Wary Mint Hill residents push back against plans for $50M industrial park near I-485
Atlanta warehouse developer, meet Mint Hill residents.
A $50 million proposal from Strategic Real Estate Partners to build a nearly half-a-million-square-foot industrial park has been met with strong opposition from residents who live nearby.
It also comes as Mint Hill seeks to maintain its small-town feel while guiding growth in and around its main corridors. The town of about 27,000 people is about 13 miles east of Charlotte.
Residents who live in a cluster of homes behind the proposed site are pushing back on the project, sending emails and phone calls to town leaders urging them not to support it. One resident started a Facebook page, telling people to contact the town to say residents aren’t supportive.
Three residents who live nearby told The Charlotte Observer they mainly worry the added truck traffic could bring a dangerous element to an already busy group of roads by Interstate 485.
“This is our retirement home,” said Jeff Miller, who lives on Connell Road, just behind the proposed project site. “We don’t want to deal with trucks going up and down the road all the time. We want to get out of our neighborhood safely.”
Details on the Mint Hill proposal
Strategic Real Estate Partners is seeking approval from town commissioners to rezone 38 acres from residential to industrial. The land is north of Mint Hill’s main drag, and sandwiched between Albemarle Road, I-485 and Blair Road.
One of the company’s principals, J.R. Wright, presented the project to the town last month during a workshop.
As of Thursday, the company hadn’t filed a formal rezoning application, meaning it hasn’t gone before the town for a public hearing and vote. The company missed the deadline to get on the agenda for the town’s February meeting, planning director John Hoard told the Observer in an email.
Wright did not respond to requests for comment from the Observer.
In the December meeting, Wright said the proposal would include two buildings; one consisting of 282,000 square feet and the other 212,000 square feet. There would be 116 truck bay doors between both.
The truck loading doors will face the inside of the site and landscaping and berms will help provide a buffer from the rest of the town, Wright said.
Strategic Real Estate Partners is also proposing to donate a 1/2 acre on the property for a public park. The park would be separated from the truck site with landscaping and a berm.
It’s not clear what businesses would go at the site. One logistics company out of Atlanta is interested in signing a long term lease, according to Wright.
Developer gets push back from Mint Hill
But the developer got push back from the town of Mint Hill.
One commissioner, Patrick Holton, questioned Wright at the December meeting. He wasn’t sure about the idea of having children play in a public park next to an industrial site.
He told Wright he has to consider how proposed projects will benefit the community. “To me, that’s not a benefit,” Holton said of the small park.
Holton has received a number of emails and calls about the proposal. Even though the developer has not filed a formal zoning application, it has met with neighbors, according to residents.
“I haven’t gotten anybody that wants this project,” Holton said.
Holton also worried about what could happen to the warehouse buildings in five years and the prospect of having them sit empty.
“I don’t want to look at two big vacant buildings on one of the main arteries coming into town,” Holton said.
Mint Hill Mayor Brad Simmons told Wright the town is not in a position to rush the process on such a big project. He asked Wright to contact the town planning staff to provide more details on the proposal.
“If that means slowing this thing down a little bit then I’m all in favor of slowing this thing down a little bit so we’ve got all the information,” Simmons told Wright at the December meeting.
Traffic concerns in Mint Hill
The majority of residents who are against the petition live in the Summerwood section of Mint Hill. The cluster of several hundred homes sits not far from the proposed industrial site.
School buses and students are constantly going in and out of nearby Rocky River High School.
One intersection — at Connell and Blair roads near an I-485 ramp — has seen a number of car crashes in recent years, residents told the Observer.
“The left turn (from Connell Road on to Blair Road) is impossible,” Miller said. “You have to floor it just to get out because you’ve been sitting there almost four or five minutes.”
Another resident, Matteo Sebastiano, moved to Mint Hill about a year ago from Ballantyne. He was concerned to see that a recently adopted land use plan from the town recommends industrial zoning near Summerwood.
He wouldn’t have moved into the home if there was a chance the area could become more industrial.
Strategic Real Estate Partners is also proposing to donate $250,000 to improving traffic, but residents don’t seem convinced that would help.
There are cars coming off the interstate and residents trying to get in and out of Summerwood.
“You put a lot of 18-wheelers into that traffic,” Sebastiano said. “It’s scary.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 9:34 AM.
