Around 100 residents packed in for this month’s city Design Review Board meeting, where the application for a 272-unit apartment project on South Main Street passed with a vote of 3-2.
Nearly a dozen people – many residents of the South Main Street community – voiced concern over the scale and lack of retail they believe would encourage walkability, saying they were in favor of the project but not at the cost of development. When asked why retail was excluded, Brian Schick of the Charlotte-based developer Woodfield Investments said retail would cut into the number of total apartment units, and that retail “can also bring troubles.”
Schick said, “We are not a retail developer,” telling the audience some design details were changed based on community input from a neighborhood meeting. “We feel like we’ve made every one of the suggestions… This is all very different from what we initially planned when we brought them the proposal and developed our plan.”
The 272-unit West End project will be built on the current site for the Pendleton Street Baptist Church property at 1100 S. Main St., where the church has been a fixture of the community since the 1890s. The church sold three of its 4.5 acres at the site for the project, and retained a small corner at Markley and Rhett Streets where it will build a new church.
At the meeting, church pastor Marty Price said the church is in “full support of this project.”
“Frankly, we want to be surrounded by people,” and the apartment project would help them do that, he said. He went on to say that the plan includes “more than sufficient parking,” an issue that has been a rallying cry for residents who say the influx of cars would make streets impossible to use.
Yet while some residents focused on parking limitations, the primary issue centered around a lack of retail and the project’s size, according to West End Neighborhood Association representative Susan Skipwith.
Other residents voiced the opinion that the project represents a missed opportunity both with employment opportunities and building a welcoming entrance corridor to the city.
The project’s application passed 3-2, with Design Review Board members Mitch Lehde and Todd Malo voting against approval and members Danielle Fontaine, Carmella Cioffi and Chairman Barry Nocks voting in favor.
“No one meets everybody’s needs. No one can make everybody happy, which predicates the story of my life,” said Nocks, who cast the deciding roll-call vote when his colleagues split the decision 2-2.
Nocks said that while the project may bring consequences, another developer may have brought more problems or cared less about its impact, making the 272-unit the best they have to work with.
“It could have been commercial, which brings more traffic,” he said. “The question is not is this project perfect… but is this project consistent with the guidelines as generally interpreted?”
