A land purchase approved by Canton’s governing board July 10 will bring more parking to the town’s increasingly popular downtown area near Sorrells Street Park while also marking another milestone in the town’s flood mitigation strategy.
“It was actually offered to us by the ABC store. They came to us. They felt it was best to move, and they had the ability to get out of the floodplain and to a larger space, which they wanted,” said Zeb Smathers, Canton’s mayor.
Located on the corner of Main Street and Pisgah Drive right across the street from the park, the Canton ABC store sat in close proximity to the Pigeon River and was located in the floodplain. During both Tropical Storm Fred in 2021 and Hurricane Helene in 2024, the store was about as close to the epicenter of the flooding as any structure could be, and suffered tremendous damage…