Red dirt alert: 57 townhomes coming to W. Catawba
Dec. 8. By Dave Vieser. Traffic is frequently congested on West Catawba west of Nantz Road and widening is years away. However, that won’t stop Demeter Properties of Cornelius from building 57 new townhomes on the big bend across from Elevation Church.
Alert passersby may have already noticed that the 9.5 acres of wooded property were cleared during the past two weeks.
Cornelius Planning Director Aaron Tucker said a pre-construction meeting has also occurred and full grading will commence over the next several months, with houses likely going up around this summer.
The project calls for homes between 2,200 and 2,800 square feet, with selling prices between the upper $300,000s and upper $400,000s.
The project has an interesting history.
In 2016 Classica Homes planned 40 age-restricted homes there, but the application was ultimately withdrawn. The town at the time offered little support for a residential project, stymieing the long-time owners—members of the Houser family—who wanted to sell. The plan was officially withdrawn when there were too many challenges around the plans to widen West Catawba Avenue.
Then, in 2019, Demeter came back to the town with a revised plan which added more townhomes to their original 42 unit proposal while also eliminating two commercial buildings.
At the time of the 2019 approval, work on West Catawba was anticipated to be starting in 2021. It now appears that the DOT project will start several years later.
Since the required change to conditional zoning was already approved unanimously back in 2019, the town commissioners have no further decisions to make regarding the project.
Demeter will need to file various plans and documents with both the town and county which will be reviewed on a staff level.
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So the change, extension, of the DOT work has no bearing on this project?
How are these plans not reviewed in light of the DOT changes?
I moved to Cornelius almost four years ago to be near Lake Norman.
I didn’t anticipate the poor planning coordination and the likelihood that the town would rapidly degrade into Sunrise Hwy. in New York.
(look it up if you care)
At the time of the 2019 approval, work on West Catawba was anticipated to be starting in 2021. It now appears that the DOT project will start several years later.
“Since the required change to conditional zoning was already approved unanimously back in 2019, the town commissioners have no further decisions to make regarding the project.”
I hope the town commissioners are eternally stuck in the traffic around this and the myriad of other uncoordinated projects around town.
I agree, James. West Catawba was/is a traffic nightmare pre-pandemic, and will return as such next year. I’m not sure how many commissioners actually travel the local roads, but any idiot can see that roads (like W. Catawba) cannot handle the pace of unbridled development. Every time I hear one of these guys speak of “smart growth” I know it’s a bad joke. So many projects get the bait-switch and always need a re-zoning to accommodate the real goal which is high-density, high profits. Developers have the commissioners in their hip-pocket.
The applicant according to the Town is Joseph Stevens of Demeter Properties. Phone is (704) 897-0855
And now the developer is working as fast as they can to get their buildings up before the town can figure out how this got approved and who is at fault for allowing yet another traffic increasing project to go through before Catawba is widened. Oh boy. Stop the development already! Let’s have some green space and single family homes. No more commercial, apartments or townhomes.
Good Project. Fits well with Vineyard Point and Bordeaux neighborhood. We were onboard with Classica and onboard with this also. Traffic is going to continue to rise and it is up to the town leaders/DOT to figure that out.
Agree its a great project and adds value to our community.