Business

Council OKs 60-townhome development on Brooklyn Avenue

Brooklyn Avenue resident Lauren Chale urges city council to deny a rezoning to permit a 60-townhome development next door.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 11, 2024

Over not in my side-yard objections of three generations of a family that lives next door, the Hendersonville City Council last week authorized a 60-townhome development on Brooklyn Avenue at Old Spartanburg Road.

Council members approved the conditional zoning district request on the 6.3-acre site of a former trailer park with several conditions, including that the developer erect a fence along a 150-feet property line as a buffer between the townhomes and single-family homes to the east.

Architect’s rendering shows the townhome development facing Brooklyn Avenue. Those units would have garages in the rear. Units on an interior street would have garages in the front. [MPG SHELBY LLC]

The development proposes 60 1,057-square-foot townhomes with new public streets, a stormwater pond, open space, common space and tree preservation. The density would be 8.6 units per acre. Next to the rear property line is an apartment complex on 8.4 acres made up of two 2-story buildings containing 80 units, or 9.5 units/acre.

A staff analysis described the infill residential development as “fully consistent” with the city’s newly adopted Gen H comprehensive land-use plan and supportive of the plan’s goal to encourage “missing middle” and owner-occupied housing.

‘This will ruin us’

Lauren Chale, her mother Martha Chale and daughter Natalie Rice, who live at 1014 Brooklyn Ave., strongly opposed the development.

“I understand the need for more housing, but this will ruin us,” Lauren Chale said. “This is not how we wanted to live. This is not compatible. This is nothing like the other houses on that street. If it was a neighborhood you drove into and that was what the neighborhood was like, that’s one thing. That’s not what this is. This is something that’s taking up a third of the quarter mile street that it’s on.”

Natalie, 14, said she feared two years or more of construction would tarnish her last years of growing up in Hendersonville.

“I know this usually doesn’t warrant a traffic impact analysis, but it greatly concerns me,” she said. “I’m also worried about the price of these homes. Townhomes are going for between $350,000 to $400,000. Though I’m not an expert, I don’t know if these homes are going to be accessible for those who really need them. … For me, the harms will far outweigh the benefits and disturb my daily life. I know some things must be done in the sake of progress. I just hope this isn’t one of them.”

The planning board voted 7-0 on Nov. 14 to recommend approval of the rezoning request, with several conditions. Those included removing a stand of bamboo to improve sight visibility at Brooklyn and Old Spartanburg Road and using the Mabry name on an internal street to honor a legacy landowner.