In Charlotte, not even the smallest of developments can escape controversy
In a growing city like Charlotte, it’s no surprise to hear people lodge complaints about how a giant project to bring townhomes or a shiny new office building would disrupt the character of their neighborhood.
But not even the smallest of projects can escape these acrimonious feelings.
Enter the NoDa Soda Shop. That’s what locals call 908 E. 35th St., a funky, 740-square foot building that was erected in 1945. In recent years, the building has housed a yoga studio and art gallery. It was going to be a soda shop but that plan recently fell through.
The building sits on a chunk of land where 35th Street and Whiting Avenue converge, right in front of one family’s home and directly across the street from several others.
Now, a local resident, Kevin Boyd, has bought the property and is petitioning to rezone the parcel for mixed uses. Boyd paid $250,000 for the site, according to county property records.
He’s no prominent developer, an attorney for the petition told the City Council this month, but rather someone who drove by the building one day and had a vision to turn it into something cool.
“This to me strikes me as the type of thing we want to see in NoDa,” attorney Collin Brown said during a zoning meeting this month. “That community always says to us, ‘Why don’t you bring us something cool and unique and genuine. Why do you guys always wipe out NoDa’s history.’ ”
Disruptions to a quiet neighborhood
Boyd’s plans for the quirky, one-story building are not exactly clear. There was some discussion at a zoning meeting about using the space as a restaurant or bar while preserving the existing building.
“Frankly, that’s the only way to make this viable,” Brown told the council.
But some residents, including a family with an infant at home, are raising concerns about the noise and smells that could come along with running a restaurant or bar.
Two of them spoke out at the council meeting, coming prepared with their own PowerPoint decks to show council members just how close the Soda Shop is to their homes and why they’d like to see stricter limitations placed on the rezoning. One speaker showed council members a map of nearby homes and which ones had children and infants living there.
“Basically, if you’re walking through the neighborhood about 8 o’clock at night, it’s very quiet and peaceful,” said Michael Reid, who’s lived with his wife in a home nearby since 2018.
Another speaker, Cory Lail, stressed that he wants to see a successful local business there and does not want to see Boyd fall into a money pit.
Lail, whose home is only separated by about 12 feet from Boyd’s building, worries that if the building has a commercial kitchen, the exhaust fan could be right outside where his 4-month-old daughter, Margaux, sleeps and where his wife parks her car.
The trash, he said, would also likely be right near their home, potentially worsening a stubborn pest issue in the neighborhood: rats.
He’d prefer to see another use like a retail shop or something like what was there before.
“If this was your home what protection would you want?” Lail asked the City Council. “I doubt they’d be too different than mine.”
Limitations already in place
There have already been some restrictions set, Brown said. The business would operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Brown and Boydprohibited the use of a gas station, car wash and self storage.
Brown said he held a community meeting on site about the rezoning, and people rode up by bike and were excited about the prospects.
The NoDa Neighborhood and Business Association is mostly on board, too. About 75% of the association was supportive of the rezoning along with unanimous support from the group’s board, said board member Jacob Horr.
Both sides appear open to work towards a compromise. The petition will now go back to the zoning committee for an additional recommendation before it comes back to City Council for a final vote, potentially in December.
“I’m not a developer of any stretch of the imagination,” Boyd said, “and truly committed to the benefit of the community and whatever comes of that property.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
