‘Pocket’ neighborhood, a first for Charlotte area, planned for Davidson

DAVIDSON — It’s being dubbed a “pocket” neighborhood, a small, urban housing development believed to be the first of its kind in Greater Charlotte.

The “Delburg Street Infill” project, as it’s being referred to by the town of Davidson‘s planning department, would be what the developer describes as 16 “cottage-style bungalows” encircling two central, common greenways open to the public — all on less than three acres just a few blocks from the town’s quaint North Main Street.

Despite the unusual nature of the project, which is being proposed by Davidson-based John Marshall Custom Homes, Davidson Planning Manager Ben McCrary said he expected the plan to sail through the town’s usually stringent approval process with only minor tweaks.

That’s because, McCrary said, the land is already zoned for infill projects and surrounded by homes built at a similar density. It’s also in keeping with Davidson ordinances and that push for infill development, public accessibility and neighborhoods designed to promoting walking, he said, adding that the project will probably not have to go before the town’s Board of Commissioners for approval.

McCrary said the closest similar project he knows of is in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area.

The speed of the town’s approval process is just fine with Rodney Graham, owner of John Marshall Custom Homes, who said he wants to get started building the first four homes and developing the land for the remaining 12 homes by January.

Graham said he got the idea for the project from a book by Ross Chapin Architects, which is based on an island in Washington state’s Puget Sound and has built similar infill developments.

“This is definitely not a cookie-cutter-type project,” Graham said.

Armed with his concept, Graham came across a piece of land owned by a pair of Davidson lawyers who hold the property through a company called Carolina Highlander. The land has one small rental house on it, a house that hasn’t been occupied for several years, Graham said.

The site plans on the town’s planning department website show four houses situated along Delburg Street. Those would be the first four homes to be built, because water, sewage and other infrastructure is already in place, Graham said. Graham would install the infrastructure for the 12 other homes, situated at the rear of the property, while the first four are being built.

Project plans call for a path leading from Delburg Street through a public greenway to a common building, behind which would be a second public greenway, which the other 12 homes would face. In addition to the path, the 12 homes in the rear would be accessed from the rear via two lanes, one on either side of the development. Two visitor parking lots would separate the four front homes and the other 12.

The 12 homes in the back would be horizontal to Delburg Street and have rear-facing garages along the sides of the development.

Another notable feature of the site plan is the absence of a large, central retention pond to collect storm water. Graham said he is planning for each lot to have individual rain gardens or other low-environmental-impact systems to collect water. He said he hopes the development will generate less runoff than usual through the use of porous paving materials to cut down on the project’s impervious areas.

The homes, which would be built using materials and practices considered friendlier to the environment, would range in size from about 1,500 square feet to 2,600, the maximum the town allows for the area, Graham said.

“We can’t go larger than 2,600, but we could go smaller, and I could see someone doing an 1,100-square foot, two-bedroom house, which we could price in the lower $200,000s,” Graham said.

The homes would be priced in the upper-$200,000 range to the mid-$400,000 range, he said.

Graham said the Lawrence Group of Davidson is the land manager and engineering firm. He said he might bring in another homebuilder to construct some of the homes.

Graham described his company as small.

“And we like it that way,” he said, adding that he typically builds seven to eight homes a year.

“We don’t build luxury homes,” he said. “We build custom homes that are more affordable for a wider segment of the population.”

Tony Brown can be reached at [email protected], (704) 247-2912 or on Twitter at @tonymecktimes.