Proposed Huntersville hotel site (in orange) backs up to homes in Stratford Forest in Cornelius

July 19. By Dave Vieser. What happens when a rezoning on one side of a border between towns threatens to impact the quality of life for people living on the other side? Chances are someone may not be happy. That’s what happened this week, at the southern edge of Cornelius, along the border with Huntersville.

By the thinnest of margins, residents of the Stratford Forest subdivision, which is in Cornelius, lost their battle to prevent a hotel from being built near their homes.

Huntersville Mayor Christy Clark cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the rezoning request after the Board of Commissioners deadlocked 3-3 during the Town Board’s July 16 meeting.

Score one for Huntersville in this border war.

Details

The exact location is 8830 Northpointe Executive Park Drive, in Huntersville, which is north of Sam Furr Road, just off Northcross Drive. Hotel Ventures of Lake Norman, a division of the Marriott Hotel chain, plans to build a Northpointe Hotel on 10.3 acres directly behind houses in Cornelius.

The parcel is currently assessed at $2.9 million and is owned by the Huntersville Office Owners LP of Charlotte, with a Carnegie Blvd, Charlotte address. It would actually  become a Fairfield Inn and Suites Hotel, among the entry to mid-level of the Marriot chain, if the requested rezoning is approved.

The property adjoins the rear yards of homes in the Stratford Forest subdivision.

The towns of North Mecklenburg—Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville—may cooperate on regional economic development and transportation issues, but minor border disputes happen often enough to be wary.

Residents may end up on their own when another town appears to be encroaching their domains.

A hotel too far 

Stratford Forest residents are not happy about having a hotel and parking lot bumping up to their backyards.

After learning about the proposed hotel, a group of Cornelius residents from Stratford Forest came to the March 18 Cornelius town board meeting seeking help from the commissioners. It was explained that the decision on the rezoning would rest with Huntersville, not Cornelius.

However, the Cornelius Planning Department communicated the neighborhood’s concerns to the Town of Huntersville.

The concerns were also strongly expressed by a number of residents to officials in both Cornelius and Huntersville.

“We take great pride in maintaining the values of our homes,“ said Edward Spanski. “I recently turned down an offer of $600,000 for my home. Marriott says the occupancy rates for area motels and hotels is about 60 percent—why do we need another hotel?”

Luis Borges is worried about the many children in the area: “We have three children and this neighborhood is loaded with kids… Why place a hotel right up against our subdivision where it would be virtually impossible to vet who is going in and out.”

Borges said he would never have complained if the town wanted to put a business on this property for which it was already zoned.

However, putting a business at that location seems like a long shot. Huntersville Planning Director Brian Richards says that “rezoning for a three-story office building was approved in 2007 but there have never been any inquiries to build the allowed project.”

Dave Gilroy

The concerns voiced by Cornelius residents resulted in some positive change. For example, the proposed hotel height was reduced from four to three stories.

Cornelius: Powerless

Former Cornelius Commissioner Dave Gilroy said it’s solely going to be the Huntersville Town Board’s “decision, period (unfortunately).”

“All we can do in Cornelius is relationship-based influence between commissioners, and hope for the best,” he said.

It’s happened before

Issues among neighboring towns over rezonings and road work have happened before, most recently at the border of Davidson and Cornelius, where major road work caught many people by surprise.

Rusty Knox

Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox said: “There are right ways to address change and wrong ways to deal with change. The roundabout project coming into Davidson from Cornelius is the wrong way.”

The disagreement dates back to at least five years to when the project was still in the planning stages. The Davidson Town Board objected to its size and scope.

Key among Davidson’s wishes was a five-foot pedestrian walkway. But a 10-foot wide plan favored by Cornelius is going forward, making for a larger roundabout, which Davidson opposed.

“Legacy trees are gone and the southern entrance to our Town is forever changed,” Knox lamented.

On that issue, it was a loss for the Davidson team.

Cornelius Mayor Woody Washam said he truly wished “new roads could be built without cutting any trees—but it’s just not a reality.”

Bailey Road

Along the Bailey Road corridor, Davidson has allowed more new housing development much to the chagrin of officials in Cornelius where Bailey Road congestion is an issue, resulting in a loss for the Cornelius team.

Elected officials past and present say when it comes to  matters within a town’s jurisdiction, you can’t fight City Hall.

“Davidson approved all those fairly dense residential units off Bailey Road near the schools, which really contributed to the pain out there for Cornelius residents, but they never consulted us!” Gilroy said.