The Davidson Town Board voted 4-1 (with Brian Jenest opposed) to approve a rezoning for the property Tuesday evening, but the hour-long discussion before the tally became a case study on the nebulousness of municipal zoning.
CommunityOne, the Asheboro-based bank that foreclosed on the property in December 2009, sought a zoning combination of residential, retail and office/light industrial uses for the topographically diverse land on the border of Davidson and Huntersville. The bank’s development team sought zoning heavy on residential, whose revenue would fund development of the retail and office/light industrial sections. Town leaders, however, favored a plan dominated by a so-called employment campus, which would add jobs but not population.
CommunityOne last month brought a revised proposal to the Davidson Planning Board that would have zoned about one-third of the property for neighborhood-type residential development, and the plan won the panel’s approval. But when Davidson Planning Manager Lauren Blackburn offered the staff’s recommendation to the Town Board Tuesday, it looked
nothing like what the Planning Board had approved. In fact, it looked nothing like any of the previous entries in the Davidson East map parade.
In that plan, the one ultimately approved by commissioners, nearly all of the residential area of the Davidson East property is replaced by a new category called Flex Campus, which is geared toward creating an employment center.
Susan Irvin, a lawyer representing CommunityOne, argued that the roads, water, sewer and other basic costs for the entire development would be close to $11 million, and a sizable residential area would be necessary to raise the cash to pay for that infrastructure. A development tied to the rezoning approved Tuesday, she estimated, would leave a developer more than $3 million short of the revenue needed to fund the infrastructure, making development unfeasible.
“The staff recommendation is not viable,” she told commissioners. That prompted Commissioner Laurie Venzon to ask perhaps the most salient question: “Should I,” she asked, “be concerned about the economic viability of the property?”
“No,” replied Town Attorney Rick Kline, adding that commissioners’ guiding principle in zoning should be the overall well-being of the town.
But Kline and Town Manager Leamon Brice went on to explain that lines on a zoning map are not necessarily drawn in indelible ink.
“That’s the purpose of a development master plan,” Kline explained. Those master plans, Kline added, commonly include rezoning requests, which triggers a giveand- take between the developer and the town. Several times Tuesday, Mayor John Woods cautioned his colleagues that they were descending into master plan-level minutiae as they
suggested the shifting of lines.
But Jenest, who favored keeping a larger residential area in the rezoning, argued that the tinkering was necessary.
“When (a developer) has to start moving lines and do a rezoning in Davidson, it’s very difficult,” he argued.
“I would disagree,” Kline countered. “We have zoned 10,000 acres without a development plan.”
Other Business
Also Tuesday, the board:
• Was informed by Brice that Finance Director Eric Hardy is resigning to take a position with the City of Asheville.
• Approved, 5-0, to authorize town staff to renew the town’s 2008 fire service agreement with Odell Volunteer Fire Department to help with fire coverage on the east side of town, including the River Run and Summers Walk neighborhoods. The town had been paying Odell $22,000 a year to respond to fire calls within five miles of its station, off N.C. 73, and at least five miles beyond Davidson’s downtown fire station. The new deal would set the payments from the Town of Davidson based on the value of properties served, and incorporating the Odell Fire District’s 5-cent tax rate.
• Approved, 5-0, a new land use map for the 243-acre Abersham property, off Shearer and Grey roads. The revisions will allow Mecklenburg County to acquire the failed development for use as open space and park land. The board’s action eliminates lot lines and public streets from the map, but allows the only house in the development to remain.
• Approved an interlocal agreement with Cornelius and Huntersville governing Visit Lake Norman, the regional tourism promotion agency.
• Approved, 5-0, a new “sphere of influence” agreement with Huntersville. The 30-year pact continues an agreement in which the two towns recognize jurisdictions over unincorporated areas.
