Hearing set on Charlotte developer’s planned 500-acre Lake Norman mega community
Lincoln County has scheduled an Aug. 3 public hearing on a Charlotte developer’s rezoning request for a planned 600-home mega-community on 500 rural acres roughly eight miles west of Lake Norman.
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Irongate by Provident Land Services Inc. would rise south of N.C. 73, on the east side of Old Plank Road and south of Brevard Place Road in unincorporated Iron Station, according to the developer’s application.
Tuckers Grove, a historically Black religious camp meeting site, is about 600 feet from the northern edge of Irongate, Joshua Grant, Lincoln County planning and inspections manager told The Charlotte Observer.
The hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the James W. Warren Citizen Center, 115 W. Main St., Lincolnton.
Nearly 300 people attended the developer’s community meeting in March, according to the list of signatures on file with the Lincoln County Planning & Inspections Department.
Most opposed the development, WBTV reported at the time.
“It’s going to be concrete,” Bobby Harkey, a former Iron Station High School principal and a lifelong Iron Station resident, told Charlotte Observer news partner WSOC. “It’s going to be people that we don’t know. We don’t want houses on top of houses so that they can make money.
“We want it to look like us,” Harkey said. “Don’t drop a pink elephant into a black Angus herd.”
The development team of Tom Waters and Kenneth Holbrooks seeks 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.
“Even though configured differently from residential subdivisions in conventional districts that require a minimum lot size of 0.75 acres, which is equivalent to a density of 1.33 units per acre, the proposed development has a density of 1.22 units per acre with smaller lot sizes in favor of conserved open spaces that preserve stream buffers, tree stands and flood zones,” Combs wrote.
The developers plan to add more vegetative buffer between Irongate and neighboring developments, Combs said. And the developers plan to improve two “dangerous” intersections, Combs said without naming the roads. That “will improve overall public safety,” he wrote.
The developers said their marketing studies show Irongate is the type of community potential buyers want.
“Future residents want to live in Iron Station because it provides a rural way of life while still being close to Charlotte,” they said in a written summary of their answers to residents’ questions at the meeting. The summary is on file with the county Planning & Inspections Department.
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Waters’ Provident Land Services has completed at least $100 million in real estate projects over 45 years, according to his LinkedIn bio.
At 50%, Irongate would have more open space than county zoning rules require, the developers said. Their plan also calls for a 50-foot vegetative buffer surrounding the property, they said.
And various road improvements would include a light and a roundabout at the intersection of Tuckers Grove Church Road, Old Plank Road and Brevard Place Road, and turn lanes into the development, they said.
Lincoln County planning staff recommends approval of the improvements in the developers’ traffic study.
Irongate also would have sidewalks where the site fronts state right-of-way, the developers said.
The development wouldn’t burden public schools, which are at only 70% capacity, they said.
Irongate would include 309 “traditional” single-family homes and up to 309 age-restricted homes, according to the developer’s rezoning application. No general contractor has been chosen, the developers said.
The community would have 0.15-acre lots for its age-restricted homes and 0.25-acre lots for the “traditional” homes.
“Our marketing studies show that a majority of residents want a smaller lot with more deed-restricted open space maintained by the HOA,” the developers wrote.
Irongate would have four phases:
• Phase I would have 79 traditional single-family homes and 156 age-restricted, completed in 2029.
• Phase II calls for 161 traditional single-family and 106 age-restricted, opening in 2031.
• Phase III would have 10 traditional homes and 147 age-restricted, finished in 2032.
• Phase IV, completed in 2033, would have 59 single-family homes.
“We believe that this project does fit in with the community, as we are preserving >50% open space and adhering to the (county zoning plan),” the developers wrote. “The lots may not be what everyone wants, but we believe there is a strong demand for a community like this in Iron Station.”
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