Virginia builder’s 218 Lake Norman townhomes approved by government board
The Mooresville Planning Board on Tuesday night unanimously recommended approving a Virginia builder’s planned 218 townhomes near a major connector highway under construction near Lake Norman.
The board voted 8-0 in favor of rezoning for Reston-based Stanley Martin’s Gabriel Farms community on N.C. 115.
Board member Michael Cole made the motion recommending the project. Gabriel Farms is consistent with the town’s zoning plan and developments next door, he said.
“We’re happy with the project,” Planning Board chairman Steve Mcglothlin said.
The board is an advisory panel that makes recommendations to the Mooresville Board of Commissioners, which has final say and would consider the rezoning at a meeting to be announced.
Gabriel Farms would include “market rate” housing “that the teachers, firefighters and other critical workers of Mooresville will be proud to call home,” Davidson lawyer Lawrence Shaheen, who represents Stanley Martin, wrote to Mooresville town planner Patrick Werner in December.
The development also would have a pool and a clubhouse, representatives of the developer told the Planning Board Tuesday night.
“These units will be a perfect entry point into the community for citizens and families of the Town of Mooresville,” Shaheen wrote. The company has not provided a price range for the homes.
Mooresville has a housing shortage, lawyer says
The 50-acre site is just south of Langtree Road and Mount Mourne Loop and just north of Mooresville’s East-West Connector, a four-lane divided highway under construction from Langtree Road to N.C. 115.
Jean Manley, whose family owns the land and long ago planted soybeans and other crops on the acreage, said she considers Stanley Martin the best builder for the property.
“They are offering homes, not apartments, not condominiums,” Manley said. “They are offering a park site (and) two acres that can be a police station, a light rail station. They are offering a lot of open space. It is growth, but it’s low density, smart, and it’s planned growth.”
A traffic impact analysis has been completed, Shaheen said, “and Stanley Martin stands ready to work with the Town to mitigate the impacts of this development.”
Mooresville has a housing shortage, Shaheen said, and “the need for market rate housing is becoming more and more prevalent with each passing day.”
“We know that the goal of the Town of Mooresville is to provide and approve housing that meets the needs of the citizens,” he wrote. “Stanley Martin is committed to working in lockstep with the Town towards this goal, working to maintain Mooresville’s spot as the premier location to work and live in the region.”
If the rezoning passes, the developer would complete the last of the townhomes in a first phase of the community by 2030, according to Planning Board documents.