Rendering of new Birkdale

Nov. 2. [Updated] By TL Bernthal. Birkdale Village has launched a petition drive on Facebook to show support for a rezoning request for its latest plans; within hours, a Greens at Birkdale Village resident posted one to seek support for the opposition.

At issue

On Nov. 21, the Huntersville Town Board will vote on whether or not to approve a rezoning request  from North American Properties, the owners of Birkdale Village, to build Class A office-over-retail, a boutique hotel, luxury multifamily and two parking decks adding a total of 900 spaces to the center.

At least half of those spaces would be available to the public on nights and weekends, according to NAP.

The petitions

Birkdale Village’s  link to the support petition  has been available for weeks on the Birkdale Village website, and a Facebook item was posted Tuesday afternoon.

“While design concepts won’t be finalized for many months, we believe our refined vision best represents the future of Birkdale and Huntersville,” NAP said in the posting.

Within hours, Brian Rice posted on Facebook, starting a dueling petition to show opposition to the plan, raising this question: If the Town Board approves such a move in Birkdale Village without considering traffic, safety, and property value depreciation, what might they do in other areas around Huntersville?

How it’s going

The tallies, as of this morning: 129 signatures in 15 hours opposed to North American Properties’ current proposals vs. 95 in 20 hours showing the love for the plans.

[Update] By 5:15 pm, the support petition had 103 signatures, while the “Say ‘No’ to proposed Birkdale Village code changes – don’t let big money ruin our village” petition had 303.

“I’m hearing more feedback against rather than for the project at this moment,” Huntersville Town Manager Anthony Roberts said in an email.  “That is typical.”