Historic Ballantyne? Townhouse plan gets frosty reception
FED-UP Ballantyners blast ‘greedy’ developer and cite worries about traffic, schools — and the threat to a 120-year-old farmhouse
Citing concerns about unbearable traffic and overcrowded schools, a crowd of about 150 Ballantyne residents unloaded this week on a developer who wants to build townhomes behind Community House Middle School.
On Wednesday night at South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church, a representative of David Weekly Homes tried to explain plans to build 164 townhouses on a 37-acre site off Blakeney Heath Road. But the discussion soon devolved into a heated Q&A, with nearby residents airing grievances about students forced to eat lunch on the floor of Ardrey Kell High School and parents having to endure traffic backups so bad that they need 30 minutes to drive a mile to the Morrison YMCA for a morning workout.
To build the townhouses, the developer needs the city to rezone the property, which is now designated for single-family houses. The developer appeared willing to compromise, but the crowd was in more of a torches-and-pitchforks mood.
At times, residents interrupted the consultant giving the presentation with exclamations such as:
- “Have you been on that road at 7:40 in the morning?”
- “Accidents! How many accidents?”
- “We like it the way it is!”
One resident told him: “It’s just a game to get more houses so you can be greedy and get more money for what you’re building. … I feel disrespected that you want to take this plot of land and make as much money as you possibly can. … You’re saying, ‘We’re going to be disrespecting everybody in here that has worked their asses off to get land and build a home and build a community, because we’re going to shove more houses in there, they’re not going to be able to drive, and the schools are overcrowded.’”
Shannon Boling of David Weekly Homes replied: “I appreciate your passion.”
City Council member Ed Driggs told The Ledger after the meeting that it was one of the biggest crowds for a community rezoning meeting that he has seen in his six years on the council.
Preserving Ballantyne’s history: One additional wrinkle is that the parcel up for rezoning is designated as a historic landmark because of its proximity to the James A. Blakeney House, which the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission says is a “well-preserved example of a type of farmhouse erected by prosperous farmers in Mecklenburg County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” It also “might contain important historic and pre-historic archaeological artifacts.”
The house is believed to have been built between 1901 and 1905. The townhouse development wouldn’t knock down the farmhouse, but it would get close to it, as other housing developments in the area have in the last 25 years.
Land boom: To get a sense of how much land prices in Ballantyne have skyrocketed, check this out: The Commission’s notes from 1986 say the 110 acres that the house was on at the time were appraised at $26,610, or $242 an acre. Today, the 37-acre parcel by the house is valued at more than 70 times that amount per acre, even when factoring in inflation — and it will probably sell for even more than that.
“There are few places in the country that have changed as dramatically as the formerly rural farmland of southern Mecklenburg County,” said Stewart Gray, senior preservation planner with the commission, in an interview. The developer’s plans would need the commission’s blessing, he said.
Bigger picture: The Ballantyne area has been growing quickly since the late 1990s, and residents often say planning for schools and roads has been inadequate. There are other rezonings in the area, as well as apartment towers under construction. But this development seems to be gathering particular opposition because of the awful traffic on two-lane Blakeney Heath Road where it meets Bryant Farms Road.
David Weekly’s zoning consultant, Walter Fields, said after the meeting in an interview that he’s happy to take the feedback from residents and continue working with city planners and neighbors to improve the plans. He said he wasn’t discouraged by the strong opposition: “I’ve had people who love the developments, but they don’t come to the meeting. The people that hate it come here. The people that love it, they figure, ‘Hey, it’s fine. I don’t care.’”
Just a couple miles away, there’s a much bigger project in the works — the proposal by Ballantyne Corporate Park owner Northwood Office to convert the golf course into a mixed-use, town-center-type development that includes 1,000 apartments, 300,000 s.f. of shops and restaurants and an amphitheater in its first phase. A Northwood spokeswoman said via email that the project is “on track.”
Residents at Wednesday’s meeting said they weren’t as opposed to that one.
“The part I like is more restaurants and things to do and the live music venue,” said Chris Craig, 46. “I can see that being a family thing, to go hang out and stroll the park and listen to music on the weekend. But the problem is we don’t need more people out here.”
This article appeared in the Jan. 31, 2020, edition of The Charlotte Ledger.
