Canton mill parcel rezoned
New zoning classifications have changed permitted uses on the 185-acre mill parcel in Canton. Town of Canton photo
A rezoning of the former paper mill parcel in Canton has replaced an expiring industrial development moratorium, maintaining the town’s limited control of the site despite the possibility of an impending sale to a developer with unknown intentions.
“The citizens of this town and county must have a say in what is the best output down there,” said Zeb Smathers, Canton’s mayor, during a July 11 meeting.
Formerly, the site was zoned as heavy industrial, which, generally speaking, had allowed for uses such as manufacturing and warehousing.
Permitted uses in the town’s zoning ordinance for heavy industrial districts include automobile wrecking yards; brick, tile and plastics manufacturing; large events like circuses and fairs; iron and steel foundries; hatcheries; industrial machinery repair; tool manufacturing; meatpacking and chicken processing; and the storage of gasoline or other bulk gases, flammable or not.
The heavy industrial classification also allows all uses permitted in light industrial districts, which includes automobile sales service, parking, storing and washing establishments; bakeries; banks; bottling plants; textile manufacturing and a host of other, lower-impact industries along with mobile home parks and single or multi-family residential dwellings.
On July 1, Canton’s planning board unanimously recommended the rezoning to the town’s governing board for approval, finding that the proposed rezoning is consistent with the goals of the town’s land use plan — specifically, “to conserve flood-prone lands and support strategic development/redevelopment decisions to mitigate flood events” and to “achieve higher development standards through regulation and infrastructure investments,” per the staff report.
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“With the closing of the paper mill, the property will certainly be viewed by investors for new developments,” the report reads. “Given the current Heavy Industrial zoning designation, permitted developments could be highly impactful, even disruptive, uses.”
Canton’s Board of Aldermen/women unanimously approved the recommendation on July 11.
Now, half of the 185-acre site east of the Pigeon River is designated as general business, which allows for an array of retail and commercial uses along with single or multi-family dwellings under certain circumstances.
The other half of the parcel, west of the Pigeon River, is classified as light industrial, allowing all of the lower-impact manufacturing uses permitted in the zoning ordinance but none of the higher-impact uses permitted under its previous heavy industrial classification.
Canton’s Planning Director Byron Hickox told the governing board that the rezoning would also effectively prohibit cryptocurrency mining — a highly disruptive use that generated embarrassing national headlines for Cherokee County in 2022, when county officials were caught flat-footed after a crypto mining company located there.
“As a zoning and land use practice, generally what differentiates light and medium industrial from heavy industrial is things like energy consumption, water output, pollutant output, discharges, water usage, things like that,” Hickox said. “A layman’s definition is if you drove by the building, you might not have any idea what goes on in there. You’re not going to see a giant spike in water usage, electrical interference noise. You’re certainly not going to see smokestacks.”
On March 6, 2023, the 115-year-old paper mill’s owner, Pactiv Evergreen, shocked the region by telling employees that the mill would close in less than three months, throwing roughly 1,000 people out of work and creating an economic ripple effect that reverberated through supporting industries and local businesses, all the way down to mom-and-pop retail and dining establishments.
Smathers and other officials from the town, county and state were given no advance notification whatsoever by Pactiv, which created a health care coverage crisis for soon-to-be unemployed workers and left local nonprofit and educational institutions scrambling to support them.
A few months later, on July 13, 2023, Canton imposed a moratorium on all development approvals within light industrial and heavy industrial districts. The move was seen as a way for the town to claim a seat at the negotiating table, as Pactiv hadn’t included the town in development discussions and local leaders including Smathers didn’t trust Pactiv to look out for the town’s best interests after the shameful manner in which the $6 billion multinational corporation chose to exit the community.
“What this does in a specific sense is basically say to [Pactiv] and to any developer or anyone involved with Evergreen that the Town of Canton and her citizens are going to be part of this conversation,” Smathers said at the time.
This past May, St. Louis-based Spirtas Worldwide, a management consulting firm, submitted a letter of intent to purchase the parcel from Pactiv. The deal’s not yet final, as Spirtas remains in the midst of a due diligence period.
It remains unclear what Spirtas will do with the parcel if the deal does indeed go through; the company has a long history of major projects like the mill parcel and can serve as an à la carte contractor handling specific tasks like demolition and remediation, or can be a turnkey developer all the way up to construction, tenant acquisition and property management.
Smathers said he’s been pleased with his interactions with the company thus far.
“I can commend Spirtas,” he said. “I told someone, I’ve had more interactions with Eric Spirtas — the CEO of this company who is in a due diligence period — in the last month than in my entire life with anyone representing Pactiv Evergreen, period.”
Smathers said he hadn’t consulted Spirtas on the specifics of the rezoning, but as it was town-initiated, it could be changed at any time by request of the property owner if the request aligns with the town’s land use policies and after approval from the planning board and the governing board.
“This allows us to send a signal across the region that we still have plenty of buildings in our downtown, and businesses — some open, some vacant,” Smathers said. “We have [Interstate] 40, we’ve got the corridor up Radio Hill. People need to understand Haywood County and Canton are open for business. There was a time and place for hurt, and it’s still tough, but this is not a permanency … If you want to bring your job from anywhere — your restaurant, your commercial business, your manufacturing — we want you in Haywood County.”
Reached by phone on July 14, Spirtas said his company is “in the meat” of the diligence period right now and explained that while zoning is often reactive — in response to a request or a specific project — in this case, it’s proactive.
“Canton has to be responsible for Canton and take the right steps to protect its interests,” he said. “Canton is zoning in the direction they want to go.”
If the deal between Pactiv and his company is executed, Spirtas said anything he would bring to Canton’s governing board would be logical and worthwhile.
