Save The Eagles Request Charlotte City Council VOTE NO on Rea Road Rezoning

 

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and Members of Charlotte City Council:

The Gillespie Property located in South Charlotte, between Rea Road and Elm Lane and bordered by the Four Mile Creek Greenway and Bevington Place to the north, is the final holdout from development in an area that was once nothing more than southern Mecklenburg County farmland. 

The nearly 53-acre site has remained basically unchanged for the last three decades as Charlotte has grown around it.

Now developer RK Investors Charlotte, LLC has requested to change the zoning from the current single family (R-3) with approximately 45 homes to multifamily allowing for the construction of more than 1,100 rental units and towering six story apartment buildings. (Rezoning Petition 2022-121) An increase in density of more than 2400%.

We the undersigned citizens ask our Mayor and Charlotte City Council to deny the request with a NO VOTE. 

The reasons the zoning change is unacceptable are as follows:

• Charlotte’s population and traffic has grown dramatically during the last decade as have the demands for City/County Services. Unfortunately, the ability to provide these services has not kept pace with the growth, in fact across the full spectrum of government services (Public Safety, Sanitation, Water, Schools, Utilities, U.S. Mail, Roads and Transportation) there has been a decline in staff and frequency, efficiency and quality. In short this area of Charlotte does not have the infrastructure to accommodate 1,100 additional homes and the resulting traffic.

• Charlotte property owners have the reasonable expectation that the character of their neighborhoods will remain unchanged, and that property zoned R-3 single family will remain zoned single family and not abruptly become a towering multifamily rental complex which is not in keeping with the character of the area.

• The wildlife in this area includes beavers, coyotes, an abundance of deer, racoons, opossums, hawks, and owls large and small, who have adapted to the incursion of suburbia admirably. The 18 acres of wetlands immediately adjacent to the property and serves as a rookery to both Snowy Egrets and Great Blue Herons, would be adversely impacted by the hardscape surface water runoff from the development. It is of utmost concern that a pair of American Bald Eagles who have called Piper Glen home for the last two decades are also in jeopardy, as the development will come within 900 feet of their nest, they have maintained for 16 years or more and will destroy a large portion of their natural habitat.

We hereby request that that the property remain zoned R-3 and be only developed as a complement to Piper Glen and the surrounding area and NOT dramatically alter the character of the neighborhood, overtax public resources, or threaten formerly endangered species, our Nation’s most recognizable symbol the American Bald Eagles that call this property home.

Signed,

Your Fellow Charlotte Citizens