Mebane’s planning board heard two developers’ plans for 48 new apartments and 51 additional townhouses Monday night, recommending both projects to the city council for its final approval.
Both projects are along South Eleventh Street on the Orange County side of the city, an area of much recent growth.
In fact, the city council approved the rezoning necessary for a national builder to move forward on constructing 409 homes (134 townhouses and 175 single-family houses) on about 134 acres which is bounded by three roads, where there will also be three entrances and exits into and out of the development: on Oakwood Street, Mattress Factory Road, and Washington Street.
One of Monday night’s projects – dubbed Oak Grove Trails on about 14 acres – is a 51-unit townhouse subdivision by the same builder, Meritage Homes, and would be adjacent to that larger group of 134 townhouses within the 134-acre subdivision; both townhouse communities would share the amenities within the Oakwood subdivision that has already been approved.
The new section has its own shelter and dog park. But most of the amenities available to the new section of townhouse owners – including a clubhouse, pool, turf field, and a tot lot – are on the townhouse (western) side of the Oakwood development; the 175 single-family homes are on the more easterly side of the acreage, where two dog parks and another turf field would be.
48 apartments also given green light
A seemingly unrelated apartment complex, meanwhile, is being proposed for the property almost adjacent to the new townhouses on the north side.
On about 8 acres just north of the townhouse site (and interrupted near the road by an existing group of apartments, on Cedar Court), another developer, Ezequiel “Zeke” Espitia with his brother Danny, wants to build three two-story apartment buildings, each with eight one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom apartments.
The vote for the rezoning for the apartment was 5-1, with planning board member Gale Pettiford voting no because there is only one entrance into the site.
But while the planning board was generally in favor of both projects, the night did not go without a dissenting opinion, this one from Terry Dillard, a who lives down the street from both Eleventh Street projects, who wondered aloud, “When is enough, enough?”
