News

Planning Board says no to Chadwick Avenue homes

By Lightning Reports, Published: August 13, 2020

After neighboring homeowners raised concerns about traffic, density and flooding, the Hendersonville Planning Board turned thumbs down on a landowner’s plan to shoehorn four homes onto less than an acre on Chadwick Avenue.

In a 3-2 vote, the advisory board recommended that the City Council deny James Noble’s application to rezone the seven-tenths acre vacant lot from highway business to a highway business conditional zoning allowing the homes ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet on 7,000- to 9,000-square-foot lots.
David Drake, of 1006 Carousel Lane, told the Planning Board the tight development would create a hazard.
“The curve just down from where this project is going to be located is very narrow,” he said. “The only way I can see for egress from the property is to back out in the middle of Chadwick Avenue. Three drivers backing out in the middle of Chadwick Avenue I think is really a safety concern that should be considered. … Four houses on seven-tenths of an acre in that traffic area I think is overreaching.”
Next door neighbors Joseph and Sandra Williams and their daughter, Lynne, raised questions about flooding, traffic and quality-of-life issues they said the densely packed homes would raise. Lynne Williams, who attended the meeting in person, narrated a series of photos that showed flooding bad enough in July to close the road. When the vacant lot is covered in rooftops and asphalt, she said, the flooding is likely to get far worse.
“Four houses would just change the whole neighborhood, traffic-wise, people-wise,” Sandra Williams said via Zoom. “We enjoy living here and we plan on continuing to live here and we’d like to see the neighborhood stay the same. It’s relatively peaceful.”
Noble, who bought the property for $84,500 on Dec. 20, defended the plan, saying he would work with neighbors and the city to alleviate flooding. He plans to live in one of the homes and sell the other three for around $200,000 each.
“We wanted to find a way to bring affordable housing to Hendersonville,” he said. “I’m going to live there. I’m going to be more concerned than anybody with the safety of my children, safety of myself, safety of the neighborhood, how this fits into the neighborhood. I’ll do what needs to be done to control the water, because again, I’m living there. I don’t want additional noise. It’s a beautiful city and I don’t want to take away from that.”
A narrow majority of the Planning Board indicated the liabilities outweighed the merits.
“I can’t support this at all,” Neil Brown said. “Not to step on any toes, but think of the Publix supermarket debacle and I can see this adding a little bit more to that (flooding problem) with no apparent immediate solution.”
Jon Blatt agree, making a motion to recommend against the request based on “traffic concerns, the density issue and additional flooding.” Brown and Peter Hanley joined Blatt in voting for the motion while Chair Steve Orr and Hunter Jones voted no. Unless it is withdrawn or revised, the request would go next to the City Council.