Rea Road Gillespie Property Rezoning Update No. 9

It has been a month since we last updated our Rea Road page and thought we'd take a moment to tell you what we know.

First our Eagles "Piper" and "Glen" seem to be enjoying the summer weather and being free of 24/7 eaglet raising. 

Speaking of eaglets both juveniles are very active and can be seen frequently soaring over the TPC Clubhouse and 18th Green then winging their way across Rea Road to the Gillespie Pond. They can easily be mistaken for large crows or even Black Vultures, but a close look you will notice the distinct features of an American Bald Eagle in the making most notably their profile. 

We expect that the children will continue to remain in the area until late fall.

Sadly that's where the good news stops.

As we pointed out on May 5th, Charlotte City Council Member Ed Driggs' optimistic email claiming to have advance knowledge that the Gillespie ReZoning petition was dead in the water was nothing more than hubris speculation. 

As we now know the developer has openly stated his plans to continue to build a 1,100 unit complex and may consider to limit the rezoning to allow a lesser 980 unit apartment complex on the property.

Below is an email regarding a meeting that was held on June 26th, with the six Old Course Homeowners who have property that backs up to the Gillespie property.

I attended the petitioner sponsored meeting tonight. Basically it was an update to the six (6) or so homeowners that live in Piper Glenn backing up to where the apartment complex would be built. 

At the meeting representing the petitioner were Russell Ranson with RK Investments, Matt Langston with Landworks Design Group (the developer) and Mac McKellen a retired attorney from the Parker Poe group here in Charlotte. 

The petitioner said they were getting a lot of resistance from the city on the density of the project. 

The city wants the developer to scale down the project to 650 units max. 

The petitioner plans to go back to the city with a 980 unit proposal. The petitioner group showed the attendees details of the 980 unit proposal that included some road improvements paid for by them – stop light at entrance off Rea Road, left turn lane into complex off Elm Lane and a crosswalk stop light on Bevington between the green way & the Trader Joes strip plaza. 

The petitioner said if the city stands their ground on 650 units many planned complex amenities would be omitted and there would be issues of getting bank financing for the project. 

The petitioner told the Piper Glen homeowners in attendance that they would do anything they wanted to assure their happiness with the project if only they would support the 980 unit petitioner proposal.

I spoke up to the point we have only six impacted homeowners at the meeting and the real point is over 10,000 of their neighbors had signed a petition against the project and re-zoning. 

Furthermore I said these 10,000 folks do not want 2,000+ more cars on Rea Road & Elm Lane every day.  

Additionally, I mentioned our nearby shopping stores are already overcrowded (Trader Joes complex as an example) and its unthinkable that an additional 2,000 people could shop these. 

Last, I mentioned that our schools are already maxed out with students in trailers and adding 350 to 450 more kids just does not make sense.

After the meeting the six Piper Glen homeowners in attendance had a mini meeting outside the library. I did not attend but felt they were talking about how to get their best deal from the petitioner for none of them spoke up loudly against the rezoning at the meeting.

The petitioner stated next steps were a community meeting, a revised proposal to the city and public hearing in September.

Obviously given the false information from Ed Driggs, and Charlotte City Council's intent to approve the Pineville Matthews Road Legacy Arboretum Apartments expansion as well as other projects we can expect more grid-lock and massive traffic jams will absolutely zero consideration given to citizens concerns regarding even infrastructure or public safety. 

Proposed Legacy Arboretum Apartments 

Finally if you're buying into the developer's "we will protect the tree canopy and do whatever homeowner associations want us to do", just take a look at the Elm Lane and 485 job site.

Every tree on the property has been removed. This is what the Gillespie Property will look like.

And if you think this is bad you should have a look at the new high school property not a single tree was spared.

Our Petition is active and needs your signature here.