Council Quickies: SouthPark Project Approved with Conditions
Zoning meeting: March 20, 2023
Charlotte City Council met for its monthly zoning meeting on Monday, March 20, making decisions on some zoning petitions and holding hearings for others. Below we will list which zoning petitions council voted on, meaning they’ve been fully approved (none were voted down) rather than which ones had hearings.
Near the top of the meeting, LaWana Mayfield repeatedly brought up the unknown impacts of certain developments that are being proposed to city council. For example, she asked that the city manager’s office create a report that analyzes the impact of new developments on fire response time, which she says has increased from a 6-minute average to 7 minutes and close to 8 in some places.
Renee Johnson agreed, saying that she has been “raising the red flag and ringing the bell” about development in the Mallard Creek area, which currently has 20 pending rezoning petitions. “We have to know how these are connected and affecting one another,” she said regarding cumulative impacts.
The biggest vote of the night was on a large mixed-use development slated for SouthPark, where the Trianon condos are currently located on Colony Road. The development will include more than 700 apartments as well as two dozen townhomes, retail and bars/restaurants.
Tariq Bokhari, whose district the development falls in, said the vote had been two years in the making. He acted as middleman during the negotiations between developers and unsupportive neighbors.
He emphasized that, though the Barclay Downs HOA still had issues with height and density, he worked with developers to ensure $9 million in community benefit investments, including $5 million in funding invested in The Loop SouthPark Urban Trail and $1 million into the city’s Housing Trust Fund.
That petition passed unanimously to applause from a large group of supporters in attendance.\
Here’s a look at some of other notable petitions approved on Monday:
- A development consisting of up to 375 units on 27 acres on Steele Creek Road at the I-485 interchange.
- A development that will include up to 335 units, consisting of a mix of single-family detached, single-family attached, and multifamily dwelling units on 50 acres in the fledgling River District off Garrison Road.
- A rezoning that clears the way for an electric car charging station on Nations Ford Road near Tyvola Road.
- Fourteen duplex units on Gondola Avenue off Sugar Creek Road in northeast Charlotte.
- A residential community of around 50 units will go in at the corner of Prosperity Church Road and Pinewood Lane.
- A 260-unit apartment complex on IBM Drive in University City.
- A petition to build up to 32 age-restricted and income-targeted apartments in a single building on a vacant lot at the corner Albemarle Road and Mallard Drive.
- A proposal to develop 54 townhomes on Old Plank Road in northwest Charlotte. LaWana Mayfield called out claims of the potential to create a 10-minute neighborhood on that petition. She says there is not even a grocery store nearby and “You are playing Frogger” if you try to navigate Brookshire Boulevard on foot. The petition was approved.
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