’ve done.”
The minister said he got to thinking about finding a solution when he thought about the empty house the church had purchased, but did not have an immediate need for its use.
“It’s bad stewardship,” he said, “for us as a church to own a useful property and not put it to work in a significant Christian ministry.”
Armstrong said he asked the church’s 20-member administrative council whether they would allow Interfaith use of the building at no charge, and they said yes.
Larry Barrow of L.L. Murphy Co. owned the current Interfaith building before it recently foreclosed. It was sold in a courthouse sale to a group — which included Kinston CPA Ed Barrow — that placed a bid on it.
“They don’t have to move,” Larry Barrow said about Interfaith. “… (The owners) just said it wouldn’t be rent-free.”
He said he expected the rent would be nominal.
Barrow said Interfaith had occupied the building rent-free for 14 years and had tried to purchase it but did not raise its bid high enough when it had an opportunity to do so.
Ed Barrow could not be reached before press time, and Dora Pasour, Interfaith’s director, said she would not comment prior to the planning board meeting.
When the sign went up in front of the house, some of the church members began calling Armstrong with concerns about the effects to traffic and property values. He said most of the calls came from neighbors living near the home and church.
Currently, delivery trucks periodically drop off food to the Interfaith building and about 100 residents pick up food packages two Thursdays a month. People can apply for assistance on Wednesdays.
“The traffic load will not be the same as it is where it is now,” Armstrong said, “because they will change the delivery schedule.”
People will be able to park in the church parking lot next to the house. It’s a short distance to the back of the house, which has handicapped access.
The church has had a relationship with Interfaith since the food pantry’s founding in 1999, after Hurricane Floyd devastated numerous properties in the county.
Interfaith set up an emergency relief site using an office in the Armstrong home next to the church and residents picked up food and clothing on the church property.
At the proposed site, Interfaith will need to set up a 10-foot-by-12-foot building behind the house for the large freezer it uses for food to be distributed, Armstrong said.
He said his congregation is divided over the issue of whether Interfaith should be allowed to operate its food pantry in the residential area. About 60-75 of its 300 members are active members, and he expects some of them will be present at the upcoming planning board meeting — particularly those who live nearby.
Planning board member Bobby Taylor said he guestimates as many as 25 people showing up.
He said he had received a packet of information but hadn’t had time to look at it yet.
“I’ve gotten several phone calls,” Taylor said, “from people in the area that have seen the sign.”
A couple of the calls and visits were “highly concerned” and a few others just wanted information.
“I don’t think anyone that’s concerned,” he said, “is against Interfaith.”
One planning board member, Salvador Tinoco, is also a member of the Interfaith board.
Jeff Carson, a neighbor on West Harper Street, said he believes the farmers market building would be a better option for Interfaith’s activities.
“I’m not against the food bank, in general,” he said, “but I don’t want it in a residential area.”
He said allowing the organization a special use will open the door for other special interests to move into the neighborhood and will add to the congestion.
Robert Edwards, on Northwest Fourth and West Harper streets, said he is concerned about safety.
“I don’t approve of it,” he said, “because it’s a central location and there will be traffic coming in and out day and night.”
George Herring of West Harper Street is a member of Calvary Memorial. He said he would need more information before coming to any conclusion.
“I think traffic is probably part of it,” he said, “but I’m sure there’s probably some way to solve it. But I’m kind of neutral at this point.”
If the planning board recommends Interfaith’s request to amend the ordinance, a public hearing would be held Nov. 12 and the county board would need to make a decision. The Board of Adjustment would then hear Interfaith’s special use request tentatively on Nov. 20.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MargaretFishr.