- September 21, 2026
- 4:19 pm
Current Agenda Instead Includes Industrial Zoning For Nearly 849 Acres And Siceloff Manufacturing Historic Landmark Review; Older Cached Agenda Contains Two 2025 Cases That Are Not Before The Board Tonight
We may be a little late to the ballgame. We were confused with the agenda change. Hopefuly the Holly Grove subdivision and 120 S Payne St. will be on a future boad agenda. While we’re here, let’s recap.
GET UP TO SPEED ON THE HOLLY GROVE SUBDIVISION PROJECT
The Holly Grove subdivision remains an active and significant residential-development project in Lexington.
City planning records show the development was originally approved for no more than 99 single-family homes under Ordinance 018-2025 on April 14, 2025. The plans later went through another conditional-zoning process involving updated house plans.
The property consists of four Davidson County parcels owned by KLM Land LLC of Durham.
Although city documents sometimes describe the development generally as approximately 45 acres, the individual parcels total 42.81 acres, according to Lexington’s staff report.
The project returned to the city in 2026 because of a problem discovered after the original approval.
ROCK BENEATH THE DEVELOPMENT LED TO A NEW STREET PROPOSAL
The original Holly Grove approval contemplated traditional curb-and-gutter streets.
Afterward, the applicant conducted additional geotechnical investigation and reported encountering field conditions involving substantial rock excavation along the proposed roadway network.
That created a potentially expensive construction problem.
The applicant returned to Lexington seeking approval to use different street cross sections contained in the city’s Lexington Infrastructure Development Standards rather than constructing all of the streets under the originally proposed design.
The important point is that the newer application did not propose increasing the number of homes or substantially changing the subdivision layout.
City staff summarized the request this way:
“The new application does not change the number of homes or overall layout.”
Instead, the requested change concerned the design of the subdivision streets.
TECHNICALLY, THE OLD ZONING COULD NOT SIMPLY BE “AMENDED”
There is an important technical correction to earlier descriptions of the Holly Grove process.
Lexington staff explained that conditional zoning decisions are legislative actions and therefore cannot simply be formally amended.
Instead, the developer had to file a new conditional-zoning application and go through the review process again.
If approved, Ordinance 030-2026 would supersede the earlier conditional-zoning approvals rather than merely editing them.
The proposal went before Lexington City Council on August 24, 2026, for a public hearing and consideration. The city’s current Legistar page still identifies the minutes for that meeting as draft and does not display a final-action result on the legislation page, so the online record presently available does not independently show the recorded vote outcome.
What is clear is that Holly Grove is not listed for additional consideration on tonight’s final Planning Board agenda.
120 SOUTH PAYNE STREET: THE DEMOLITION CASE
The second confusing item in the cached agenda involves a house at 120 South Payne Street.
Unlike a completely erroneous address or fictitious proposal, there really was a demolition case involving this property.
Lexington’s official April 2025 building-permit report shows a demolition permit issued on April 9, 2025 for 120 S. Payne St.
The city listed FAFA Properties Inc. as the property owner.
The job description was:
“Demolition of house and removal of debris.”
The permit number was PRDE202403173, with an estimated project value of $5,000 and a permit fee of $60. The permit record also notes that no contractor had been selected in the description and that utility disconnects had been initiated.
That confirms that a demolition permit existed.
It does not, by itself, prove that demolition was ultimately completed.
The permit report is evidence that the city authorized the demolition process, but DC Alive did not locate an official final demolition inspection, completion record or other city document establishing the date the house was actually removed.
Google Maps, on the other hand, shows that the house has been demolished.
July 2023
May 2026
THE HOUSE DATES TO ABOUT 1927
The property also has a documented historic history.
The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Lexington Residential Historic District identifies 120 South Payne Street as a contributing building dating to approximately 1927.
The nomination describes the house as a one-story bungalow with a clipped side-gable roof and a gabled front porch supported by square posts. It had paired 4-over-1 sash windows, an entrance with sidelights, a brick end chimney and asbestos siding.
The nomination says the construction date is based on tax records and the building’s appearance.
The house first appears on the 1929 Sanborn fire-insurance map.
By 1941, records identified Clarence V. and Lila Wood as residents of the home.
That gives the building a documented history extending back nearly a century.
NATIONAL REGISTER STATUS AND LOCAL HISTORIC PROTECTION ARE NOT THE SAME THING
There is another distinction that needs to be made clear.
The fact that 120 South Payne Street is identified as a contributing property within a National Register historic district does not, by itself, explain why the demolition appeared as a Certificate of Appropriateness case.
Lexington’s historic-preservation rules say owners of local landmarks and properties located within local historic districts must obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness before making significant alterations, undertaking new construction, demolishing or relocating a protected property.
National Register recognition and local historic designation are separate preservation tools.
For that reason, it would be inaccurate to say simply that the house required a COA because it was listed in the National Register district.
What can be documented is that the older cached agenda specifically identifies the proposed demolition as COA 2025-02 and that the property separately appears in the National Register inventory as a contributing circa-1927 bungalow.
The public records reviewed for this article do not establish enough detail to state with certainty what specific local designation or jurisdictional basis triggered that 2025 COA proceeding.
COA REVIEW CAN BE MORE THAN A FORMALITY
Lexington’s historic-preservation rules provide a specific review process for demolition where local historic protections apply.
The city’s adopted guidelines state that officials considering demolition may examine issues including whether the building presents a health or safety threat, whether rehabilitation is financially reasonable, whether the property could be reused or sold, whether relocation is possible and how demolition would affect surrounding historic resources.
The regulations also allow approval of demolition to be delayed for as long as 365 days while alternatives are explored.
Again, those rules should not be interpreted as proof of what happened specifically with 120 South Payne Street. They explain what Lexington’s COA demolition process generally allows when local historic-review requirements apply.
WHAT THE BOARD WILL BE CONSIDERING TONIGHT?
The largest land-use issue on tonight’s current agenda is considerably bigger than Holly Grove.
Front Street CCIC LLC is asking Lexington to assign an Industrial zoning designation to 19 recently annexed parcels located along and near Highway 47 and Old Linwood Road.
Together, the properties contain 848.819 acres.
Lexington City Council approved annexation of the property on August 10, according to the city’s staff report. Following annexation, the city must assign municipal zoning to the property within 60 days.
The requested Industrial District is intended for uses including manufacturing, wholesaling, distribution, warehousing and office or industrial parks.
City planning staff describes the property as particularly suited for larger industrial and logistics development because of its size and proximity to Interstate 85 and the North Carolina Railroad corridor.
At nearly 849 acres, the property is roughly 20 times the size of the Holly Grove residential site.
SICELOFF MANUFACTURING COMPANY HISTORIC DESIGNATION
The other major item involves a very different question: historic preservation.
The city has received a request to consider local historic landmark designation for the Siceloff Manufacturing Company property at 200 East Second Avenue.
The property is already part of the Lexington Industrial Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
The district includes historic industrial properties associated with furniture, clothing, hosiery, textile and candy manufacturing, including Siceloff Manufacturing Company.
Local landmark designation would provide a different level of recognition and review than National Register status alone.
According to Lexington staff, the Historic Preservation Commission must determine whether a property has special historical significance and whether it retains enough historic integrity to communicate that significance.
If the commission decides to pursue designation, the report would be forwarded to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office for a 30-day review.
The local commission would then consider any state comments, hold a public hearing and make a recommendation to Lexington City Council.
City Council would ultimately decide whether to designate the property as a local landmark following its own public hearing.
TONIGHT’S MEETING LOCATION HAS ALSO CHANGED
Residents attending tonight’s meeting should not rely on the location shown in the older cached agenda.
That document lists:
City Hall
28 West Center Street
The city’s current official meeting record lists:
Council Chambers at City Centre, Room 119
200 North State Street
Lexington, NC 27292
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Monday, September 21.
THE BOTTOM LINE
There are three separate stories that became tangled together by conflicting online agenda information.
Holly Grove is a real 99-home subdivision that went through conditional-zoning proceedings in 2025 and returned to the city in 2026 over proposed street-design changes.
120 South Payne Street is a real circa-1927 contributing historic-district property for which Lexington issued a demolition permit in April 2025, and an older cached agenda identifies a demolition review as COA 2025-02.
But neither case appears on Lexington’s current final September 21, 2026 Planning Board/Board of Adjustment agenda.
Tonight’s substantive business instead centers on the proposed Industrial zoning assignment for 848.819 acres near Highway 47 and Old Linwood Road and consideration of local historic landmark designation for the Siceloff Manufacturing Company property.
That is the agenda residents should expect when the board convenes at City Centre tonight.
Steve is an entrepreneur, freelance writer, and super-geek tech nerd based in Lexington, NC. Steve specializes in social media platform development, website design, graphic design, and video production…and serving the one true creator of the universe, aka God.
REFERENCES AND SOURCES
City of Lexington – September 21, 2026 Planning Board/Board of Adjustment Final Agenda
View the official meeting record
City of Lexington – Holly Grove Conditional Zoning, Ordinance 030-2026
View the Holly Grove planning record
City of Lexington – Front Street CCIC Industrial Zoning Assignment
View the industrial zoning record
City of Lexington – Siceloff Manufacturing Company Historic Landmark Consideration
View the historic designation record
City of Lexington – April 2025 Monthly Building Permit Report
View the city permit report
North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office – Lexington Residential Historic District
View the National Register nomination
City of Lexington – Historic Preservation and Certificate of Appropriateness Information
View Lexington historic-preservation information
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