Mint Hill commissioners have cleared the way for
major development in the town.
The board granted Crescent Resources a
conditional use permit that allows construction of a Lowe's Foods and
several smaller shops on 16 acres in the downtown area at 6411
Matthews-Mint Hill Road.
They also issued a permit to G.S. Carolina for
383 single-family and townhouse units to be built on the adjoining 71
acres.
The development will be the first built under
Mint Hill's new downtown code, which encourages a pedestrian-friendly
environment with parking along streets, taller buildings with smaller
setbacks, sidewalks, special lighting and lots of windows and doors to
encourage browsing.
Commissioners granted several exceptions to the
town's new downtown overlay code at the request of Crescent Resources.
Instead of all shops being accessible at ground level as encouraged by the
code, commissioners agreed to an 8-foot retaining wall behind some of the
stores where the grade requires.
Instead of locating a principle, functional door
on the street side of each building as required by code, commissioners
voted to allow each tenant to determine which door in their shop would be
used most often.
The developer will be allowed to orient the
grocery store toward the parking lot on the interior of the site instead
of fronting the street as recommended. The developer has promised to
modify architectural details and heavily landscape if needed to hide the
loading dock from the street.
Commissioners voted to allow Crescent to provide
sidewalks on only one side of a portion of the new street that will
connect the development to Lawyers Road near the existing Nelson Road.
G.S. Carolina also was given a break when
commissioners agreed to a 50 foot right of way on the planned Abbington
Lane, instead of the required 60 foot right of way. The board also allowed
the developer to provide parking on only one side of the street instead of
both sides as required in the code.
Brent Smith of Crescent Resources says the
initial commercial development should be completed in a year, with the
residential part of the project built completed in three to four years.
In other business, commissioners:
• Accepted almost one acre of land from
Crescent Resources to be added to the town's greenway system.
• Approved town-financed garbage and recycling
service for Mint Lake Village. The homeowners association previously paid
for garbage collection services.
