Planning & Zoning

By a vote of 3-2, the Belmont City Council approved the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP, or the Plan) last evening after months of public hearings, committee meetings, and presentations.

Well, people quickly gathered on the Porch last night, in the hot, sticky, bug-noise filled neighborhood to discuss the comments made by council members.

It was a very interesting and civil debate. Thank you Mr. Mayor, Richard Boyce, for keeping it on task.

“Property Rights” activists, Charlie Flowers and Becky Burch, stuck to their convictions that planning and foresight cost property owners their right to develop their property as they see fit. Seems ok at first blush. We all want to get the best for our investments. What is different here is the continued pandering for support by their constituency trying to label planning policies and efforts as a way of “…discriminating against poor people.”(Flowers), and that, “…it’s just not right…”(Burch). More on the comments below.

It is a shame that two members of council who are seeking re-election this year are saying in essence by their votes, “we don’t think that planning for the future is important”.

The days of the rivers keeping out growth are past. Once I-485 was opened, the drive to Ballentyne, South Park, and even to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ( Lowe’s Motor Speedway), takes less than half the time. So, the carpetbaggers and local speculators are willing to buy up and sellout. In the view of the porch-sitters last night, failing to plan is planning to fail. With all due respect to former Police Chief Flowers and Mrs. Burch, flying by the seat of your pants only leads to bumpy landings.

Pineville failed to plan. As you drive in from Hwy 51 or even from South Boulevard, you have to ask, where did the town go? Yeah, they got lots of tax revenue, but it seems the only benefit was what, less tax rate?

Other interesting comments:

Becky Burch, “… people in this city are not interested in planning or they would have shown up to the meetings…”.

Unfortunately, Becky only came to one, maybe two, of the public hearings and general meetings. She stayed away from the others because her mind was made up before the process took place. Obviously, she still takes marching orders from the former mayor who definitely prefers to be reactive rather than proactive.  

The current mayor’s response to Becky, “…we need to balance property owner’s rights and responsibilities…”, and, “…this plan allows for continued work…”.  

Irl Dixon, who is also running for re-election, expressed some concern over the decision to use existing transportation maps and plans rather than, in his words, “something new…”. Donal Simpson, whose company, HNTB, consulted on the plan, replied that the connector roads through the eastside of the peninsula were not viable due to the existing development. The westside “Belmont-Mt. Holly Connector” provides for another major artery parallel south to the South Point Road.

We guess that some people just don’t get it. 

Mayor Boyce through the entire process has kept the council, the task force, and city staff, on task by repeating that this Plan is a “tool in our toolbox”.

Mr. Flowers did have one valid concern, but his drumbeat is wearing thin on many of our Belmont neighbors. His concern was the willingness of the Plan to focus “affordable housing” options in North Belmont.

We too, have that concern, but Charlie, you lost many of us when you stated, or more appropriately — mumbled, ” I grew up in North Belmont, and was discriminated against…”. Come on Charlie, you were the Chief of Police for how many years? If there was any discrimination, your department defined it for us.

Well the Plan is approved, and yes, there is a lot of work to still be done. By North Carolina General Statutes, a huge hurdle (the lack of a plan) to a variety of resources has been overcome. Even though the council was split on this issue, the meat will come with how we as a community wield this tool.

Thursday’s Observer (8/9/2007) article link: Belmont approves guide for its growth, remember you heard it here first. 😉

  (Belmont Reserve)

Belmont and Mt. Holly are both attempting to deal with the massive planned home construction in their own ways. “Belmont City Council has approved construction of 2,269 homes in 17 developments, from condominiums to single-family homes on 68,000-square-foot lots. That would mean about 1,408 more school-age students in Belmont, according to calculations from Gaston County Schools.”

Of course, neither the city or the county schools have the ability to provide land for school construction. The city is averse to requiring developers to provide land in their plans because of a ” building time-frame requirement” for use as imposed by the school board. The county school sytem doesn’t want to specify a site or approximate site due to continued demographic changes.

  (Gaston Gazette)

Last night, August 7, the city council approved the Belmont Estates schematic plans without rezoning or special conditions. However the new plans for this particular project call for a greater density (55′ x 125′ lots), 235 lots,  and no second connectivity point out of the project. That means all the traffic will be dumped out onto the two-lane South Point Road, right below the High School. Adrian Miller, staff member of the Belmont Planning Department, said that the project still needs to go through the technical review process and brought back to the P&Z board for approval, then back to council.

Councilmembers, Charlie Flowers and Becky Burch, who oppose planning processes in general under the guise of “property rights”, voted with the majority to allow another development to progress in the bottleneck area around the high school.

Belmont Reserve is another project that is under construction. This project, at the intersection of Eagle Road and South Main Street, is the re-development of the old Belmont Hosiery mill property. 14 units are about three-quarters complete, and signs posted on the windows of 11, say that they are “sold”. It appears that the markets for the Belmont Reserve are “empty nesters”, and young professionals. Just an opinion, but they are dinky, and when built out will be tightly packed together.

  (Belmont Reserve)

One of the “good” projects that fit with the surrounding community and the TND philosophy of managed growth is the Belmont Village project. Located on Myrtle Street, smack in the middle between South Main and South Central Avenue and across from the middle school, this project re-uses the old A&P grocery store site. Lots of steps up will be required, but the look is similar to many urban townhomes along the east coast cities.

      (Village Park)

We will provide some information and discussion of the South Point Road/High School area projects sometime in the next week. Overall, we are concerned about the proper development of in-fill projects being a fit under the neighborhood preservation and traditional neighborhood development (TND) policies.

See the next Belmont Front Porch entry about our feelings about the City Council vote on August 7 in regards to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.  

Source Articles: Belmont About to Boom, Mt. Holly Looks Ahead On Growth With Caution

Well, the “McMansions” have officially arrived in the old Belmont city limits. The newly re-zoned/de-zoned property at the “Point” of North Main and North Central has its first of three, large, and some might say, out of place, homes facing the Sacred Heart Campus.

If you remember, a group led by Griffin Keel, sought to rezone/de-zone the former Lineberger property. The first step was to remove the “Historical Property” designation from the 1920’s-era mansion, then rezone the property to accomodate up to four lots on the remaining “empty” portion closest to the “point”.

Property tax hungry city council members quietly and quickly agreed to the deal and plan for “new homes”. Through this spring and summer, more than 40 huge 100+ year old oak, poplar, and maple trees were removed to accomodate the homes of the new water-users and (hopefully) contributing community members.

The older homes in the neighborhood, most dating from the 1930’s and older, are large and welcoming, but neither pretentious or out-of-place. There are just a few empty lots along Main Street and Central. We hope they don’t meet this fate.

McMansions occur when people feel the need to fill-in established neighborhoods with oversized homes for their oversized “need”. Your home may be worth a lot, but beware, “a lot” means something completely different to the carpetbagger developers who have discovered our fair town.