Lee County Commissioners approve school grant, audit and $46 M Project Paragon incentive

Lee County Commissioners approved a grant application for an $87.97 million middle school at its Sept. 21 meeting. The board approved a $149,000 performance audit and backed a 12-year incentive package for a proposed $1 billion manufacturing project. The meeting included debates over farmland development, fire-flow requirements and data center concerns.

The board approved Lee County Schools’ request to apply for a needs-based grant for the construction of a 162,000-square-foot middle school. The plan calls for 1,200 students, at about $87,966,000, to combine East Lee and West Lee middle schools into a modern campus.

The grant deadline is Oct. 2, and it requires a 5% match from the county.

The request includes a districtwide Career Discovery and Innovation Center for grades 6-12, offering career exploration, career and technical education and workforce training through partnerships with employers and Central Carolina Community College. The consolidation would address aging facilities, enrollment growth and duplicated operating costs. It does not include land costs.

The new middle school plan requires redistricting, which results in extensive bus travel times.

Commissioners Robert Reives and Andre Knecht voted against the school district applying for the grant. Reives asked if the county had to accept the grant if they won approval from NCDPI.

The school district identified financial savings as the reason for the new middle school. East Lee Middle School and West Lee Middle School operate as separate campuses, requiring doubled administrative, instructional, maintenance, custodial, utility, food-service and technology resources. The school district claims that consolidating these schools into one modern facility will allow the district to consolidate staffing and resources, improve program access, and reduce the long-term cost of operating and maintaining two aging campuses.

PERFORMANCE AUDIT

The last performance audit was in 2012, and the results led the board to change to add valor em tax distribution instead of per capita tax.

Reives argued against having a performance audit of county government, saying the county was different than the school district when informed of the financial benefits in the school district. He did not want to spend $149,000 without knowing the outcome. He argued the start date of Oct. 1. He argued that he wanted to know before the performance audit if the audit recommended new hires, would the board hire new employees.

County Manager Lisa Minter said the start date would facilitate a presentation on initial findings by the board’s Jan. retreat and a final report in mid-March. She said the county would not save a lot of money. She said in 2012, when the audit recommended new hires, the board hired new people. The audit reviews procedures, like meeting with the school board more often. They may suggest more staff and tax redistribution and computer use. “This looks more at policies.”

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The audit proposal passed with a 4 to 3 vote. Commissioners Reives, Cameron Sharpe and Mark Lovick voted against the audit.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Lee County Commissioners conducted a public hearing for a proposed 12-year financial incentive for Project Paragon, a manufacturing initiative in Sanford anticipated to invest over $1.002 billion and sustain more than 1,950 full-time positions with an average yearly salary of about $65,528. Through General Fund revenues, the county will refund 80% of the company’s yearly property taxes, estimated at $46 million over 12 years.

The Sanford City Council approved an incentive package for Project Paragon worth about $39.5 million over 12 years.

Project Paragon is a code name for the proposed project.

Sanford Area Growth Alliance CEO Jimmy Randolph introduced the project. He said the project would result in permanent jobs and that the advanced training programs with Central Carolina Community College would help provide qualified employees. Randolph noted there was competition for the project.

Michelle Eaves said she supported economic development and that the county and city incentives needed serious scrutiny, regardless of its projected billion investment. She asked what analysis was used to consider the incentive and what would happen if the company did not provide jobs with higher wages than normal. She asked the board not to waive procedural rules to vote on the incentive directly following the public hearing.

Randy Nixon said nondisclosure agreements led to distrust and that the lack of acknowledgment of a data center proposal when the project was introduced as a business park multiplied that distrust.

The board waived procedural rules against voting directly after a public hearing and passed the project incentive. The name of Project Paragon will now be changed.

Following a public hearing, the county approved a citizen’s petition to change a Uniform Development Ordinance, UDO amendment, on dog grooming services seeing its approval by the Sanford Council on Aug. 4. Jacques Kohn sought to revise the UDO concerning animal services by adding a pet grooming section, which eliminated the 500-foot distance requirement from residential areas.

Commissioners held a department of transportation unified grant public hearing for public awareness. In May, the board submitted the grant application.

 Lee County aims to secure about $1.45 million in federal and state transit funding for FY2028. It requires a combined local city and county match of $462,032. The funding will support COLTS administration, replace two wheelchair-accessible vehicles, finance mobility-management roles and provide on-demand transit services beyond the designated MicroTransit service area.

The board tabled rezoning over 50 acres of farmland in Lemon Springs, so the commissioners could further discuss the proposal.

The planning board had recommended in a 4 to 2 vote rezoning 52.42 acres of farmland zoned RA at 4506 Lemon Springs Road and 644 Edwards Road for a subdivision. It is designated as Countryside in the Land Use Plan. The new zoning allows 20,000-square-foot lots instead of one acre per home.

Chair Samantha Martin asked if the lot size was 40,000 square feet, how many lots the developer could have. The answer was 57 lots.

The farmland is now zoned as Lemon Springs Meadows Conditional Zoning District for a 46-lot single-family home subdivision with a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet.  Public streets, public water and individual private septic systems with an entrance off of Lemon Springs Road and a 20-foot-wide undisturbed greenbelt along the perimeter are in the plans.

Abutting landowner Cathy McNeil spoke to the board about concerns she expressed in the Aug. 17 meeting. Her husband tried to buy the three acres next to their land, which would impact their farm business and make their customers enter their produce sales road further down the road on a blind curve. She said that the six homeowners on the three acres the family have tried to buy for years would be impacted by agricultural work during early morning and late evening hours. “Daycares and schools visit,” she said, and they support CUOC and allow Greenwood Elementary School buses to turn around in their driveway. “The right to farm law will protect us. But who will protect the homeowners, customers and community? I hope it will be you,” she said in her plea to commissioners not to rezone the RA land.

The board tabled the Morgan Fields Subdivision’s preliminary plat on Clifton Lane for 46 single-family homes on one-acre lots with state roads, and newly proposed public water and private septic on 78.24 acres. The property is at the end of Clifton Lane in the Northwest Pocket Fire District and is about nine miles from Tramway.

The developers have changed their minds about using private wells and have now agreed to tap into public water on Steel Bridge Road because the fire marshal said the wells would not meet fire flow requirements. The state is allowing this tap with a reduction from 1,000 gallons per minute to 900. With Pocket Fire Department being a certified water hauler, the fire marshal felt more comfortable allowing the reduced water flow.

The board asked for confirmation in writing of the approved reduced water flow.

Developer Greg Morgan of Morgan Development Company said he had proof of approved reduced water flow in an email.

Commissioner and former firefighter Mark Lovick said trucks were designed for 1,000 gallons per minute and reduced rates created pockets of air, and it could be dangerous.

State law does not require a public hearing for review and approval of a major subdivision preliminary plat.

On Aug. 17, the board had tabled the proposed Clifton Lane plat for further discussion.

There are no required preliminary tests required for hydrology.

TriRiver said the plot was more than 1,000 feet from a city water connection.

Water pressure on Steele Bridge Road is low, and that was a concern.

Commissioner Cameron Sharpe and Martin said nearby citizens had expressed concerns about drilling for wells intercepting their private wells.

The planning board said it was not common for a developer to request private wells.

Beth Blackmon with Timmons Group said there was not a test for wells. “We do individual well subdivisions all over the state. It is a very, very common thing…We would have extended the waterline…but could not extend the waterline and meet fire flow…The water pressure in the neighborhood is not enough for the individual homes and fire hydrants…It would be on the builder. Environmental Health would sign off.”

Because there is a mail kiosk, the development would have an HOA to meet regulations.

The developer said if a well was not productive, he would buy the lot.

Blackmon said there was no standard for water flow velocity for individual wells.

The board honored Representative John Sauls.

The board endorsed Reives’ initiative to award Representative John Sauls a proclamation in recognition of his many years of dedicated service to Lee County and North Carolina.

Sauls dedicated 21 years as pastor of Crossroads Ministries, during which the congregation expanded from 35 to over 700 attendees, alongside his roles as a Lee County Commissioner and a trustee of Central Carolina Community College. Additionally, it honors his work to acquire major funding for the college’s Moore Center, Sanford-Lee County Regional Airport, and related developments, coupled with his endorsement of economic development, veterans’ affairs and community betterment.

“Do you know what you’re going to being known for most? Bringing people to the Lord,” Senator Jim Burgin said.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Ron Hewitt said the Morgan Fields Subdivision would improve the quality of life. He asked about growth and crowded roads. He said the county should not approve the data center when the site has not been properly studied.

Jeff Kidd said he had a USDA farm with heritage goats and was less than 100 feet from the proposed data center. The night decibel level was 35, and the daytime was 45 or less.

Mark Mansfield said he had many sleepless nights and thought he’d have a heart attack after the last meeting. He asked how the commissioners would like him to record the data center noise and drive around their neighborhoods with the noise playing on a speaker. “How are we going to move if we can’t sell our property? Let us all live in peace and harmony.”

Jonathan Boyce exemplified exploring an elephant while blind to the commissioners deciding on a data center proposal. “We need you to stand up for us. We are asking that fear of a lawsuit not be a reason to abandon us,” Boyce said about the board needing to update the UDO.

Miss McLean said data centers could have impacts on communities with closed-loop water systems. She said the used water needed to go somewhere, but the documents provided by CyrusOne did not reveal that location. She asked about sound insulation.

Sept. 22, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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