Community pushes back on development plans in south Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — Dozens of acres of farmland in south Charlotte could turn into a massive development with apartments, townhomes, and a school.

The city’s zoning committee recommended moving forward with rezoning the land.

Channel 9′s Erika Jackson spoke with neighbors who are not on board.

Homeowners near the land said they recognized Charlotte is growing, but they believe the area is not built for a development of that size.

Childress Klein Properties wants to build more than 600 multifamily homes, more than 200 townhomes, and more than 24 single-family homes on nearly 152 acres between Tom Short and Red Rust Roads.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools wants to build a school on the property to alleviate congestion at Jay M. Robinson Middle School.

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The city’s rezoning planner said the developer made changes to its rezoning proposal following a public hearing last month.

The zoning committee recommended moving forward with the petition during its work session Tuesday night.

“We think the proposal provides a mixture of housing types that diversifies the products in this area, which is currently limited to single-family detached homes. We think it will increase the density of housing while maintaining a maximum density that’s less than 9 units per acre,” said City of Charlotte Rezoning Planning Holly Cramer.

The land is south of the 485 outer loop, east of Ballantyne.

It is surrounded by single-family neighborhoods and some commercial properties. And some neighbors say they want it to stay that way.

“Our concern about density is not that we will see more people; it will be good to have more neighbors. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the entire community was built for the suburbs. All the infrastructure around us is for suburban communities,” said neighbor Himanshu Bhatnagar.

Channel 9 will provide updates once the city council makes a final decision.

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