Two Council Members Voice Concerns With Manufactured Home Development

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS - Even with large lots and plans for sidewalks and street lights, a planned manufactured home subdivision off Moose Road still could not dodge barbs from a City Council leery of certain types of growth.

During a workshop Monday night, two council members voted against annexing a planned 52-lot, double-wide mobile home subdivision called Poplarglen in the city's extra-territorial jurisdiction in Rowan County. Phil Meacham and Robert Misenheimer disapproved of the development plans, but it passed 4-2.

Although Meacham acknowledged that using your property as you see fit ''seems like the American way,'' he also argued that an existing mobile home park in the area has been ''a source of aggravation'' to neighbors and parishioners at the nearby Central Baptist Church.

City planner Ron Smith, a Benchmark consultant, explained to Meacham that Poplarglen is not a mobile home park, a development category that allows small lot sizes and narrow, private roads.

The City Council passed a moratorium on mobile home parks that ends in about three months, and the Planning Board already has asked city planners to draft an ordinance that would rid the city of the zoning category that allows mobile home parks.

Many city officials have expressed a desire to limit the growth of manufactured housing since the city began a strategic planning process a few months ago. Studies indicate that Kannapolis has lower housing values than any other city of comparable size near Charlotte.

Various city officials also have indicated they would support tougher housing and development standards, some of which city consultants are now drafting.

Meacham revisited these concerns during the debate on Poplarglen, even though planners assured him the subdivision's plans exceed current standards.

In fact, city planner Michael Legg told the Planning Board last week that Poplarglen ''could turn out to be one of the nicer developments in the city,'' in terms of streets, sidewalks and other amenities.

Legg also predicted last week that annexation ''would be a given'' because about six of the planned lots already fall inside city limits and city water and sewer lines extend to the neighborhood. Council would not want a situation to continue where only a few of the residents of the same subdivision receive police and fire protection, Legg added.

Sylvia Coward of Concord, who owns the 18.6-acre Moose Road tract, plans to subdivide the property into lots with an average size of about 12,000 square feet. Under the city's zoning law, the minimum lot size on the property is 5,000 square feet.

The council will hold a public hearing on the rezoning at its Feb. 22 regular meeting.

In other business, council on Monday also heard a preliminary report from another planning consultant on mass transit.

Robert Pressley of Gannett Fleming, a consulting firm, told council they can expect a full report on the city's need for an internal transit system by May.

Pressley said his firm is not yet sure there is a need at all, or if the city should adopt a fixed-route bus system or a scaled-down dial-a-ride service.

Pressley's firm now is calculating survey results from hundreds of residents and city employees questioned about their driving habits and destinations.

Pressley did make a few predictions about possible study recommendations:

nAny system adopted by the city should connect with a new bus commuter service from Cloverleaf Plaza in Concord to downtown Charlotte.

Any system adopted by the city will not be able to pay for itself through fares. Every mass transit system in the country is subsidized, Pressley said, and even the most successful systems in North Carolina recover about 30 cents through fares to every dollar the government spends, he said.

- Council member Jennie Wyrick asked if a new system would help relieve road congestion, and Pressley bluntly answered, ''No.'' Even the most concentrated transit effort in Charlotte could only reduce congestion by 1 percent, he said.

Instead, the council must decide if enough city residents don't own a car and justify service from a transit system, Pressley said.