10/25/2022 10:46:00 PM Area Residents Say "No" to Proposed Development
Wayne Howard Reporter
Builder D.R. Hornton wants the County to rezone 64.15 acres on N. Ingleside Farm Rd. at its intersection/interchange with NC73 in the Catawba Springs Township from R-T (Transitional Residential) and R-SF (Single-Family Residential) to PD-R (Planned Development Residential) to permit 176 townhomes and 292 apartment units to be built there.
A Community Involvement meeting, a prerequisite to the public hearing on the request, which will likely be heard in November, was held Monday evening (Oct. 25th) at Unity Presbyterian Church. It was a packed house affair. Not only was it standing room only with a huge turnout, but the crowd was loud and clear in its opinion of the request. They gave it a resounding "no" as almost everyone attending who chose to speak spoke vehemently in opposition to the proposal.
The rampant growth in eastern Lincoln County, which has also recently spilled into proposals for new housing developments in the Lincolnton area prompted County Commissioners to adopt a change in the County's Unified Development Ordinance recently that will require new single family developments to be built on minimum one acr per home lots.
With the housing crunch spilling from Charlotte into outlying communities, the need for more housing and the opportuniy for builders to profit from developments has led to largely uncontrolled growth.
It's not just in Lincoln County. Other area counties are seeing similar developments. One near Belmont proposes some 600 new homes there and a Community Involvement meeting last week drew essentially the same response to that proposal as the Ingleside development did Monday night.
Local towns and cities have also become involved in the for and against arguments over housing developments. Two large developments are under construction near Dallas--one on the Dallas-Stanley Highway, the other off the old Gastonia Highway. Hickory's CIty Council approved a major development over objections from area residents and Newton has one pending. The Lincolnton City Council approved two rezoning requests that will allow new houses to be bullt near the Startown Road/Clarks Creek Road intersection. The City Council then voted to annex the new developments.
With the change in the Lincoln County UDO, some said it was only a matter of time before builders started trying to develop apartments and townhouses since they are now required to have one acre or larger lots for single family homes.
Since 2012, the Lincoln Herald has been providing local news for Lincoln, Gaston, Catawba and Cleveland counties, information about community events, sports scores, the obituaries, and more .
