A national developer has canceled plans to build Mooresville Landings, 84 senior-living apartments on Brawley School Road across from the entrance to Mallard Head Golf Course in Mooresville.

The Mooresville Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in March to grant a rezoning to allow Cincinnati-based Miller-Valentine Group to build a three-story, 90,825-square-foot L-shaped building with one- and two-bedroom apartments for ages 55 and older on nearly 12 vacant acres.

But the developer wasn’t awarded tax credits by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency under the state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which would have subsidized the project.

So Mooresville Landings won’t be built, according to Planning Department documents and a representative of the developer.

John Skinner, Miller-Valentine’s local developer based in Columbia, S.C, said the company applied for tax credit subsidy through the state’s competitive Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, designed to offset a developer’s costs by about 70 percent. The federal program provides tax credits over 10 years that a developer typically sells to investors to raise money to partially fund development costs.

Mooresville Landings lost out because the site was determined to be more than a half-mile from a pharmacy, which reduced what otherwise would have been a perfect “site score,” Skinner said. The score is used to rank many competitive applications, he said.

Skinner emphasized that the site score “is only an initial part of the agency’s evaluation process” for receiving an award, although the loss of points due to the distance to the nearest pharmacy put the development immediately behind those that got perfect scores.

Miller-Valentine’s contract with the property owner required the developer to apply to return the site to its former zoning classification if an award wasn’t granted, according to Planning Department documents.

On Sept. 13, the Mooresville Planning Board unanimously agreed to recommend that the Mooresville Board of Commissioners rezone the property from neighborhood mixed-use to single-family. That will relieve the property owner of the greater tax burden that comes with neighborhood mixed-use zoning, Skinner and Mooresville Senior Planner Craig Culberson said.

Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing on the rezoning for 6 p.m. Oct. 1 at their regular meeting at Town Hall, 413 N. Main St. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the rezoning the same night.

Mooresville Landings would have filled an important need in the Lake Norman area with affordable rents for active seniors, Skinner told the Mooresville commissioners in March. “Wealth comes into an area, and the indigenous population gets displaced,” Skinner said. “You’re rich or you’re poor, and the middle gets squeezed.”

MVG had planned to open the complex in April 2014.

Model homes OK’d for Alcove Road

The Iredell County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 18 unanimously approved a rezoning to allow national custom-home builder Schumacher Homes to place two model homes on 3.94 acres on Alcove Road in the southern end of the county.

One home will be two stories and about 4,000 square feet; the other will be one story and about 2,700 square feet, said Tim Reese, a Schumacher Homes general manager based in Mooresville.

Apartments open for adults with disabilities

Independent living options for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Lake Norman area expanded with the recent opening of the McCleskey Apartments in Huntersville.

UMAR, a Huntersville-based nonprofit, completed the nine-unit apartment complex named in honor of Margaret and Bishop Lawrence McCleskey and their role in creating the agency 29 years ago.

Each apartment has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and den. The complex also includes a furnished community center with a full kitchen and laundry room.

Huntersville United Methodist Church donated the land on Stumptown Road.

A home blessing for the apartments is scheduled for noon Oct. 7 at 14059 Stumptown Road, next to Huntersville United Methodist Church. Residents will provide a tour of their apartments after the ceremony.

Details: UMAR Development Manager Lena Fung Brennan at 704-659-7632; LenaB@UMARinfo.com.