Huntersville approves residential, commercial sketch plans

HUNTERSVILLE – The Town Board of Commissioners on Monday night unanimously approved the sketch plan for a 96-home single-family subdivision.

Whitney Hodges, senior planner for Huntersville, presented the findings to the board, saying the subdivision was the town’s first development to be proposed under recent revisions to the town’s zoning ordinance governing clustered residential density in “transitional” areas of town. Hodges said the town’s planning staff recommended approval for the project, which will be in an area of Huntersville that transitions from the high-density development in the Interstate 77 corridor to low-density rural areas.

Hopper Communities’ Cook Farm subdivision would occupy 64 acres of vacant farmland on the west side of Gilead Road across from Shady Vale Lane and the Gilead Ridge subdivision, and just north of the Arbormere development.

At a neighborhood meeting on the plan on June 3, six residents from neighboring communities were primarily concerned about the speed of cars on Bud Henderson Road, with residents from the Villages at Gilead Park hoping that the town would lower the speed limit on the road. Bart Hopper told residents that the single-family homes would range in size from 2,500 to 3,300 square feet, with a density of 1.5 units per acre, less dense than the nearby Beckett development. The price range on the homes has not yet been determined, but Hopper said he believed they would start over $300,000.

The project is set to start in late 2015 or early 2016, and the build-out is expected to take two years.

“We’ve enjoyed working with the fine town of Huntersville,” developer Bart Hopper said in response to a comment by Mayor Jill Swain.

The staff evaluation of the project found that it met the town’s requirements. The development will have an 80-foot buffer along Gilead Road, and the site plan shows it will have 40 percent open space, mostly concentrated in a park on the most elevated point of the project. The developer will build all the sidewalks in the development, and the public sidewalks along Gilead Road.

A staff analysis found the development would exacerbate overcrowding at schools, particularly at Bradley Middle School, which would operate at an estimated 119 percent capacity.

In other action Monday night, the town board also approved a Bryton-area land-use proposal that would create six new commercial lots on 7 acres abutting N.C. 115, Alexanderana Road, Preysing Street and Cane Creek Drive, near the existing Walmart. No new public streets are planned as part of the development, which is being sought by American Asset Corp. No traffic impact analysis was required under the plan.

The plan calls for creating four quadrants of open space of at least 2,000 square feet each around the Cane Creek Drive-Presying Street roundabout.

At the neighborhood meeting on May 15, no residents raised major concerns. The town board on Monday voted unanimously in favor of the project, as did the planning board on July 22.

Another agenda item approved at the Monday meeting altered language in the town’s zoning ordinance regarding highway commercial buildings. Under the current ordinance, “metal paneling may not comprise a street fronting building face.”

The Toyota of North Charlotte dealership on Statesville Road recently submitted a renovation application that proposes cladding about 18 percent of the canopy of the façade with an aluminum composite material.

Brad Priest, senior planner for Huntersville’s commercial site plans and rezonings, recommended altering the language in the ordinance to allow decorative metal panels made of aluminum composite materials used as accents or trims so long as they do not exceed 30 percent of any façade visible from the street.

Speaking on behalf of the car dealership, Wes Jones with AI Design Group, which is handling the remodeling, said the material is not corrugated metal siding but a high-quality product that is more costly than stucco.

The town board voted unanimously in support of amending the zoning ordinance language.