Two Charlotte zoning decisions delayed

CHARLOTTE – Monday night’s City Council meeting would probably be more appropriate in a feature called Inaction Items, as this week’s meeting was more notable for the decisions deferred than the decisions made.

Still, a couple of rezoning requests were approved and a few public hearings were held at the meeting, even if it lacked the fireworks promised by the original agenda.

City Council voted Monday to delay until March the decision on four rezoning requests and to schedule new public hearings for two requests that were on the docket to receive a vote. The most notable of the deferred decisions were on a request to rezone land in Ballantyne for 200 apartments and a request to rezone more than an acre in South End for a hotel.

Trotter Builders in September asked that 11 acres off Endhaven Lane be rezoned from residential to allow the apartment construction. Trotter requested the vote be delayed until it can work on addressing concerns raised by neighbors who filed of a protest petition against the rezoning, citing traffic and consistency concerns.

Both the city’s Zoning Committee and planning staff recommended approval of the rezoning, saying that the petition is consistent with the residential use recommended in the South District plan – which covers Ballantyne – even though the proposal is denser than what’s recommended in the area’s general development policies. The staff said that because the site is next to the Toringdon development, the dense apartments are appropriate.

If City Council approves the rezoning, Trotter Builders will be free to start construction on the apartments, although the company doesn’t plan to start work until the extension of North Community House Road is complete. The apartments would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units that will rent monthly for between $900 and $1,400.

In October, The Rainier Group submitted a rezoning request asking to change the zoning on 1.14 acres at the intersection of East Worthington and Cleveland avenues in South End from a transit-oriented residential classification to a transit-oriented mixed classification to allow for the development of a 130-room hotel with six residential units.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department staff met on Jan. 21 and recommended that the council approve the petition. According to the Planning Department website, the staff found it to be consistent with the South End Transit Station Area Plan.

After the staff analysis, rezoning petitions go to the Zoning Committee for review. The Zoning Committee at its Feb. 4 meeting voted unanimously to delay action on the South End hotel petition until the committee’s Feb. 26 meeting. Without a recommendation from the Zoning Committee, City Council wasn’t able to vote on the request.

The City Council also deferred a few public hearings, including one for a massive project in south Charlotte.

A rezoning request by Providence Road Farms LLC, Crosland Southeast and Childress Klein Properties, submitted in July, aims to rezone almost 90 acres on Providence Road, between Golf Links Drive and Chancelot Lane, from a residential classification to a mixed-use development district that would allow a behemoth commercial and residential development.

The public hearing was slated for Monday night, but the petitioner asked for, and was granted, a deferral until March 17, the date of the next City Council zoning meeting.

In other actions:

• The council approved a rezoning request from Michael T. and Elizabeth M. Whitehead asking to change the site plan on 2.7 acres at the intersection of Rama and Sardis roads to allow additional buildings on the land, which is zoned for institutional uses.
• The council approved a rezoning request from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department to change the zoning on 2.4 acres on Raleigh Street, between East Sugar Creek Road and Greensboro Street, from an industrial classification to a transit-oriented development classification in order to better fit the Blue Line Extension Transit Station Area Plan.