News

Planning Board votes no on senior apartments on Chadwick Avenue

By Bill Moss, Published: March 15, 2024

Citing neighbors' concerns over traffic, stormwater and parking, the Hendersonville Planning Board dealt a setback to the developers of the Lofts at Chadwick, a proposed 60-unit affordable apartment project for seniors that "maxed out" on a state agency's scoring matrix for location suitability.

The advisory board voted 4-2 to recommend that the City Council deny rezoning application that would allow the devlopment on 2.25 acres on the southeast corner of Chadwick Avenue and Greenville Highway.

"It's disapppointing but we're not stopping," Stephen Drake, a developer of tax-credit financed affordable housing, said after the meeting. He said he believed City Council members understand and appreciate the desperate need for affordable dwellings for seniors in the city.

The Planning Board's vote came after a handful of residents said during a public comment period that 70 parking spaces were too few for 60 apartments — half of them two-bedroom — that the development would be clearing too many trees and that frequent flooding at that intersection could endanger the elderly residents.

"I've lived here since 1999 and it sesms like at least once a year if not twice that whole intersection becomes a lake," Planning Board member Donna Waters said.

Although Drake agreed to dedicate 25 feet of right of way along Greenville Highway for a possible widening, that was half the NCDOT's request that he provide a 50-foot easement.

"I understand traffic," he said. "I live in Mills River and we complain about it all the time. It's honestly out of the developer's hands and its in the hands of NCDOT. Less than 20 percent of the folks (in senior apartment) go to work so they're not driving at a.m. and p.m. peak hours. Not much traffic comes in and out of these. There's not a lot of hustle and bustle."

The board voted 4-2 in favor of a motion by Chauncey Whiting to recommend denial of the application, with Waters, Peter Hanley and Yolanda Robinson voting in favor. Chair Jim Robertson and Laura Flores voted no.

Whiting's motion cited two reasons for the recommended denial: proposed development would remove 48 mature trees from the site while only maintaining 12 mature trees and it would provide an inadequate stream buffer on the property border.

The senior apartments, in an L-shaped three-story building with a footprint of 25,000 square feet, would include a computer room with free WiFi, library. landscaping of native plant species and a gazebo overlooking a proposed pollinator garden, Drake said. He also cited the proximity of supermarkets, drug stores, urgent care centers and churches. The N.C. Housing Finance Agency gave the site the maximum number of points in assessing the suitability of location, he added. The deadline for applications for tax credit financing authorization from the state  is in May; the winning proposals are typically announced in August.