We Need Your "In Person" Support

As you may know Charlotte City Councilman Ed Driggs has been meeting in private with a small select group of area HOA Board Members regarding a compromise that would allow the Rea Road Gillespie Property Rezoning Request (RZP -2022-121) to proceed with the blessing of area Homeowners Associations.

Having held at least one meeting in December, members of the “Secret Squirrel Society” came up with a five – page list of concerns and requests for RK Investments Charlotte LLC.

 

The five page "ask" apparently included many requests including financial support regarding the landscape maintenance of Rea Road between Pineville-Matthews and 485 was forwarded to RK Investments at some point.

While this noble effort on the surface seems genuine, the underlying premise offered by Ed Driggs is that the homeowners better accept something or risk getting nothing at all, because the developer can proceed with the project "by right", that is as currently zoned.

On February 2^nd RK Investments Charlotte LLC responded to the "ask" by sending a letter to the leader of the group Tom Coyne. Unfortunately, Tom was out of town visiting family and didn’t forward the letter to members until the following Monday.

During a quick review of the RK letter, which promoted the RK proposal as being considerably better than “by-right” and of great advantage to the community, it was determined that many of the request items were responded to with meaningless or non-comital “maybe we can talk about this later” answers.

In other words, the letter it seems was a complete air-ball.

At this point some members of the “Secret Squirrels” started asking if perhaps “by-right” was the better option.

Yet Ed Driggs was quick to respond and continued his you better accept a compromise approach.

"My personal view is that denial of this petition could lead to by-right development of the property that residents like even less, with half as many trees and minimal traffic improvements.  If, however, the HOA leadership group that met in December considers whatever RK's final offer is and still wants to take a chance on what might come next instead, I will oppose the petition and encourage my colleagues to do likewise.  I just hope that residents, and you in particular, will carefully study what the real options are and choose thoughtfully.  If we kick it to by-right, there will be no opportunity for me or residents to weigh in, and I cannot be responsible for the outcome."

Not only were many of the items outlined in the February 2^nd letter meaningless or poorly conceived, some it turns out are also required under a “by-right” development.

Members of the "Secret Squirrel Society" then met at an undisclosed secure location on Tuesday February 27 to discuss RK Investments’ February 2nd letter.

Even with the delay of several weeks Ed Driggs and some leaders of the Squirrels continued to take issue with the idea that a "by-right" development was better than the RK proposal.

During this meeting Charlotte planning staff confirmed that much of what RK had offered would also be required under “by-right” as well. 

The only major concern brought up during the meeting by Tom Coyne was that RK could possibly remove all the “Willow Oaks” along Rea Road.

This rumor took another week to dispel and convince members of the “Secret Squirrel Society” that the developer could not just remove forty plus city owned trees.

At this point the Squirrels, some begrudgingly, agreed that “by-right” was indeed the better option.

Unfortunately, Ed Driggs then emailed the Squirrels that a "revised" and "more attractive" offer was in the works.

But as the week wore on it was clear this was just more gamesmanship from RK Investments and their attorneys. 

As of Friday, there was no revised much less enhanced offer.

Finally Ed Driggs emailed those on his email blast Sunday afternoon:

Gillespie rezoning Pubic Hearing on track for March 18; petitioner offers significant concessions

"What you should also know is that, earlier this week, the petitioner communicated to me and a working group of 15 HOA representatives led by Tom Coyne a willingness to reduce the number of units in the proposal by up to 100 from the current 636.  This is a significant development in the long history of this engagement and reduces the plan density to half of that in the initial proposal."

Mr. Driggs wants you to believe that the original proposal for 1,100 units was legit and that the developer has reduced the project size by half. The rest of Mr. Driggs' email is a phalanx of gibberish. It has been posted it in its entirety elsewhere on the blog. 

Basically he's still trying to work out a compromise with the developer who has been entirely dishonest. He is also still pushing the "by-right" would be bad for the area concept, even though he was told last week the Squirrels agreed by-right was preferable. 

Mr. Driggs has attended 3 community meetings over the last year, each with more than 150 attendees who unanimously opposed this project, he has relentlessly promoted a meaningless compromise that neither benefited the neighboring taxpayers or citizens, nor the city as a whole. 

It is unfortunate that Ed Driggs has not used the last 12 months to lobby his fellow council members regarding this poorly conceived project but rather to push his personal agenda on being the deal maker and hero.

The fact that Ed Driggs has received campaign donations from not only the developers, the architect and designers of the property but also the attorney is suspect regardless of the amount. 

Ed Driggs threat of a "by-right" development has been nothing more than a bluff even repeated by the developer. A bluff that needs to be called, because RK doesn't have the skill set to develop the project by right. RK is a big box apartment builder not a custom home or townhouse operation. They just can't do it.

As it turns out the by-right option is more favorable. Lower density, 400 homes instead of a sprawling big box apartment complex with 640 units. Height of only 48 feet rather than 65. A tree save nearly the same as under the rezoning request at the cost of a few traffic "enhancements" that are minimal at best. 

Homes even duplexes are preferable to apartments. N1-A doesn't allow apartment complexes. Period!

In fact, the biggest traffic enhancement is reducing the number of garaged vehicles by 240 homes. If you could take 480 cars off Rea Road a day, wouldn't you do that?

If you ask many that's eliminating at least 2,400 VTD 365 days a year, a far better traffic improvement than anything offered in the rezoning proposal.

Given that there are less than 8 days until the March 18th Charlotte City Council hearing, it is unlikely that any compromise will be reached.

We have been put at a pretty difficult disadvantage by Mr. Driggs. We have postponed 3 prior meetings and our neighbors are understandably tired of the idea of taking time out to go uptown and fight this rezoning petition which is exactly what Ed Driggs and the developers want.

Therefore, it is imperative that we commit to showing up in person on March 18^th at Charlotte City Council chambers to let our elected officials know this is a terrible idea and that the current zoning should not change.

Frankly neighbors we have been sold as my grandfather used to say a "pig in a poke' by Ed Driggs, David Gillespie and RK Investments LLC. 

Now we are looking at an empty poke.