Board rejects Texas developer’s plans for Lake Norman apartments, townhomes
The Huntersville Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend denial of a Texas developer’s planned Lake Norman mixed-use community that would include 254 apartments and townhomes and 8,000 square feet of commercial space.
High Street District Development Inc., a subsidiary of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., proposes the development for 11.87 acres on Old Statesville Road near Mount Holly-Huntersville Road.
Planning Board members said the proposed commercial space doesn’t meet the town’s 60% commercial space requirement in such mixed-use communities. And the plan has too high a percentage of apartments and other attached homes, members said.
The Planning Board is a government-appointed advisory panel that makes recommendations to the Huntersville Board of Commissioners, which has final say on rezonings.
At 6 p.m. March 17, the Town Board is scheduled to vote on the request.
The community would include seven buildings — a clubhouse and three- and four-story apartment, townhomes and mixed-use buildings, according to the developer’s site plan.
The developer’s rezoning request calls for removing a greenhouse and accessory buildings for the development, called Old Statesville Road Mixed-Use, town documents show.
Neighbors oppose rezoning
Bob McAuley lives on Mount Holly-Huntersville Road on the northern boundary of the property. At a public hearing on the developer’s rezoning request this month, he said his grandparents once farmed the site proposed for the mixed-use community.
McAuley told the Planning Board Tuesday night that he and his neighbors’ longtime homes would directly face apartment buildings. He asked that the number of floors in one of the buildings be lowered from four stories to two.
Neighbor Beth Pell told the Planning Board she worries about runoff from the project flowing into the one-acre lake she shares with neighbors and then into McDowell Creek and Mountain Island Lake. The lake already overflows after 1.5 inches of rain, she said.
Speaking for the developers, Bridget Grant, a Charlotte-based land use development consultant with law firm Moore & Van Allen, said the nearest building to homes would be 115 yards away.
The developer is offering more open space than originally proposed and has included attainable housing, or homes affordable to teachers and firefighters, she said.
Despite not hitting the town’s commercial space and housing mix requirements, “we still feel fairly confident” the development aligns with the town’s zoning plan, Grant said. She said 8,000 square feet of commercial space is enough for that area of town and would attract restaurants and other businesses residents want.
“We believe we’re bringing forward a high-quality, mixed-use development,” she said.
