HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — After the Huntersville Planning Board voted against the Lagoona Bay rezoning request, the developers announced changes to the proposed beach-style resort.
One of the developers, Jake Palillo, wrote in a social media post Saturday that they “decided to pull the current plan and modify it.”
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The decision comes after Huntersville’s planning board voted against a rezoning request for the resort. Palillo and the other developers are now going back to the drawing board. They’re ditching plans for a hotel and convention center, as well as retail space. The lagoon and 692 housing units would remain.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- Huntersville board votes against rezoning request for beach-style resort
- Commissioner questions board’s tie to Lagoona Bay developer
- Huntersville faces growing challenges with development proposals like Lagoona Bay, Birkdale Village
- Hundreds pack into public meeting over proposed resort
That would make the project a smaller one for a city Palillo said doesn’t want to deal with growing pains.
“The problem with it is there’s around 25 to 30% of the population who are just angry people, they are unhappy with their life, they are miserable, they don’t want to see anyone else be happy or enjoy their life,” Palillo told Channel 9′s Dan Matics.
Wardell Alexander was one of the residents upset about the project’s impact on traffic and water resources for the town. With a smaller plan, he’s now on the fence.
“I’m not hearing too much resistance to it now,” he said. “I think it is much better than what they were going to do at first,” he added.
Palillo hopes to sway the town and its leadership with a smaller footprint but he said he’s at his wit’s end.
MORE PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- Developer of Lagoona Bay project in Huntersville undeterred after planning staff gives thumbs down
- Lagoona Bay developer sues two private citizens over critical social media comments
- Neighbors say proposed Lagoona Bay project in Huntersville would increase traffic issues
- Rezoning request filed for beach resort-style project with hotel, homes in Huntersville
“I don’t know how to get people on board anymore, and I don’t know how to get elected people to have a vision of this,” he said. “I have no idea. None. I’m almost to the point of throwing my hands in the air and saying I give up.”
The new plan also reduces the total land coverage from 10 acres to eight.
Palillo says he’s working with the city on submitting a new rezoning request.
(WATCH: Proposed development near Plaza Midwood receives pushback from neighbors, council)
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