News

Planning Board votes no on senior apartments on Chadwick Avenue

By Bill Moss, Published: March 19, 2024

Citing neighbors’ concerns over traffic, stormwater and parking, the Hendersonville Planning Board dealt a setback to the developers of the Lofts at Chadwick, a proposed 60-unit affordable apartment project for seniors that “maxed out” on a state agency’s scoring matrix for location suitability.

The advisory board voted 4-2 to recommend that the City Council deny rezoning application that would allow the development on 2.25 acres on the southeast corner of Chadwick Avenue and Greenville Highway.

“It’s disappointing but we’re not stopping,” Stephen Drake, a developer of tax-credit financed affordable housing, said after the meeting. He said he believed City Council members understand and appreciate the need for affordable dwellings for seniors in the city.

The Planning Board’s vote came after a handful of residents said during a public comment period that 70 parking spaces were too few for 60 apartments — half of them two-bedroom — that the development would be clearing too many trees and that frequent flooding at that intersection could endanger the elderly residents.

“I’ve lived here since 1999 and it seems like at least once a year if not twice that whole intersection becomes a lake,” Planning Board member Donna Waters said.

Although Drake agreed to dedicate 25 feet of right of way along Greenville Highway for a possible widening, that was half the NCDOT’s request that he provide a 50-foot easement.

“I understand traffic,” he said. “I live in Mills River and we complain about it all the time. It’s honestly out of the developer’s hands and it’s in the hands of NCDOT. Less than 20 percent of the folks (in senior apartments) go to work so they’re not driving at a.m. and p.m. peak hours. Not much traffic comes in and out of these. There’s not a lot of hustle and bustle.”

The board voted 4-2 in favor of a motion by Chauncey Whiting to recommend denial of the application, with Waters, Peter Hanley and Yolanda Robinson voting in favor. Chair Jim Robertson and Laura Flores voted no.

Whiting’s motion cited two reasons for the recommended denial: proposed development would remove 48 mature trees from the site while only maintaining 12 mature trees and it would provide an inadequate stream buffer on the property border.

The senior apartments, in an L-shaped three-story building with a footprint of 25,000 square feet, would include a computer room with free WiFi, library. landscaping of native plant species and a gazebo overlooking a proposed pollinator garden, Drake said. He also cited the proximity of supermarkets, drug stores, urgent care centers and churches. The N.C. Housing Finance Agency gave the site the maximum number of points in assessing the suitability of location, he added. The deadline for applications for tax credit financing authorization from the state is in May; the winning proposals are typically announced in August.

A planning staff analysis on the rezoning request noted that Henderson County has an estimated rental housing gap of 1,650 to 2,008 units for  incomes from under 50 percent to 120 percent of the area median income — one of the largest gaps in Western North Carolina. Over the past four years, the city has approved 1,915 rental units, although 218 of those are considered inactive for being dormant for six months or longer. If the City Council were to authorize the Lofts on Chadwick rezoning, the total rental units potentially in the pipeline would total 1,975. Of those only 103 would be affordable units for tenants between 30 and 80 percent of AMI.