BY STACIE LETT CAIN

The Statesville City Council voted on Monday to deny a request to rezone 500 acres off Scotts Creek Road, blocking plans for the controversial 900-unit Holland Farms Planned Unit Development.

The development drew the opposition from nearby residents for a variety of reasons, including the size and density, the price range of the units, and traffic and public safety.

Council member Steve Johnson made the motion to reject the request to rezone site of the proposed development from Iredell County Rural Agricultural to City of Statesville Planned Unit Development.

“This is an urban development not a rural development,” he said. “Two thousand-square-foot lots is not rural. We are not maintaining the integrity of this area with all of this. I agree we need additional housing, but going out into the rural areas of the county with urban development isn’t going to solve that problem.”

Following a public hearing and lengthy discussion, council members voted 7 to 1 against the rezoning request with Doris Allison casting the lone dissenting vote.

“We were here tonight and we made the best decision we could make with the information that we had,” Allison said. “We dodged the bullet tonight but there might be a hurricane around the corner. Tonight you all came out and told us what was important to you and you had a choice. The reality is that this land is going to be developed and now we don’t know what that is going to mean to this area. But we did the best that we could.”

The need for affordable housing was raised during a discussion about whether this development was good for the City of Statesville.

Council member Kim Wasson agreed that Holland Farms development could help address that need.

“I understand that there are people who live in these areas that love their neighborhood just the way it is, and we try to respect that,” Wasson explained. “But there are also people who rent here or work here that want to live in this area and can’t. If we reject this development, it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to build here. It just means the city won’t have any control of what is built there. We want our teachers and police officers to be able to work here and live here. We don’t pay them enough to buy a $400,000 house to stay here. They live in Charlotte and Troutman and eventually will go work there because they can live and work in the same community. We don’t want that.”

Meanwhile, Allison said developers are drawn to where they can acquire large tracts of open space.

“The developers have talked to these farmers and they have told them they want to sell their land,” she said. “Their kids don’t want the land and don’t want to continue that way of life and what are they supposed to do? I wish things were the way they used to be, where this lifestyle continued to the next generation, but that’s not where we are. They need to sell this land and get the money they have put into it, and we are trying to tell them they can’t do that.”

Neighbors of the proposed development said there concerns should be considered by council.

“The sheer number of homes being proposed here is excessive,” Tina Rodriguez said during the public hearing. “I have worked with the small steering committee dealing with this project and our concerns haven’t changed. We didn’t buy our land next to a commercial property, and we don’t want to wake up every morning and look out and see one. We don’t want the traffic Mooresville has and we don’t want this development connecting to our neighborhood streets.”

Under the current Iredell County Rural Agricultural zoning, 595 homes can be built on the land. But that reduction in the number of units will come at a price, a representative of the developer said.

“We can certainly build the 595 homes, but that will be without curb and gutter, without stormwater and sidewalks. That will be without any of the amenities we have proposed in this development,” Matt Grant with Jordan Grant and Associates, the project’s civil engineer firm explained. “There are so many options through the county, but if we go that direction, we couldn’t afford what we are proposing and it would be a very different looking development.”