The Town Council on June 6 agreed to refer four rezoning requests for new subdivisions to the Land Use Review Board, despite neighbors’ concerns over one of the proposed developments.
The subdivisions proposed are Lawson Creek, a 149-acre project south of Buffaloe Road; Robertson Road, a planned residential development on 28 acres east of Keith Street and north of Robertson Street; Old Knight, a 24-acre project west of Old Knight Road and the Emerald Point subdivision; and Whitley Ridge, a 26-acre project north of Interstate 495 and east of Rider Drive, next to Carriage Manor subdivision.
The developers are seeking rezonings to include the Planned Residential Development, or PRD, overlay, which encourages creativity and innovation in the design of developments, according to the town’s Unified Development Ordinance.
Lawson Creek developers want the overlay applied to the following zoning designations: Neighborhood Mixed Use; Urban Residential 12, which accommodates neighborhoods close to commercial centers; and General Residential 8, which allows for suburban development.
Sue Puryear owns a working farm next to the Lawson Creek property. She said she feared the development would bring drainage woes and erosion to her property, which she said is downhill from the proposed development, and she worried that it would pollute a stream that runs through both properties.
Puryear also wanted to know why type of buffer the town would require between her land and the subdivision.
Chad Abbott is land-development manager for Summit Design, a Raleigh-based firm working with Texas-based developer LGI Homes on the project. He said the town would require a 50-foot buffer along the stream and a 25-foot buffer along the rest of the property.
Faye Phillips said she thinks she has relatives buried on the Lawson Creek property, and Puryear said she could recall headstones with a fence around them.
Knightdale’s development-services director, Chris Hills, said the town would require an environmental survey as the process moves further along. In prior cases where a developer discovered a family cemetery, that part of the property has been preserved, he said.
Lawson Creek would be a mix of town homes and single-family homes, limited to 650 to 700 units, according to town Senior Planner Jason Brown.
Brown said the plan makes good use of the UDO’s intent of transition from more urban uses to more rural one, with the mixed use in the front, the urban residential in the middle and the suburban-style houses at the back.
The other rezoning requests are from General Residential 3 to General Residential 3 PRD on the Old Knight property, from General Residential 8 Special Highway Overlay District to General Residential 8 PRD Special Highway Overlay on the Whitley Ridge property and from Residential Mixed Use to Residential Mixed Used PRD on the Robertson Road property.
Matt Goad: 919-829-4826
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