Town charrette nearly completed

We got a flyer in the mail a while back advertising another Waxhaw design charrette where interested townsfolk and designers go to try to help determine the direction Waxhaw is heading and to brand the town.

The full schedule is here if you're hoping to catch the two closing sessions. If you were hoping to get more of a heads up from me on the charrette, then you seriously miscalculated.

Upon receiving the flyer, my eye was inexplicably drawn to the three daily pin-up sessions. While I'm sure the town planners went in a different direction, there are few better ways to induce male involvement in a design charrette than to incorporate pin-up models.

Display some of the classic artwork of Elvgren or Vargas and just think about the community involvement! Or if you want to go big, you can bring in a painter and model to watch the artwork get created in real-time and make a festival out of it.

Anti-Food Lion movement taking foot

I blogged about the potential new Food Lion here and here.

WCNC has a story on nearby residents attempting to organize to keep the Food Lion from commercializing the property they purchased. A couple snippets:

WAXHAW, N.C. -- Neighbors are banding together in Waxhaw to fight against Food Lion turning 33 acres into commercial property. Right now, the company can't build on the property because it’s zoned for residential use.

...

The property was annexed into Waxhaw, which gives a 60 day window to place a zoning on it. Right now it's zoned for residential property, but down the road neighbors are expecting Food Lion to ask for commercial zoning so they can build a strip mall with a grocery store.

...

NewsChannel 36 reached out to Food Lion and they said they have no current plans to start commercial building. Even if the commission votes to keep it residential on October 11, Food Lion can later petition for re-zoning if they want to start commercial building.

Read the whole thing.

The arguments against as quoted in the article seem to slightly contradict each other. On one hand, commercialization of the property will introduce all kinds of problems, but on the other hand, they're not necessarily against commercial development. Regardless, it seems like Food Lion is in no hurry to push the matter and since they already own the property, I guess they can bide their time.

More on Food Lion annexation

I mentioned the Food Lion annexation earlier this week. Mark D of the Union County Weekly has the details of the successful unanimous annexation. Martin Lane provides the sound bite (my emphasis):

“Right now, we’re concerned with who wants to start paying our taxes.” Lane said, “Now, I’m not naive enough not to figure that if Food Lion owns the property, theoretically they want to do something. But that’s a whole other process , we have to consider totally separate from what were considering here tonight.”

Read the whole thing.

No word on what Food Lion Inc. has planned, but I boldly predict a new Food Lion. Maybe Food Lion wants to become to Waxhaw what CVS is to Providence Road.

New Food Lion?

While some of you like to relax at the pool with a good book while others sit back with a couple drinks (of moonshine?), I like to kick my legs back and peruse town commissioner agenda packets. And it looks like it's paid off for once because it appears there may be a new Food Lion on the horizon.

As I was looking through the latest (PDF), I see that Food Lion Inc. owns a parcel of land at the Waxhaw-Marvin Road/Kensington Road intersection and they are asking for a voluntary annexation by the town of Waxhaw.

Here's the parcel of land in question, which is located between the Harris Teeter plaza and Kensington Elementary:

I'm not sure what benefits are gained by being annexed into Waxhaw. Anyone know?

OIS moratorium doesn't pass

Per Lori of Waxhaw realty & blogging fame, the moratorium proposed by the mayor (briefly touched upon here) did not pass, compliments of town commissioners Blythe, Lane, and Gregory.

It was somewhat strange that the special meeting was announced and scheduled so quickly (two days notice if I'm not mistaken). It almost begs the question as to why a vote on a potential moratorium in the OIS zoning district was desired so quickly.

By the way, anyone have a map of the OIS zoning district?

UPDATE 5/14: Here's Lacey Hampton's article on the meeting in the Enquirer-Journal.

Blog in the dark

Google's Blogger was down last night up through lunchtime today.

I planned to have something about the pressing meeting proposed by the mayor to impose a moratorium in the OIS zoning (PDF here), but Blogger put a stop to that.

Maybe later today.

UPDATE 11pm: Haven't got around to posting on the proposed moratorium, but I just realized that I've lost at least one post on the Main Street Grill due to the Blogger problems. Hopefully it gets restored eventually.

The Incredible Shrinking Historic District

Brian Carlton and the Union County Weekly has the story of the latest regarding the proposed historic district in Waxhaw.

Waxhaw residents and commissioners will be talking about a greatly reduced Historic District during the March 19 public hearing.

During their Monday, Feb. 21, meeting, the Waxhaw Planning Board approved by a 4-2 vote plans for a historic district in the town. They cut the size of the proposed district however, narrowing it to just Main Street and the area immediately surrounding it.

The proposed district would now have borders starting at the intersection of Broad and Main streets on the left and ending just before the intersection of Main and McKibben streets. On the north side, it would begin at the intersection of Providence and Howie Mine streets, while on the south, it would end at the intersection of Broome and Caldwell streets.

The move, which would eliminate over two-thirds of the original proposed district, isn’t enough for opponents, who say it misses the point.

Read the whole thing.

The illustration below shows the extent to which the proposed historic district has shrunk.

While that would seem like a good development since less people would be affected by the strict guidelines instituted by the proposed plan, the fact that the plan is still in play is still unfortunate. My post last July details some of the effects the new plan would have on the affected owners and whether it affects 100 or 20 property owners, it's still too many.

If you'd like to voice an opinion on the historic district proposal, a public hearing is planned for March 19th at the Waxhaw Elementary gymnasium. Afterwards, it will then be brought before the town commissioners, so now would be the time to say your piece.

Anyone know what's going in by McDonalds?

I heard a gas station. Can anyone verify?

Carolina Thread Trail open house tonight

An open house will be held tonight in Waxhaw from 6-8 PM at the Waxhaw Woman’s Club (200 E. South Main Street) to review the proposed routes and provide feedback on the Carolina Thread Trail.

If you're not already scheduled to enjoy a romantic dinner at First Friday during these prime dinner hours, you can choose to provide some feedback.

If you can't make it, here's a online survey you can take to give them your opinion.

Millbridge & Cureton sold

I'm a little late on this, but Millbridge and Cureton were sold by BB&T to a joint venture of developers, says the Charlotte Business Journal.

A snippet:

Millbridge and Cureton, which comprise 1,276 acres of southwestern Union County, have been bought from BB&T Corp. The two communities had been taken back by the bank through foreclosure proceedings.

Atlanta developer Landeavor and Chicago-based private-equity firm Walton Street Capital formed a joint venture to buy the communities.

“We believe it’s a good time to invest in high-quality residential assets that are well positioned for the recovery,” says Adam Lorry, Landeavor co-founder.

Given the state of the economy and the glut of houses on the market, this seems like a strange time to make such an investment, but there's not enough details in the article to cast judgment nor do I consider myself qualified enough to make such a judgment on the viability of this investment for that matter.

Given how long neighbors have had houses on the market, I'm not sure I'd be investing in real estate at this time.

The article does have an somewhat interesting quote from the Mayor though. It is:

Daune Gardner, mayor of Waxhaw, says building activity in the subdivisions is “yet to be seen.” Landeavor officials have been talking to Waxhaw administrators about renewing a conditional-use permit at Millbridge.

This is probably due to the editorial discretion of the author/editor of the piece, but the mayor comes off as rather curt. Mainly due to the fact that if the purchase has just occurred, it seems far too early to expect to see any significant building activity occur.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but the fact that the mayor and others pushing for the Waxhaw Research Park had been eying up Millbridge as a possible location for said park comes to mind. At first glance, it would seem like this investment preliminarily suggests that Millbridge may not a potential location for the research park.

By the way, has anyone finished reading the poorly written (if the early pages are any indication) 200-page report on the research park yet? If so, let me know because if you make it through the whole thing, you deserve to be recognized.

Part two on Research Park

Part II of the Union County Weekly look into the feasibility of the Waxhaw Research Park is available now.

As promised after the first part, a link to the full 200-page report is at the end of the article. My question: has anyone even read the full report yet? Follow the link and maybe you can be the first.

If I ever have the chance to skim through the report, maybe I'll have some more to add.

One question I have: what level of "local support" is required to make this research park work? Both articles mention that it will be needed, but don't really go on to explain exactly what this means. I wonder if that's buried in the report somewhere.

UNCC Students: Waxhaw Research Park A-OK!

The Union County Weekly has the first part of a two-part series regarding the final report produced by the UNCC student regarding the Waxhaw Area Research Park.

The mayor, who seems to be leading the crusade for the new science park (such that it inspired one of my earlier posts), will be happy to know that the class has ultimately decided that the park could thrive if the conditions are right.

I'm not sure I agree with all their conclusions, but I'd like to wait for the second article and the full report (assuming it provides some sort of basis for the conclusions detailed in the article) before adding my two cents. With any luck, I'll be too busy or uninterested in commenting at that point.

Read the whole article to get the lowdown.

The Union County Weekly claims to link to the full report produced by said UNCC students, but this appears to not be the case. I have emailed the author, Brian Carlton, asking for the link and once I receive it, I will graciously share it with you. Because that's the kind of guy I am, one interested in Waxhaw minutia and willing to post it on this site.

Working through the backlog

I'm trying to work through the backlog of articles I hoped to comment upon. Today I reached into the grab bag and pulled out an article on...

...a potential new Waxhaw library!

Jason DeBruyn of The Enquirer-Journal had an article (far more timely back when it was originally published on May 25th) on the potential new library for Waxhaw.

MONROE -- If Waxhaw puts up some cash, it might get a new, much larger, library.

County commissioners discussed the possibility of replacing the existing Waxhaw branch with one about seven times larger, but challenged the Waxhaw commissioners to front some town money to help pay for it.

“The communities that are benefitting, should pay a little more,” Commissioner Lanny Openshaw said. “We want to help them with a library if they are willing to help themselves.”

And Mayor Gardner & town commissioner Erin Kirkpatrick picked up the baton and ran with it.

Two Waxhaw board members, Erin Kirkpatrick and Mayor Daune Gardner, attended the commissioner meeting; they agreed to supplementing a new library with town funds.

“Waxhaw absolutely recognizes the value of a library,” Kirkpatrick said. “It can be an extremely valuable asset to our community.”

I'm not sure if this was an official pledge of town monies or not; I suspect the latter as the article later specifies the town board will get an offer to the county board within 60 days. I've got an email out to both Mayor Gardner and Commissioner Kirkpatrick to see if they can clarify and answer some other questions.

As for the library, Waxhaw's library is very small and could use an upgrade to accommodate our growing town. However, given the financial times, I would like to learn a little more about the costs to Waxhaw (and the county for that matter) for this project beforehand. Especially considering other counties are struggling to keep their libraries alive.

With both state and federal taxes destined to rise given the out-of-control spending at those levels of government, it would be nice if local spending remains in check so as not to add additional tax burdens down the road.

In other library news, the Library Association of Waxhaw recently picked the winners of their art and poetry contests, in which the winners will be featured in a 2011 calendar to raise money for the new library. Congratulations to the winners! If you in any way want to support a new library, please support their bookstore downtown or buy a 2011 calendar. The more private support the library gets, the better.

I looked into entering one of my son's paintings into the running, but conflicting answers as to whether scanned art was allowed (I wasn't going to part with the original) and my wondering whether the masterpiece in question truly jived with the theme of "Passport to Adventure" was enough to subsequently push it onto the back burner and ultimately forgotten. You be the judge -- adventurous enough?


As of yet, it's still untitled.

UPDATE 7/17: I stumbled across this page today & it appeared to be all screwed up in Firefox; more than half the text was missing. I've had these strange problems with Blogspot from time to time. I think it's fixed now, but it's a testament to the number of visitors that this went a month without anyone letting me know.

Beyond Waxhaw: Nearby development

A couple development-related items of note on the way to Waxhaw. Many commuters surely have noticed them already but for those who haven't:

* An new Aldi is going up near Young's Garden Center in Lancaster County. I don't think I've ever been to one, mainly because I always figured driving to the Monroe Aldi would essentially negate any savings gained. Not that it's closer (and on the route home for many), it seems like a good place to stretch your dollar.

When the building first started going up, I just assumed it was going to be a CVS or Walgreens because local development seems to suggest you can never have enough drug stores. Needless to say, I was happy to be wrong.

* Heading west out of Waxhaw on Highway 75, there's been some land tucked between Highway 75 and the railroad tracks that's been getting graded for quite some time. And according to the sign that showed up recently, it will eventually become Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church. The church appears to still be a long way off though, but when completed, it will surely become the closest Catholic church to Waxhaw.

Before the alcohol referendum passed, I though this would've been an ideal location to open a pub. Right next to the tracks with a van to safely transport Waxhaw denizens back and forth. Good thing for Our Lady of Grace that I had neither a more fully thought-out plan involving little more than a bar, railroad tracks, and a van service nor the seed money to get it off the ground. What can I say? I'm a dreamer.

Erin Kirkpatrick explains Historic Ventures vote

Town commissioner Erin Kirkpatrick was the only dissenting vote for the revised Historic Ventures project that passed in late March, previously mentioned here.

She wrote a letter to the editor of the Union County Weekly in the Apr 9th-15th issue. I was unable to find the text of the letter on the Union County Weekly website.

So in some rare downtime, I scanned the article from the paper & ran it through some OCR software to see what it could do.

The result was pretty good, although I had to go through the whole thing to check for words that inexplicably couldn't be converted to text. Since I went to all this trouble, I figured I might as well share it here for posterity's sake.

Without further ado, here's town commissioner Erin Kirkpatrick's letter to the editor explaining her dissenting vote, preserved here for posterity's sake.

Historic Ventures project wrong for downtown Waxhaw

The availability of county water and sewer couldn't and shouldn't be sagely dismissed. The Historic Ventures project application with the submitted density and layout lacks harmony due to its scale, density and misinterpretation of the intent of Waxhaw's Comprehensive Plan. This parcel is located immediately adjacent to historic single-family homes. The applicant was unwilling to increase the vegetation buffer to 50 feet to help minimize sound, light and visual disruptions.

The project was resubmitted with virtually minimal change from the initial conditional-use permit zoning application. The multifamily and day care uses were removed, but proposed uses didn't replace them. A rezoning applicant should perform due diligence by submitting all uses. Fortunately, a condition was placed for the undesignated portion that prevents the applicant from submitting (another) plan for those areas for a minimum of two years.

My third rationale for voting against the rezoning at this time was due to the foreseeable traffic congestion I believe will severely impede motorists accessing our historic Main Street corridor, To that extent, the project as proposed has taken on the role of a foreground versus a background to our historic Main Street and actually shifts focus onto the
applicant's project versus our downtown core. Our town has been focusing on reviving this district.

Last, the intent behind smart, sustainable growth is to minimize impact on natural areas and not necessarily to create urban settings. This doesn't mean density should be the same as a large city but rather a potentially higher density compared to Waxhaw's existing density. The Historic Ventures project proposed roughly 18,000 square feet per acre of structure, equating to 200,000 square feet total with more to come. This figure is comparable to big-box development. Traffic for this size development has been determined in the past to be more than our main artery can accommodate with current infrastructure, especially given our railroad challenge. This was a pivotal time for Waxhaw to determine what the increased density for Waxhaw should be.

Finally, the Historic Ventures project doesn't offer much by way of green design, which is clearly the intent of the Waxhaw Comprehensive Plan in exchange for density increase. This project doesn't tread lightly on Waxhaw's culture, history or natural environs.

Councilwoman Erin Kirkpatrick
Waxhaw

CMC-Union sale coming to a boil

The Enquirer-Journal has an article on a recent county commissioners meeting & the hubbub surrounding the sale of CMC-Union continues unabated.

MONROE-- Emotions spilled over as people hurled accusations at one another over a proposed hospital sale or lease extension.

Commissioners expressed frustration over half-truths and outright lies; area residents demanded that commissioners not sell the hospital and candidates energized a crowd of about two dozen who filled a county board of commissioners meeting, angry at a potential sale of Carolinas Medical Center - Union.

Since the sale of CMC-Union is playing such an important role in delaying CMC-Waxhaw, I figured it'd be worth mentioning. I'm not particularly impressed with the article as it makes no attempt to detail the "half-truths and outright lies" to which it refers so take it for what it's worth.

On a side note, Mark DiBiasio (I link to his Village Scribe site in my sidebar) is taking quite the active role in pushing his point of view, but it was clear he's injected himself into this story long ago even if you skim his blog or the Union County Health Care Watch site he set up. He was apparently the only speaker arguing for the sale, so is quoted extensively in the article.

I'm still looking for a reasonable explanation of this whole mess. Something akin to an Idiot's Guide, but from a relaiable narrator of course.

Truce in hospital war?

If they say so, since I am not ashamed to admit I have no clue what this whole hubbub is about.

And if you've found someone who can describe the issue to those of us laymen unable to wrap their heads around this pickle of a problem, please let me know.

Historic Ventures project has passed

The town commissioners approved the Historic Ventures project this time around. Per The Enquirer-Journal:

This time around, Historic Ventures got the “yes” it needed to move forward with their multiuse development.

Commissioners approved the project 3-1, with Commissioner Erin Kirkpatrick as the dissenting vote.

Eight pages of conditions were attached to the approval. For instance, there can only be construction during certain hours Monday through Saturday and never on Sundays. Also, the developer can’t submit plans for the undeveloped part of the land for two years.

The development will include a hotel, civic center, fitness center and other buildings.

I'll admit to not following this very closely since the first attempt fizzled, so it appears Historic Ventures made enough changes to their plans to pacify a significant portion of the initial opposition. But the article suggests this was significant:

But between that public hearing and this one, the town switched over from conditional use zoning to conditional zoning, opening up the lines of communication between all parties involved.

The developers also removed the proposed apartments and day care center from their plans.

I won't pretend to know the significance of switching from conditional use zoning to conditional zoning, so I'm just going to assume that removing the apartments was a more significant catalyst towards the recent vote in favor of Historic Ventures project. NOTE: I can't imagine the proposed day care center causing much consternation. Since Chesterbrook Academy is coming into town, a day care seems very financially viable in Waxhaw. And considering how much daycare extracts from from my family's finances, I imagine you'd feel the same if you aren't already feeling the same pinch.

But the one-time proposed apartments were always less bothersome to me than the still proposed hotel. I just have a hard time believing a hotel can keep its occupancy full enough during the week, if not during the weekends, to remain financially viable. If they build it, will they come?

The CMC-Waxhaw Mess

Can anyone make anything out of the CMC-Waxhaw mess, where Carolinas Healthcare System is apparently battling county politicians, over leasing issues? I tried to read what I can on it, but neither side seems capable of clearly explaining what's happening.

I read a editorial/letter to the editor some time ago from one of the politicos involved explaining their stance (sorry but I cannot seem to find a link or paper copy top quote it). The only thing that struck me was the sheer number of words they used to offer no additional insight into the manner, the way politicians often do.

Over at the Village Scribe, we've got a open letter from Kim Rogers, chairwoman of the Union County Board of Commissioners here for those interested. (Can you spot where she summons her inner Barack Obama?) Comments were locked so I don't know what to make of that, especially because I can't imagine any post on the Village Scribe becoming bogged down with too many comments. Just seems like a crude way of blocking dissenting opinions.

Another post there by the proprietor Mark attempts to debunk the full page add that ran in the Neighbors section of the Charlotte Observer & in The Enquirer-Journal on March 7th. After reading this, the only thing I can be certain of is Mark D the Scribe has strong anti-CHS opinions, but those tidbits could be garnered by the fact that he locked comments on Ms. Rogers' open letter.

And for those interested in a separate website Mark set-up to promote his opinion on the matter, go here.

After all of this, I'm personally no closer to understanding what the problem is. But honestly I'm having a hard time understanding why the county is even involved in this. In my Xanadu, CHS would decide to build an emergency department in Waxhaw, figuring the growing population could support the enterprise. They would purchase the land, build the building, get the approvals, staff the department, and serve the citizens of the Waxhaw area, ideally making a profit through the course of their business. Somehow the county has become involved for reasons not understood by me & now government bureaucracy has gotten involved.

Is there a CMC-Waxhaw for Dummies? Maybe the Library Association of Waxhaw (here or here) has something available for purchase in their new downtown store (the old Waxhaw Fresh Market).

New Waxhaw Gazette

One more post before I join the rest of the family & hit the hay...

A new Waxhaw Gazette has been published by John Tiley. I hadn't followed the Historic Ventures development particularly closely, but I had thought it was a somewhat reasonable plan. However, John wrote the following:

And what is this about a 60 room hotel? I find that idea so implausible that I can’t really believe there is a hotelier behind it, after all any hotel that we would actually want here in Waxhaw has to be able to maintain a 60% occupancy to remain in business. That means 36 rooms have to be occupied, every night, seven days a week, all year long… here in Waxhaw? I am sorry, but, even in our wildest dreams; there isn’t a hope of generating that many “room nights” in our little town.

While I wasn't all that upset about the apartment complex (although I thought it'd be difficult to fill a 94-unit "sczillion"-unit apartment complex so far from Charlotte), I had somehow missed that they planned to include a hotel.

As John plainly writes, there is no way a hotel of that size could survive in Waxhaw, so it's inclusion in any redevelopment plan should essentially make that plan DOA as it'd be doomed for failure. It's mere inclusion in a plan should make residents wonder how well thought out the rest of the plan is, unless of course there's some ulterior motive that explains inclusion. Of course, there's this: one should never never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.