STEELE
CREEK NEWS
Hamilton
Road Rezoning Request Withdrawn
(June 30, 2002) A
rezoning request that would have allowed up to 490 new homes on a
property on Hamilton Road has been withdrawn.
The property
currently is owned by Frances Flowe and was targeted for Development
by the McAlpine Company. It is located on the north side of Hamilton
Road just east of Steele Creek Road. It is less than a mile from the
South Carolina line.
The property
currently is zoned R-3, which allows an average of up to 3 residences per
acre. The request was to change the zoning to R-4 (CD), which would
allow a greater density of homes. The developer had proposed
building up to 490 single family homes, which would have been
approximately 3.8 residences per acre on the 130 acre property.
At a public
hearing before the Charlotte City Council on June 17, Keith McVean
of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission staff stated that
the Planning Commission staff was not willing to support the
application without several modifications. A major concern was the
lack of accessible open space. Although the developers had reserved
approximately 18% of the property as open space, most of this was
along streams around the edge of the property at the backs of lots
and not centrally located and accessible to most residents. Also of
concern was that most other area around this property is zoned
R-3.
Representatives of
adjacent property owners and neighborhoods, as well as the Steele
Creek Residents Association, spoke in opposition to the zoning
change.
The major concern
was that higher density was not appropriate for this area. The
southwest area plan calls for residential development at the density
allowed by the current R-3 zoning. City guidelines allow
consideration of rezoning for higher densities where certain factors
are present, such as nearby employment, nearby intense development
where a transition to lower density residential areas was
appropriate, or the availability of mass transit. None of the
factors normally considered exist here. Additionally, Hamilton Road
is a narrow rural road that is not capable of handling the amount of
increased
traffic that would result.
The Steele Creek
Residents Association has supported rezoning applications in the
past that would result in higher densities near Highway 49, which is
being widened and is more able to handle more intense residential or
other development. However, the association cannot support
development with more residences than current zoning allows on the
Hamilton Road site.
The applicant
withdrew the application a few days after the public hearing.
For more
information on this rezoning request, see the web page for
Rezoning Application 2002-52
on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission web site.
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