Amid west Charlotte residents’ traffic concerns, city council approves rezoning
About 150 townhomes are heading to west Charlotte in an area where some residents are requesting a development slowdown.
Charlotte City Council approved two rezonings requests on Monday, paving the way for future construction in the Mountain Island neighborhood.
The first rezoning would create a 90-townhome division along Mount Holly Road near Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road. The other is for 64 units and is part of a three-phase townhome development called Oaklake Townhomes near the intersection of Mt. Holly-Huntersville and Oakdale roads.
Councilwoman LaWana Mayfield was the lone dissenting vote on both developments.
The projects are about eight miles apart, and the Oaklake project has long been in the works. But they share at least one trait: Residents of both developments will use Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.
It’s a corridor longtime residents of the area have said can no longer handle the increasing growth in the neighborhood and nearby suburbs.
“We’re steadily building and building, but the infrastructure can’t keep up and traffic gets worse and worse,” resident Michelle Mitchell previously said about the roadway. “People are frustrated. We can’t get in or out of the developments without sitting and waiting and getting into accidents trying to get out.”
The two rezonings do include some infrastructure work. Developers of the 90-townhome subdivision, Wilkes Asset Management, said it would create left- and right-turning lanes onto Mount Holly Road.
Canvas Residential Partners, the developers of Oaklake, is going to extend the internal street network within the subdivision, creating a parallel road to Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.
Councilwoman Renee Johnson said the additional infrastructure would be a needed improvement for the area, providing an alternate route for residents instead of driving onto Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.
But residents have sought changes to Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road for at least two decades.
Growth along Mt Holly-Huntersville Road
Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road is approximately 15 miles long. It’s a state-owned, two-lane corridor with one way heading northeast and the other southwest.
The state considers it a secondary road, meaning it serves local traffic and connects drivers to the highway system. Historically, secondary roads were in rural areas.
That’s no longer the case for Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.
Thousands of residential properties in the local neighborhoods of Mountain Island and Coulwood West use that corridor. The roadway also connects the growing number of local and suburban drivers from Huntersville, Mount Holly or Belmont to Charlotte’s city center.
For more than a decade, Mountain Island and nearby residents have voiced their concerns that the roadway cannot handle the growth.
But homes and businesses continue to be built while the roadway remains stagnant.
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State roads and prioritization process
Some residents have asked for Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road to be widened.
Because Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road is state-owned, any widening project would need to be approved and funded by the state, a lengthy and competitive process.
A portion of Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road is in the middle of that long process.
The widening of Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road between Bellhaven Boulevard to Mt. Holly Road is part of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s 2055 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
The planning organization looks at urban transportation improvements in Iredell, Mecklenburg and Union counties. And the metropolitan plan, which guides and identifies transportation needs over a 30-year span, is in a draft phase.
If the planning organization approves the project, it would be submitted to the state for consideration. And if approved by the state, the construction timeframe would be between 2046 to 2055.
The planning organization will discuss the 2055 metropolitan plan on Aug. 20 during a public meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. Those interested in making an in-public comment can sign up here.
Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road rezoning
Meanwhile, the rezoning and development will continue along Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.
In March, Charlotte City Council approved a rezoning request to allow for an 80-unit affordable senior housing apartment complex on Couloak Drive off of Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road and near Brookshire Boulevard.
Across from Couloak Drive project, there’s a rezoning petition from RED Partners under Tryon Advisors, LLC, for 70 to 85 for-sale townhomes along with a daycare center at Cooks Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Construction is underway on several developments, including 240 apartments at Easton at Mountain Island. Westgate Landing on Mt. Holly Road was completed this year with about 221 units.
There also will be a new police station. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police broke ground on its Northwest Division station in June on Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road. The station will be completed by 2027.
In an April town hall meeting held by Councilman Malcolm Graham, residents demanded a development moratorium be placed on the area. But Graham said that wasn’t feasible. He added that future rezonings would need to be looked at with a critical eye.
More development coming
Monday’s rezonings were just the latest announcements of more development in the neighborhood.
Graham acknowledged that the additional homes will continue to congest the roadways in Mountain Island. He said the state-owned roads in the area, including Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road and Mount Holly Road, continue to be a “thorn in everyone’s side.” He said the state needs to address the issue.
“We need to have a discussion with our state partners about how can we accelerate (improvements on) state-owned roads that are in need of expanding in the short-term and not the long-term,” Graham said. “We can’t wait 20 years or 15 years for the state to help us out nor should we plant our local dollars to invest in the maintenance of state-owned roads.”
Ultimately, Graham approved both rezonings.
“Why pass it when you know additional conversations need to be had,” Mitchell asked after the vote. “I get you can’t tell people they can’t build on their property and if I was a property owner would I wait for them to widen the roadway? No, I mean we might not even be here when that happens...
“All the roads over here lead to Mt. Holly-Huntersville road. The city and state need to step it up.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 5:05 AM.
