Council denies zoning change for Pulte

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Of the 12 zoning petitions voted on by the Charlotte City Council at its meeting Sept. 15, all were approved with the exception of one.

The City Council denied the rezoning for an urban residential plan by Pulte Home Corp. on the south side of Atherton Street between Euclid Avenue and Marshall Place. The city’s Rezoning Committee had recommended previously by unanimous decision that this petition be denied.

Pulte’s site plan had undergone several revisions prior to the Sept. 15 meeting, and the City Council decided there were too many outstanding issues for the developer to move forward with the project.

“The likelihood of us approving something that is inconsistent is not something we will be doing,” said council member David Howard preceding the vote.

Pulte had hoped to build up to 37 single-family units on the site, but the development plan was inconsistent with the Dilworth Land Use and Streetscape Plan, which requires single-family residential areas to maintain a density of four units per acre. The developer’s proposed density was upwards of 13 units per acre.

A single-family home and a warehouse currently reside on the site.

“I know the neighborhood would like to see this settled tonight,” said council member Patsy Kinsey during the council’s discussion of the petition. “I feel like I would like to go with what the neighborhood would want to do.”

The council voted unanimously to deny it.

The petitions approved by the council included:

• Central Piedmont Community College received approval to rezone more than 4 acres of land that’s surrounded by East 4^th Street, Charlottetowne Avenue and South Torrence Street. The plan includes 909,000 square feet of institutional uses for the college, such as classrooms, laboratories, offices and a conference center. Office and retail space, as well as a vacant lot, currently reside on the property.
• Crosland LLC and Allen Tate received approval to rezone 3.65 acres on the west side of Sharon Road between Fairview Road and Hazelton Drive. The developer is repurposing the site, which is currently used for three buildings that make up 40 multifamily residential units, for a seven-story building with two hotels with a total of 285 rooms. Council member Greg Phipps expressed concern about the number of outstanding items that were noted on the rezoning meeting agenda, but the zoning committee assured the council that the issues would be addressed.
• The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte received approval for a rezoning of 10 acres on the south side of Suther Road, between Old Concord Road and Sandburg Avenue. This approval allows more than 70,000 square feet of building area to be constructed, which includes the redevelopment of existing site structures. The site is currently zoned for institutional use, and contains several structures for a religious facility, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg planning pre-hearing staff analysis.
• Aldersgate United Methodist Retirement Community Inc. received approval for a rezoning of 91.31 acres on the south side of Shamrock Drive across from Glenville Avenue and the east side of Eastway Drive across from Dunlavin Way. This allows the developer to expand the site’s existing continuing care retirement community by adding 125 independent living units, 150 dependent beds, and up to 14,000 square feet for an environmental services facility or a maintenance facility.
• Novant Health received approval from the council to rezone 81.75 acres on the northeast quadrant at Albemarle Road and Interstate 485. This petition proposes modifications to an existing development plan that was approved in 2008. The original project included a 100-bed hospital, up to 140,000 square feet of medical office space, and 20,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. The modifications that were approved Sept. 15 allow for a 50-bed hospital and up to 117,000 square feet of medical and general office space, retail space and personal services space. Although the Zoning Committee recommended the council approve this petition, its recommendation was based on several modifications to the site plan.