City approves request for larger pocket neighborhood

Published 12:10 am Thursday, May 1, 2025

KANNAPOLIS — The city council approved a Special Use Permit (SUP) at Monday night’s meeting that will allow a developer planning to construct a pocket development on Alpine Street to install more units than currently allowed under Kannapolis ordinances.

A pocket development or neighborhood is a small development that has a focus on community interaction including shared outdoor spaces, pedestrian-friendly streets and sidewalks, and includes smaller homes on smaller lots, but retains the privacy of individual structures. The Kannapolis Development Ordinance or KDO specifically describes a pocket community as “a clustered group of single-family dwellings oriented around a common open space.”

The applicant, Green Street Capital Partners LLC, asked the town to approve an SUP that will increase the number of units for this specific development from the standard maximum of 12 to as many as 30. Pocket communities under the KDO allow for a minimum of four units and a maximum of 12.

The site is currently zoned R8, which will allow pocket developments, but City Planner Richard Smith explained to members of the council that while 30 homes may seem like a large number, it is still less density than R8 actually allows. That designation will allow for up to 8 units per acre and includes townhomes, duplexes and triplexes as well as single family homes, and this proposal would include only six units per acre.

There are a total of 27 units, with at least four individual clusters, in the planned development and each would contain no more than 12 units, though the plans call for far fewer. The construction would place garages in the back of the house, where the streets run, and the fronts of houses would face each other with sidewalks between them, encouraging interaction between neighbors.

“How does this qualify as affordable housing?” asked Council Member Darrell Jackson. It was explained that the smaller size houses and smaller lots makes the houses more affordable.

Council members Jean Dixon and Dianne Berry were hoping to see either actual examples of pocket communities or actual renderings of such developments, more than just a map of the planned buildings, but there are none nearby and no drawings yet. Smith said those will come later in the process.

“You could get rid of the garages and the open spaces and compress these into town homes because a higher density is allowed here,” said City Manager Mike Legg. “But this kind of development will give people and opportunity for some small privacy and some open space.”

The houses would require the standard five-foot setback from the road for this size development but there will be a 10-foot requirement between houses per fire department regulations, so trucks could get between the buildings in case of a fire.

“Will every developer who wants to do something like this need to apply for a special use permit?” asked Councilor Doug Wilson. “We’re not voting to change the ordinances, right? We’re just voting for this particular instance.”

That was correct, said Legg.

Nicholas Parker, a representative of Green Street, said his company “is focused on attainable, sustainable workforce housing that will give people a chance to build equity in their homes.”

Asked about the anticipated sizes and price points, Parker said sizes would likely run between 1,100 and 1,350 square feet and price points will likely run from $250,000 to $350,000, but said price will also be dictated by the market to some extent.

Both Dixon and Berry voted against approving the SUP but the motion carried with five votes in favor. The same vote applied to the agreement that the proposal complies with the Move Kannapolis Forward 2030 Comprehensive Plan.