BY STACIE LETT CAIN

On a night when the Town Board approved hundreds of new single-family homes, Mooresville Mayor Chris Carney touted the board’s philosophy for managing growth.

“In 2023, 100 percent of Mooresville development was in apartments,” he explained. “In 2024 we saw a breakdown including single-family homes, townhomes, multi-purpose and apartments. The train made a different direction. It certainly slowed in the stand-alone apartments considerably.”

Citing the board’s commitment to slowing development amid residents’ concerns about traffic congestion, school over-crowding and the loss of the small-town feel, Carney said the current board is pushing things in the right direction.

The mayor compared Mooresville to Troutman and Statesville in terms of the number of units as a result of rezoning, the mayor said Mooresville’s 1,162 new units were in line with Troutman’s 742 units and considerably lower than Statesville’s 2,899 units.

“When compared to growth around us, we have been very successful in implementing the policies that have made these changes,” Carney said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but I think you can see all the hard work and where we are headed because the board is listening to what residents are saying.”

During Monday’s meeting, commissioners approved the second reading of a voluntary annexation as well as a first reading for a rezoning and annexation of a total of 110 acres and nearly 400 new residential units. It also voted to waive a waiting period for another development totaling 65 acres and 187 additional single-family homes.

That did not sit well with at least one resident.

“Not only would approval of this annexation request be, in my opinion, a direct slap in the face to the citizens of Mooresville,” resident Richard Beck states during a public hearing, “it is also a reflection of broken campaign promises. It is also a manifestation of this board’s functioning many times from an individualist isolationist silo with no regard for this community.”

Beck, a frequent critic of the board, was speaking in opposition to a proposed development on 43 acres at 1814 Mecklenburg Highway. The proposal was not approved at the December 16 meeting with fire protection being a primary concern by several board members. 

“The biggest complaint we hear is that the new developments just increase traffic congestion,” Carney explained. “But this development is proposing $40 million in new roads. This is infrastructure that we needed. This has become a job section in our town as well. I think that is a really important piece of this to keep in mind.”

But Board member Gary West was still concerned about the annexed land falling outside of the desired four-minute response time for the fire department.

“This is a very well laid-out plan,” West said. “We got the roads we need, we have police and utility services. But we also have the fie department saying they aren’t comfortable. It looks fantastic but we still don’t have the fire station we need for that area and that concerns me.”

In the end, the Board was evenly split on the annexation vote with Carney casting the deciding vote in favor of approval.

The board also approved the rezoning and annexation of 62.9 acres at Kistler Farm Road and Rocky River Road, known as Witherspoon Woods. Cambridge Properties, the developer, originally sought 182 townhomes, 117 single-family homes for a total of 299 units, at 4.69 units per acre. After residents push back, Cambridge brought a modified plan before the board, asking for 175 single-family homes only, 2.81 units per acre, while agreeing to 31 conditions, including landscape buffer, matching lot widths to neighboring developments and saving an adjacent home and trees.

“I was opposed to this project when it was first presented,” Amy Hegler said during public comment. “I still have concerns about traffic and education but those two issues are bigger than this board. Even with those concerns, my opinion has changed. Cambridge Properties has worked with us on all of our concerns, and I now feel that the compromised plan is in our favor.”

Carney said Cambridge’s willingness to work with residents and the town to get this development done was unprecedented.

“There has never been a developer come here and do so much to make a development happen,” he said. “I want to thank them for doing what they have done, and it gives me a lot of faith and I think makes this a better project.”

Both the rezoning to Conditional – General Residential and the annexation passed the board unanimously.