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Rezoning Request Troubles Sun City: Concern Focuses on Potential for Nonmedical Firms on Adjacent Land

Posted on: Sunday, 5 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Henry Eichel, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Feb. 5--LANCASTER -- A Charlotte commercial real estate developer has run afoul of Sun City, the 4,000-home community being built five miles south of the state line in Lancaster County.

Lindsey McAlpine wants to build a small commercial center adjoining Sun City that would include doctors' offices and medical supply businesses. But Sun City contends that the zoning change McAlpine is asking for could potentially lead to all sorts of less desirable uses.

County Council member Bryan Vaughn, whose district includes Sun City and McAlpine's property, said he expects the council to vote Monday night to deny McAlpine's rezoning request unless the two parties can reach some compromise.

"He has good intentions," Vaughn said of McAlpine. "The dilemma is the unfortunate way the (zoning) ordinance is written. ... It could open the property up for any type of establishment in 10 or 15 years."

In question is a triangular 21-acre piece of land along Van Wyck Road at U.S. 521. Sun City's 1,225 acres lie just to the north. The current zoning is residential. Until McAlpine bought the property, it was occupied by several mobile homes.

McAlpine is asking for a zoning change to commercial in the B-3, or unrestricted, classification. Among the 100 or so uses allowed under the B-3 classification are deer processing, bus terminals, kennels and nightclubs.

There are two restricted commercial classifications that McAlpine could have applied for. But he said they're impractical for the kind of project he wants to develop. One doesn't allow retail, and the other puts too strict a limit on the number of square feet businesses may occupy.

In an interview, McAlpine said he has lined up a stable of potential tenants, including doctors and "businesses that would want to be near a doctor's office." One is a company that sells hearing aids.

Sun City, which is restricted to people 55 and over, will provide a great market for medical services, he said. "I think it's obvious the need is going to be there."

Sun City project manager David Vitek said he is "100 percent in favor" of putting medical offices and associated retail businesses on the property. "We don't have any real disagreement with the McAlpine Group and what they're showing that they want to do there."

But, Vitek said, "We just need to be certain that if something economically (scuttles) the deal that McAlpine is working on, and that they for some reason sell off the property or change their strategy, that we're not sitting there facing a bunch of uses that we don't think are appropriate for our residents to have butted up against them."

He said Sun City's development plan calls for "our high-end golf carriage homes sitting along that property. It represents about $68 million worth of property value once the homes are sold."

Vitek said Sun City would like the County Council to create a zoning law "where not only did they give the business use that people are seeking, but they also approve the land plan as part of the zoning."

McAlpine called the idea unrealistic. "Although we own the property, we may not develop it for five more years," he said. "We can't offer a site plan today, because we don't know how it will be laid out."

He said: "No one knows the types of development the market will dictate five or 10 years from now. We won't build any offices until there are enough residents there to support them."

McAlpine said he has told Vitek that he's willing to write restrictions into his deed limiting uses of the property.

He said, "I think that not many people who have done zonings in Lancaster County have offered up as many restrictions to their site as we have."

But council member Vaughn said deed restrictions could easily be dissolved once the property changes hands.

"I certainly don't question the integrity of the project," Vaughn said. "But a lot can happen in three years. There's no guarantee they won't sell the property, and we've got to be able to meet the needs of the community 10 years down the road."

He said, "If something can be worked out, that would be great. But if not, I think you're looking at a denial of the zoning."

Contact Henry Eichel: (803) 255-1388.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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