News

County rejects higher-density Hoopers Creek rezoning

By Bill Moss, Published: August 5, 2024

Henderson County commissioners voted 4-1 to deny a rezoning request that neighboring homeowners said would have clear the way for an apartment complex in the Livingston Farms area of Hoopers Creek.

The board's rejection of the rezoning request by the landowner and a developer came after homeowners in Cove at Livingston Farms and the Reserve at Livingston Farms implored commissioners to deny the rezoning, citing traffic, quality of life, pressure on schools and other factors.

The applicant's attorney and the developer pushed back on the homeowners' suggestion that the developer plans apartments.

"This is not a request for apartments," attorney Jesse Swords said. "If the plan was for apartments we would be here in a totally different setting in a totally different process. That's not the plan here." Citing the county's comprehensive plan, he said, "One of the things that Henderson County needs is growth in housing supply....  All of the people who moved to Hoopers Creek from all over want to prevent others from moving to Hoopers Creek."

Commissioner David Hill, questioning the county planners, established that the rezoning would allow four units per acre, not 12 or 16 units, unless the applicant applied for conditional use rezoning. 

Commissioner Bill Lapsley said the current zoning, which allows just two units per acre, is the proper zoning for the land. If the county granted the R1 rezoning, he said, the developer would be entitled to build to the highest density that R1 permits, whatever the current plans are. Commissioners approved his motion to deny the rezoning request on a 4-1 vote with Commissioner David Hill voting no.

"He is surrounded quarter-acre lots," Hill said. "They're basically trying to mimic what's around them. You've already got that there. They're basically asking for what's there."

EARLIER COVERAGE:

An overflow crowd turned out on July 18 to oppose a rezoning of 13 acres that would allow a high-density development on Hoopers Creek Road next to the Livingston Farms subdivisions.

The Henderson County Planning Board said no to the request by landowners Kenneth and Alline Rhodes and Hoopers Creek Land LLC to rezone the property from R2R residential to R1 residential. The board voted 7-1 to recommend denial of the rezoning, with Trey Ford opposing the motion. Homeowners filled all the seats in the board’s meeting room on King Street while more spilled out into hallway.

Although the R1 zone allows a maximum density of 16 units per acre and structures up to 40 feet tall, Jesse Swords, an attorney for the applicant, told the audience the developer did not intend to build a high-density project.

“I heard a lot of concerns about multifamily, a lot of concerns about subdivision impact,” he said. “My understanding is that any multifamily project over 10 units has to do conditional zoning, so we would not be here for a regular rezoning if that was the plan. That’s not the plan.”

“Growth in a smart way to me means residential density where residential density already is,” he said. “That reduces pressure on more outlying areas to develop because it reduces demand for additional housing. It’s right next to the borders of the town of Fletcher. It’s located near public water and sewer. It is a good place for residential density, as you can see up on the screen, with residential density on both sides.”

Homeowners from two subdivisions, the Cove at Livingston Farms and the Reserve at Livingston Farms, opposed the rezoning. Even though their subdivisions have average home lots sizes of a quarter acre and a third of an acre, homeowners spoke against the new subdivision next door. Roads and schools can’t handle the extra traffic, they said.

“You’re lucky Fletcher took you in,” Planning Board member Jim Miller told the homeowners. “I doubt that Henderson County would have allowed your subdivision on this road, so that’s the ironic thing or it’s the pitiful thing.”

Swords said the NCDOT and local ordinances require all developments to address traffic, stormwater runoff and other concerns homeowners raised.

“As part of the driveway permit, they can require improvements to the roads based on their policies and their procedures,” he said of the DOT. “Whatever is built there will have to comply with environmental regulations. On the schools, that is technically not a proper consideration for zoning by North Carolina statute.”