Jan. 8. By Dave Vieser. Plans for 42 town homes and two commercial buildings on 9-plus acres opposite Elevation Church on West Catawba Avenue have been submitted to the town and will be the subject of a community meeting at 5:30 pm today at Town Hall. This informal meeting is prior to an official public hearing in two weeks.
The developer of the “Retreat at West Catawba” is Cornelius-based Demeter Properties. Matt Langston of Landworks Design, which is handling design and architectural details for Demeter, is requesting permission from the town to erect as many as “42 single-family attached townhomes, as well as two commercial buildings.”
The first public hearing on the proposal, which will require a zoning change from general and residential zoning to conditional zoning, is currently scheduled for Tuesday Jan. 22, 7 pm in the Town Board Meeting Room at Town Hall.
The property is largely vacant except for a handful of homes, one of which is run-down. It gained notoriety in 2016 when Classica Homes planned 40 age-restricted homes there, but the application was withdrawn. The town at the time offered little support for a residential project, stymieing the long-time owners who wanted to sell. The plan was officially withdrawn when there were too many potential problems with the plans to widen of West Catawba.
The Demeter/Landworks site plan calls for a 25-foot setback from the proposed right of way for West Catawba. Widening of the two-lane portion of West Catawba is expected to begin next year.
According to the site plan submitted by Demeter/Landworks, Dunmore Drive, which runs across the Kenton Place development, will be extended across Catawba and into the Retreat.
The town homes will be built north of Dunmore, while the two commercial buildings, comprising 11,700 square feet and 5,000 square feet respectively, would be south of the newly extended roadway.
The site is a block or so outbound from Waterview Drive, where a 14-story hotel and convention center was proposed on a five-acre lot three years ago.
Amid strong opposition from neighbors and concerns over the hotel’s height, the proposal died before any formal town review started.
