News

Developer slashes Ivy Crossing request by 29 units

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 9, 2020

A developer has slashed a proposal for a proposed subdivision on 16 acres between Fifth and Sixth avenues and east of Westbrook Drive by 29 homes.

Windsor Built Homes of Greenville, South Carolina, trimmed the request from 74 to 45 single-family residential units on the site, which is owned by the Ewbank family heirs.

The proposed Ivy Crossing development would front on Fifth Avenue West and with access on Fifth and Westbrook Road.
By reducing the number of dwellings to less than 50, the project is within the permitted density for the R-15 Medium-Density Residential zoning district and does not require City Council approval. The application seeks site plan review by the Planning Board, which is scheduled to take up the proposal on Monday, April 20.

At its February meeting, the Planning Board recommended that the City Council deny the application for 74 dwellings. The applicants withdrew the request and drafted a new proposal, which now is also under the threshold of a major subdivision.

Around 75 homeowners surrounding the Fifth Avenue land turned out for a neighborhood compatibility meeting to oppose the 75-unit proposal, saying the density of 4.75 homes per acre was too high. At 45 homes, the density drops to 2.8 dwellings per acre.

The proposed subdivision would be called Ivy Crossing, after the Ewbank family name for the driveway through the woods, Ivy Lane. The land contains a large white house built in 1952 and two smaller cottages. The larger house is the home of two of the sellers, Spence Campbell and his wife, Marianne Ewbank Campbell.

One of Marianne's brothers, Frank Arthur Ewbank,  died of cancer on Feb. 21 at age 74. The son of Frank Wyttenbach Ewbank and Eleanore Boothroyd Ewbank, Frank Ewbank was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, John Wyttenbach Ewbank. After serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War, Frank joined his father at Ewbank and Ewbank Real Estate and Insurance Agency on Main Street, one of the oldest businesses in Hendersonville. In addition to Marianne and her husband, Frank Ewbank was survived by another sister, Eleanore E. Clarke, and her husband, Jamie; a brother, Joseph B. Ewbank, and his wife, Linda; a niece; several nephews; and long-time friend Cindy Findley.