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Pinnacle Properties Newsroom
DELAYED TWICE: Food Lion approved at Shearers, Rocky River
Mooresville Tribune - Mooresville, NC - 2007-07-04
By: Megan Pillow
After several delays, a proposed Food Lion shopping center at Rocky River and Shearers roads has been approved by Mooresville town officials.
Commissioners on Monday voted 6-0 to approve a conditional use zoning of approximately 20 acres owned by Rocky River Promenade (RRP), LLC at the intersection of the two highways.
A public hearing for the request had been continued once at the May town board meeting at the developer’s request, for consideration of road improvements recommended by town engineers, and again in June to allow time to examine the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) submitted by the developer.
The 20 acres will be rezoned from R20 (Suburban Residential) to CU-GB (Conditional Use-General Business), which will allow the two-phase, 71,000-square-foot shopping center with Food Lion as the anchor tenant.
The project will include four other buildings which could accommodate other retailers or restaurants and two out parcels which could be used to house two additional buildings, the developer said. It will achieve full buildout by 2009.
Engineering Director Tonia Wimberly presented the board Monday with the revised TIA for the development and staff recommendations. The new TIA, she said, showed that the development would require fewer road improvements than initially thought because the developer was no longer considering allowing fast food restaurants to build on the development’s outparcels which would mean less peak hour traffic.
Wimberly said RRP will be required to put in turn lanes at Shearers Road and Faith Road, Rocky River Road and Shearers Road, Rocky River Road and Kistler Farm Road, Rocky River Road and N.C. 3, and driveways into the development from Shearers and Rocky River.
The turn lanes required, however, she said, will be shorter than initially thought, and at the intersection of Rocky River and Kistler Farm, on improvement needed for the intersection is already being completed by another developer.
The new TIA, she said, “did make a difference.”
The site, she said, also did not meet the requirements for a traffic signal.
Commissioner Chris Carney, however, said he didn’t understand the rationale behind the amended TIA, which required fewer road improvements for the same number of trips the site was initially projected to generate per day, around 11,000.
“The trips are actually the same,” he said.
“Yes,” said Wimberly.
Stephen Stansbery, a consultant with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. who is also currently under contract with the town of Mooresville to develop the town’s transportation plan, spoke on behalf of RRP and said the 11,000 total is incorrect.
DISPUTED NUMBER
“This site no longer generates 11,000 trips per day,” he said, claiming that the new number is closer to 7,000. “That’s a significant reduction,” he said.
Wimberly said her copy of the revised TIA, submitted by RRP on June 19, still showed the shopping center generating close to 11,000 trips per day.
“We can only react to what is submitted,” she said.
Stansbery said that the revised TIA showed road improvement that were more in line with what seemed acceptable to the developer.
Part of the delay, he said, was because initially “what was perceived as a small project had a lot of improvements associated with it.”
Carner said, however, that additional improvements would likely be in the town’s best interests.
“Unfortunately, I don’t want a trigger (for a signal) to be an accident, where someone is harmed, like it has been in the past,” he said. “I want to be proactive.”
Stansbery said that sometimes putting in a signal too soon can cause other problems, and that as it is planned, the development is doing plenty to alleviate its impact on the surrounding area.
“This development is putting into place a lot of improvements that are needed today,” he said.
“Everyone pays their fair share as they go.”
Commissioner Frank Rander asked if the developer would be willing to do one additional improvement to show good faith – add an additional turn late at Rocky River Road and N.C. 3 recommended by the first TIA.
Ken Walsh, RRP’s director of development, said the company would be receptive to that request, although the revised TIA is requiring them to do improvements that are in some cases, three to eight times their actual impact to an intersection.
“I think we would be agreeable to doing that,” he said.
PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY
Commissioner Mac Herring asked that RRP also consider its impact on the bike and pedestrian traffic in the area. “I’d like to make sure that’s mitigated,” he said.
Herring motioned to approve the project, with the stipulation that town staff work with the developer to consider bike paths, more sidewalks, and a possible greenway on or near the development. “I think it’s a good plan,” he said, but with bike and pedestrian lanes, “we lay the infrastructure for the future.”
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