Panned by neighbors, proposed Lake Norman mega community will learn fate Monday
Lincoln County commissioners are scheduled to vote Monday on a Charlotte developer’s proposed 600-home mega community near Lake Norman that neighbors panned at a public hearing.
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Irongate by Provident Land Services Inc. would rise south of N.C. 73 on the west side of Old Plank Road and south of Brevard Place Road in unincorporated Iron Station, according to the developer’s application.
That’s about 8 miles west of the lake.
Tucker’s Grove, a historically Black religious camp meeting site, is about 600 feet from the northern edge of Irongate.
The commissioners’ vote on the developer’s rezoning request for the property is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday in the board meeting room at 353 N. Generals Blvd. in Lincolnton.
Cheryl Richardson was the first of 26 residents to speak against the plan at the Aug. 3 hearing held by the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and the Lincoln County Planning Board.
“Commissioners, these Iron Station neighbors and I are here tonight to make sure you understand one simple thing: Saying yes to Irongate would mean a forced cultural change to our rural, large-lot, multigenerational community,” Richardson said.
“Irongate and its developers do not fit in Iron Station,” Richardson said to applause from the crowd at the James W. Warren Citizen Center in downtown Lincolnton. “We say no, and we are counting on you to say no as well.”
Resident Cassidy Beam said county zoning rules require developments to be in “harmony with the surrounding area.”
Instead, Machpelah Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, “will have a giant roundabout in front of it,” Beam said. “It’s kind of appalling.”
And resident Merle Bird revealed data showing how out of proportion she said Irongate would be to the surrounding 18 neighborhoods. They have a combined 591 homes, the largest being 225 homes, she said.
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Neighbors said roads are too narrow to handle the added traffic, the sewer system inadequate and schools too crowded. The project would transform a quiet community into one more crowded and with safety problems, they said.
The development team of Tom Waters and Kenneth Holbrooks requested a rezoning of the property to planned development-residential, with lots smaller than called for in the county’s zoning plan.
“This property is located within an area that is designated by the Lincoln County Land Use Plan as Large Lot Residential, suitable for single-family homes at densities of 0.2 to 1.35 units per acre,” county planning staff member Jeremiah Combs wrote to the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners.
Still, county planners find Irongate “reasonable” and “consistent” with the county’s land use plan and recommend approval, Combs said.
Irongate would include “over 250 acres of non-disturbed open space,” Holbrooks told the boards Monday night.
The development would have walking trails and larger-than-required areas of trees and other vegetation between Irongate and neighbors, he said.
He cited numerous planned road and sewer improvements and how Irongate would not overburden schools, which are at only 70% capacity.
Irongate would have a mix of housing types, including traditional homes, ones for ages 55 and older and others higher priced on larger lots, he said.
The development would produce about $2.243 million in annual county revenues, combining property tax and utility revenues, Holbrooks said.
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