Planning Board approves Mills Market
Mills Market | Highline Partners
Aug. 15. By Dave Vieser. The Cornelius Planning Board unanimously approved Mills Market, a 250,000-square-foot mixed-use project planned for downtown Cornelius. The approval last night comes with conditions, most of which are standard rezoning issues.
The project is on a prime parcel: 2.3 acres on the south side of Catawba Avenue, just east of Meridian, and west of the Cain Center for the Arts.
The old Doc Washam house at the corner of Meridian and Catawba would have to come down or be moved.
The plan now moves to the Town Board for review and possible rezoning at a public hearing, most likely in September.
Historic Doc Washam house
Concessions
The revised plan voted on by the Planning Board was not as tall, nor as dense as the original 2022 version, but it did have a larger commercial component than the one originally presented. Developer Mark Miller of Highline Partners told Cornelius Today that, “we heard from the Town and Town Commissioners that we needed to increase the amount of commercial in the project.”
The changes implemented by Miller were well received by the entire planning board, as summarized by director Susan Johnson. “Mark, you really nailed it with the changes you made, and this is exactly what we were looking for. Thanks for listening.”
Changes include:
—Density: 263 units has been reduced to a maximum of 238 units.
—Height: The original six-story structure has been scaled down to a four-story building fronting Catawba.
—Commercial/retail: The commercial component of 7,000 to 8,000 square feet has been increased to approximately 12,000 square feet.
—Parking: Miller has agreed to provide an additional 130 public parking spaces in the lowest levels of their parking deck. These spaces will be owned and controlled by the Town and are meant to serve as additional parking for patrons of Downtown Cornelius, including the Cain Center.
—Affordable Workforce Housing: Miller has committed to providing 10 residential units at affordable workforce housing levels for a minimum of 20 years, and working with the newly created Community Development Corp. (CDC). They will also make a $30,000 contribution to the program at the closing of their construction loan.
No Comments
Leave A Comment
Our Partners
Is there an alternative route through the town of Cornelius to Antiquity from the west side of 77?
I wonder how much mitigation of traffic congestion this developement will lead to.
Also, thanks for preserving the facades of the few remaining old buildings. It really exemplifies the character of the old downtown area.
Ever hear the phrase “You can’t get there from here”?
Ridiculous decision on the part of our town board and mayor for their lack of consideration concerning traffic! In addition, you have almost totally taken away our once amazing little town and you all should be ashamed (which I’m sure you are not)! Why do all of you keep making poor decisions regarding our town?
The “slate needs to be wiped clean” and replaced with solid, ethical, and reasonable board members, if such a thing still exists!
As the headline and story noted, this vote was by the Planning Board, preliminary or advisory to the Town Board, which will take up the matter sometime in the future, possibly September.
More congestion.
The highways can’t handle our present population.
Was a traffic impact study done for this project? Unless I’m missing something, East/West traffic isn’t exactly stellar along Main Street, and I can’t imagine this is going to help. The concept isn’t what’s wrong necessarily- it’s the physical location. I saw an article this week talking about yet another task force to look at traffic issues, and yet here they are a couple of days later making Main Street more congested. How does this make sense?
Agree with previous comments – I voted for this new slate of Commissioners (as many others did) because they said they would stop the insanity of over development and congestion in Cornelius. I would love to email the Commissioners about this decision now, but one of them in particular called people like me who express their opinions in writing to Commissioners “keyboard warriors”. So, it didn’t really feel like they took my opinions seriously.
Why does it appear that ALL of these outsized projects on the east side are being pushed through to fund the operation and maintenance of the monstrosity known as the Cain Center? You’ve already diminished the quality of our lives on a daily basis. Shame on you. At least be honest about your reasoning.
There seems to be some confusion regarding the recent vote. The Town Board has not voted on Mills Market yet as the recent approval was from the Planning Board. At the Planning Board meeting, the TIA was presented, traffic mitigation solutions were explained, and several citizens who attending the meeting spoke in favor after hearing and seeing the modified project.
When the current board was elected, a halt was placed on any higher density approvals in order to update the Land Use Plan, which took over a year and included significant citizen input. This area of town was identified as an opportunity for this type of project. The applicant and several boards negotiated many months on modifications, density reduction, and updated amenities.
As a proactive measure, Gem Street was modified in April ’23 to accommodate another East/West corridor.
https://www.corneliustoday.com/eureka-gem-st-extension-is-open/
Yes, this type of development will increase an already congested traffic issue. Any improvements made to the “downtown” area such as shops, restaurants, retail, townhomes, etc, will increase pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The Town Board is in the process of updating a Master Downtown Plan to address these important concerns.
Traffic, infrastructure, schools and impact on citizen’s quality of life are always first considerations when analyzing new projects. Attendance at planning and town board meetings, contacting board members directly, and doing research on projects is the best way to make your voice heard and provide input to community leaders.
All board members are easily accessible and direct contact information for community leaders can be found at http://www.cornelius.org.
Thank you, commissioner Sansbury for clarifying that it was the planning board that voted in favor, and addressing a number of concerns that were posted here. However, no matter how many concessions were made by the developers or committees convened discuss it, traffic will only get worse if this is approved. Anyone with common sense knows there is no magic solution here, which is why the project simply doesn’t work at this location.
The headline says “Planning Board approves Mills Market” and the first sentence of the story says “The Cornelius Planning Board unanimously approved Mills Market…”
I wish this wasn’t the case. Perhaps it won’t get approved.
There’s really not enough room for all of this in this tiny little pocket of old town Cornelius. And really, this is no longer old town Cornelius. I used to think that Cornelius rivaled Davidson when it came to charm. Now, it’s far from it. Cornelius is more interested in glitz and glamour than preserving that small town appeal. Sad. So sad for all of us residents.