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Hamilton Road Rezoning Request Withdrawn

(June 30, 2002) A rezoning request that would have allowed up to 490 new homes on a property on Hamilton Road has been withdrawn.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.