Stallings approves one subdivision, turns down another

Listen to this article

The Stallings Town Council approved a rezoning Monday night that will allow a 174 single-family home development and rejected Ryland Homes’ request to rezone land to build 69 single-family homes.

The council voted 4-2 to approve M/I Homes’ request for conditional zoning on 88 acres that is now owned by the William Trotter Co. and Trotter Properties LLC.  District 2 Council Member Rocky Crenshaw and District 4 Council Member Shawna Steele voted against the conditional zoning.

“My issue was the board wanted to leave that one connector road and the chamber was full of residents who didn’t want it at all because of traffic concerns,” Steele said Tuesday.

The connector road she was referring to was April Lane, and Steele said the council wanted it to remain in the plan for greater access by emergency vehicles. The subdivision was required to have only two connector roads, but instead plans to have three: one that connects to Stevens Mill Road and two that connect to Fairfield Plantation. Another road dead-ends at adjacent undeveloped land that could one day connect to Lawyers Road.

Residents’ concerns about the connector roads came up during a June 23 town meeting that the town required M/I Homes and Trotter Properties to host.

According to the town, 36 people attended the meeting, and Fairfield Plantation residents had concerns about traffic running through their neighborhood from April Lane and Brookgreen Terrace.

Residents were also concerned about the increase in traffic on Stevens Mill Road, and were told a traffic study would be conducted by M/I Homes to determine what traffic improvements if any are needed. It hasn’t been determined when the study will be done, said Lynne Hair, Stallings’ planning and zoning administrator. The North Carolina Department of Transportation will have the authority to determine how to address any traffic issues arising from the proposed development, she said.

Fairfield Plantation residents also were concerned that residents in the new development would use their amenities, such as their community pool, but the new development will have a pool, Hair said.

The proposed development calls for the houses to be built on lot sizes of 8,125 square feet and 9,375 square feet. The single-story homes will be at least 2,000 square feet and the two-story homes will be at least 2,400 square feet, said Scott Herr, M/I Homes vice president of land acquisition. The development will also include a cabana and playground.

Herr said the developer wants to break ground next summer and it should take three to five years to complete. He said it is too early to provide specific information on the homes’ features.

M/I Homes’ has also proposed a 10-foot project boundary buffer where the development is adjacent to Country Wood East, but originally didn’t propose a buffer adjacent to Fairfield Plantation.  Stallings’ unified development ordinance requires 10-foot buffers between single-family residential developments, and M/I Homes will include the buffers between its development and Fairfield Plantation, Hair said.

The council also voted 6-0 Monday to annex about 56 acres, which is behind homes on Hawthorne Drive and was in the county’s jurisdiction, for the development.

The land was bought by the late William Trotter Sr. in the 1970s and 1980s, said Paul Trotter, president of William Trotter Co. and manager of Trotter Properties LLC. Trotter is also William Trotter’s son.

The companies are selling it to M/I Homes because they aren’t capable of building such large developments, Trotter said. Trotter typically builds subdivisions with 40-60 lots. He declined to disclose the sale price.

Also at the council’s meeting, Ryland Homes’ rezoning request to build 69 single-family homes was rejected unanimously, 6-0. The council voted 4-0 on Sept. 14 to annex 35 acres for the subdivision that were in the county, then tabled a vote on the rezoning request in order to gather more information about stormwater issues and to find out how many more homes could be built on the land if it was rezoned for Ryland’s development.

Ryland Homes requested the rezoning of the land off of Stevens Mill Road from R-20, with lots at least 20,000 square feet, to R-15, which requires lot sizes that are at least 15,000 square feet.

The stormwater issue came up at a the Sept. 14 meeting when residents expressed concerns about stormwater drainage. Nearby creeks had flooded earlier this year, so the council wanted the town’s engineering department to examine the issue, Hair said.

The town studied the flooding issue and determined that it isn’t a concern in the area Ryland wants to build, said Christopher Easterly, the town’s engineer.

Ryland Homes could not be reached for comment.

Mayor Pro Tempore Regis Griffin said there were several reasons the council rejected Ryland’s plans.

“Residents who attended (Monday’s meeting) had a lot of concerns,” he said.

Those concerns included views being obstructed by the proposed development, buffers between Ryland’s project and existing homes not being large enough, and potential negative effects on property values, he said.