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City Council OKs rezoning for senior apartments on Sixth Avenue

By Lightning Reports, Published: May 6, 2022

A divided Hendersonville City Council voted Thursday to grant a rezoning request that could result in 43 affordable senior apartments on Sixth Avenue West at North Oak Street.

The council's 3-2 vote after a long public hearing and presentation by the developer, Ohio-based Woda Cooper, which made numerous concessions in response to concerns raised by the Planning Board and neighboring homeowners. The Hawkins Pointe project would be three stories, which was reduced from four stories, itself a revision from the original request for a five-story building.

Nieghbors argued that the project would put too much traffic on narrow neighborhood streets, especially Florida Avenue directly behind the building, and said the plan for 47 parking spaces would be too few.

Clay Cooper, a vice president of Woda Cooper, said that a large office building permitted by right under the current zoning would add much more traffic and would be more imposing than the apartments.

Mayor Barbara Volk, Lyndsey Simpson and Jennifer Hensley voted in favor of the rezoning. Voting no were council members Jerry Smith and Debbie Roundtree.

Hawkins Pointe is one of three affordable housing developments seeking authority from the N.C. Housing Finance Agency to use tax credit financing to attract investors. Others are the proposed Apple Ridge work force housing development of apartments and single-family homes on Sugarloaf Road and White Pine Villas on Chimney Rock Road. It's expected that only one project in the county will win state approval of tax credit financing. The City Council previously approved rezoning for Apple Ridge. Later Thursday night, the council also authorized rezoning for White Pine Villas.

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