BY STACIE LETT CAIN

Mayor Chris Carney cast the deciding vote Monday, clearing the way for the development of Mooresville Village, a Birkdale-like community with a mix of commercial and residential properties.

Located at 1740/1814 Mecklenburg Highway, Mooresville Village will be a 98.17-acre development along the East/West Connector, now under construction in southern Mooresville. The development lies on two parcels, one of which is located inside the town limits of Mooresville, the other just outside. The Mooresville parcel is currently zoned Corridor Mixed Use (CM) while the other parcel is Iredell County Residential Low Intensity (RLI). By right, the developer could build 1,100 single-family homes on the property.

Instead the developer asked to develop he site as a Planned Development District, which allows for modifications to the Unified Development Ordinance in return for higher quality development design and/or significant benefit for the public.

“Our goal is simple,” Peter Pappas, CEO of Pappas Properties explained during the Mooresville Town Board of Commissioners’ meeting. “We want to create a wellness-focused master planned community with a mix of housing, a grocery store, restaurants and office space. Our mission is to focus on the details — things that will really make this feel like a community.”

Plans for Mooresville Village include 625 residential units divided among single-family homes, townhomes, cottages and multi-family units. The plan also includes 279,000 square feet of commercial space. 

The developer asked for approval to allow five-story structures instead of the restricted four stories. In return, the developer promised to fill a long-time need for the area.

“We came in here tonight with a signed contract for a grocery store in this development,” Pappas explained. “The grocery store will be opened before anything else is completed. We understand the need, and we will make sure we do that. We really wanted to build in Mooresville. Our goal is to make that a beneficial arrangement for both us and the city.”

For Commissioner Eddie Dingler, one aspect of the plan caused concern.

“In my world, the heartburn for me is the 17 multi-family buildings,” he said. “This board has tried to pull back on the multi-family buildings. Mooresville just doesn’t feel the multi-family buildings.”

According to Pappas, the developer had the right to build multi-family dwellings with or without the board’s blessing.

“That land is already zoned in a way that we could put multi-family buildings in here without your approval,” he explained. “We just are asking to take them and elevate them in a building with a nicer finish and details. To attract jobs you need to have young professionals, and they tend to want to live in nicer apartments like the ones we are proposing. As long as I am running this company, you have my word that we are going to do our best to fulfill every aspect of the development you see in our presentation. We have completed every project we have started and done it exactly the way we intended.”

Other developments in the family-owned developer’s portfolio include Birkdale Village in Huntersville, a detail not unnoticed by Mayor Carney.

“I did reach out to Huntersville and ask what we were getting in to here,” he advised the board. “The mayor said, if given the opportunity, she would do this project again ten times over. That was a pretty big endorsement to me.”

Citing traffic concerns and with a handful of neighbors weighing in both for and against the project, the board ended in a tie vote, which the mayor had anticipated before asking for a show of hands.

“For years we begged for someone to develop east of 77,” he explained. “I remember being begged for a grocery store and we were willing to do anything to get that done. You talk about why roads don’t work? They don’t work because people are having to drive miles across town to buy groceries. When we went to D.C. to beg for money for this East/West Connector, they were there with us. They were our partners, and we told them we would work with them on this development. Now they come in here, they gave us everything we asked of them, some that we didn’t even ask for and even though it was a previous board, they had a deal. They put in water and sewer before they needed to. They have worked for years, given up millions …  That means something to me. In the event of a tie, I need you to know I will vote to approve this development.”

And he did just that.

After the rezoning for the project passed, the board approved the annexation and public utility request on the 44 acres of land that are adjacent to the original 54 acres already in the town’s jurisdiction.

Commissioner Lisa Quals explained how her vote even surprised her in the end.

“I came in here very undecided,” she explained. “When we started the journey for the East/West Connector, it was at a time when we wanted development out there. We wanted to have something that we could have jobs down there and we cannot have jobs if we don’t have commercial. You have to have rooftops to have commercial. You have to have jobs if you have commercial. I hear the people who have a strong opinion about this and we appreciate those that came out to let us know those opinions tonight. But this area is going to develop, and it is our duty to make sure we take the best opportunity we possibly can for it. I think this is it.”

Construction of the grocery store will begin in 2025, with the hopes of completion in the third quarter of 2026. The development will contain four phases with completion anticipated in late 2028.