East Charlotte townhome proposal sees neighborhood push back on traffic, storm water
Residents of Charlotte’s Hampshire Hills neighborhood are concerned that a proposal to build 26 townhomes on a nearby wooded lot will bring more traffic and affect stormwater infrastructure.
The residents voiced their concerns Monday night at public hearing at a Charlotte City Council zoning meeting.
The townhomes are proposed for 2 acres adjacent to Hampshire Hills, which is off The Plaza in east Charlotte. The neighborhood was built in the early 1960s.
“If this petition goes through, it will compound severely what’s going on,” resident Penny Cothran told City Council members.
Cothran owns a home on Bridgeport Drive where a number of small sink holes have popped up in her yard in recent years, The Charlotte Observer reported in February. There is also a busted stormwater pipe next to her home where the land has collapsed, exposing the large pipe.
Urban Trends Real Estate was hired to take the proposal through the rezoning process. The group has reduced the unit count from 30 to 26 and added buffers between the site and the neighborhood, Chris Ogunrinde said during the meeting.
Ogunrinde also stressed the busted pipe was not the fault of the proposal. He assured the council they’d build proper water retention.
“We’re going to design our site to make sure we don’t make it worse,” Ogunrinde said.
A stormwater services engineer has been assigned to evaluate the issue, including the sink holes, said Lynda Anello, spokeswoman with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, in an email to the Observer this week.
The petition speaks to broader issues facing a growing city like Charlotte, including how to build more housing for incoming residents while not adversely impacting existing neighborhoods.
The earliest the City Council could vote on the proposal is next month.
More communication needed
There appeared to be some disconnect over community meetings with Urban Trends.
Ogunrinde said he made several attempts to set up meetings with the neighborhood but didn’t hear back. Cothran said she’s never heard from Ogunrinde or that Urban Trends hasn’t contacted anyone to resolve the issues raised by residents.
Councilwoman Marjorie Molina, who represents the district, described the residents, including one longtime homeowner, as accessible. She stressed that there needs to be additional conversations to work toward an agreement between the residents and proposed development.
She described the issues as not entirely falling on the shoulders of the developer or property owners but on the city, too. That includes issues about water and infrastructure in the area.
“No matter the outcome is with this particular project, I would like to see this community enveloped in a way that these types of concerns are actually taken serious,” Molina said. “That we’re saying to Hampshire Hills, ‘We see you, that we hear you, that we’re going to dispatch our resources to make sure that you feel safe and healthy and heard in your community.’ ”
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
