The latest step of the Town of Elon and Elon University’s ambitious joint makeover fell into place Tuesday, as the Board of Aldermen’s zoning committee found in favor of four rezoning requests to permit taller, mixed-used buildings downtown and in the surrounding area.

The committee’s approval will bring the matter before the Board of Aldermen next week for an official vote.

The fourth, and largest, motion applied to the eight-block area of downtown Elon bordered by Williamson, W. Haggard, Manning and Lebanon Avenues. Passed 7-0 by the Board of Aldermen’s zoning committee, the area allows for buildings up to four stories high with permits for mixed use.

Under the provision, apartments could be installed above storefronts, said to bolster economic activity and drive more people to downtown restaurants and shops.

The other three came from the university to rezone off-campus plots of land along E. Haggard Avenue and W. Haggard Avenue from commercial planning sites to public institutional plots – a designation that is largely symbolic and said to have little practical effect. The pair of properties are across the street from Carolina Biological and are separated by the Gerald L. Francis Center, a building for the School of Health Sciences

“This is a house-keeping request,” said Sean Tencer, planning board staff liaison. “There are no specific plans for the property.”

A similar rezoning measure was proposed for a university-owned vacant property between Chester’s Auto Repair and Elon Self Storage on W. Haggard Avenue.

Citizen concerns raised concerns about what the university was specifically planning for this plot of land, though the proposal passed in a narrow 4-3 vote.

Tencer responded by saying “there is no indication” for what the university plans to use the land for.

Many citizens in attendance were worried that the university would build something not in accordance with commercial standards for businesses that surround the location.

"Mr. Harris [a member of the planning board] pointed out that you could still do university uses in a commercial zone,” said Davis Montgomery, the Board Liaison for the Planning Board.

Citizens also wondered whether the rezoning proposals own by Elon University would change tax structure.

The school would not pay taxes on the land, anyway, unless it was explicitly designated for public use.