News

City OKs rezoning for 93 homes in Half Moon Heights

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 3, 2021

The Hendersonville City Council on Thursday night granted a rezoning to allow 93 homes on a ridge above the Wolfpen and Wolf Chase developments and the Ballantyne Commons apartments despite strong objections from homeowners based on traffic, density, stormwater runoff and quality of life.

Residents had turned out for four public meetings to oppose the 34-acre Half Moon Heights development, which was endorsed by the Planning Board but opposed by the Tree Board. The developer agreed to nine concessions based on suggestions of the Planning Board, neighboring homeowners and the City Council.

The council voted 4-1 in favor of the rezoning with Jerry Smith voting no.

"In the eight years I've been on the council, few (development requests) have had this overwhelming objection by residents," Smith said. "If council approves this, it is definitely approving it over an overwhelming number of objections from the residents of the city of Hendersonville."

Before voting yes, Mayor Barbara Volk and council member Jeff Miller cited the need for housing inventory, the right of the landowner to develop property and the many concessions the developer had made in response to objections.

“This developer,” Volk said, “has worked with staff to make modifications and housing is needed at all price points in the city. It is going to be a change for the neighbors and I am sorry about that.”

“Everybody has a right to develop their property,” Miller said. “They don’t have a right to overdevelop it. If this were simply R-15, the same amount of homes could be built here and there would not be the ability to put in conditions. These are the strongest conditions I’ve seen in my eight years here and I was on the Planning Board for 10 years. You can’t use government to condemn properties. It’s wrong. … It’s no fun sitting up here with all these eyes angry looking at me but this is what I have to do.”

In negotiations with the Planning Board, Tree Board and planning staff and in response to neighboring homeowners' objections, developer Joseph Schlotterbeck agreed to:

• Size the stormwater system to contain a 50-year rainstorm.
• Use low-impact development practices that would include pervious surfaces for sidewalks and driveways to reduce stormwater runoff.
• Preserve trees that the Tree Board designated.
• Use landscaping trees from a recommended tree species list.
• Recess garages or shift parking to the rear of lots (for some homes but not all)
• Create a pedestrian crossing to the mailbox cluster and school bus stop.
• Cluster homes to preserve woodlands as much as possible and avoid steep slopes.
• Work with city planners to design a walking trail to serve the new development and existing subdivisions.

In a series of revisions dating to last spring, Schlotterbeck also trimmed the total number of homes from 107 to 93, doubled the capacity of the stormwater system and agreed to plant hundreds of trees. While the city ordinance requires 29 street trees and no buffer trees, Schlotterbeck told the council last month, he plans to plant 219 buffer trees and 412 street trees — a total of 631, the same number the homebuilder will take out. In addition, "we're preserving 294 trees" and made revisions to more than double the open space from the original proposal. While the current zoning allows 10 units per acre, the development would amount to 2.76 units per acre. "We're really proposing almost some of the lowest density that could be accepted here," Schlotterbeck said last month.

The Half Moon Heights request was just one of many that have come before the City Council in the past two years as demand for housing increases in and around Hendersonville. In recent months the council has approved or is scheduled to act on requests for more than 1,500 single-family homes, condos, apartments and senior-living rooms in the city.