Burlington’s city council has given its unanimous nod to a luxury apartment complex near University Drive that ran into a bit of trouble when it first came before the city’s planning and zoning commission earlier this year.
The council ultimately voted in favor of this project on Tuesday, clearing the way for its Philadelphia-based developer to build 275 high-end apartments on some 29 acres at the juncture of Rural Retreat and Williams Mill roads.
Dubbed “Sycamore at Burlington,” this rental project was originally presented to the city’s planning commission in April with a hearty endorsement from the city’s planning department. A roomful of uneasy neighbors nevertheless compelled the commission to narrowly withhold its endorsement from the development’s original plans, which had called for 330 dwelling units distributed among six buildings.
The commission’s negative verdict didn’t discourage Sam Switzenbaum, the brains behind the development, from pressing ahead with his vision. Switzenbaum reworked the original plans based on the feedback he heard during the commission’s meeting, and this revamped proposal went on to receive the planning commission’s endorsement with a 4-to-2 vote in October.
During a regularly-scheduled city council meeting on Tuesday, Jamie Lawson, the city’s director of planning and development services, summed up the various changes that Switzenbaum and his associates had made to win over the city’s planning commission last month.
“They eliminated one of the buildings,” Lawson explained. “As a result, the density of the site was reduced. They have reduced the number of parking spaces associated with that. The total square footage was also reduced…They increased some of the buffers on the south and the west side. They added additional tree preservation areas and reduced their impervious area, and there was a fire access added to the property in the southeast portion of the site.”
Lawson went on to offer the council some additional details about the development’s proposed outlets. She acknowledged that the only entrance which currently appears in the plans would feed into Williams Mill Road – a rustic byway that dead ends to the west of the development’s site. Lawson added, however, that the developer has reserved land for a roundabout that’s intended to serve a secondary entrance off of University Drive. She acknowledged that the outlet itself would be built by another developer who owns the land currently separating University Drive from Switzenbaum’s site. According to county property records, most of the 10 acres that front directly along University Drive belong to Concept Builders – a firm associated with local homebuilder Jimmy Collins.
As a result of Switzenbaum’s sundry nips and tucks, the development’s proposed unit count had dropped from 330 to 275 rental apartments. Yet, the apartments themselves were still the same tony, high-quality flats that their would-be developer had originally proposed to the city’s planning commission this spring.
Switzenbaum personally assured the council about the consistency of his overall vision, which he said follows a template that he has successfully introduced to several other communities.
“Sycamore was created in response to a need in America,” the developer told the city’s elected leaders on Tuesday. “Baby boomers are selling their homes…They don’t want to walk up three stories; they want elevator buildings, and they want lifestyle buildings.
“This is an adult-centric community without calling it an adult community,” he added. “We don’t cater to families…It is a gated community. It is secure…The units are large with lots of windows, and it’s actually a fun place to live.”
Switzenbaum encouraged anyone who wants to see this concept brought to fruition can visit either of the two “Sycamores” that he has previously developed in Charlotte and Concord. He added that his plans for the latest project in Burlington include a generous package of amenities, ranging from a putting green to a pickleball court.
Switzenbaum also emphasized the high caliber of the proposed apartments, which he had previously told the city’s planning commission are tentatively priced from $1,590 a month for a one-bedroom flat to $1,950 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
[Story continues below graphic of the planned layout of the Sycamore at Burlington apartments.]
“I can promise you that what we do will be first class,” he went on to assure the council, “and it will be a credit to your city.”
Prior to his appearance before the city council, Switzenbaum had done some neighborhood outreach to get ahead of any potential objections to his plans. Amanda Hodierne, an attorney for the developer, insisted that these community engagement efforts went above and beyond the city’s minimum expectations.
“We had neighborhood meetings back in the spring before we went to the planning and zoning commission the first time,” Hodierne told the city council. “We heard feedback from there. Of course, we heard feedback at the planning commission meeting from both the commission and neighbors. We went back to the drawing board and had another neighborhood meeting this fall.”
The developer’s efforts were ultimately able to staunch some opposition from the Waterford subdivision, which lies to northwest of the project’s proposed site. They were less successful, however, in winning over other neighbors like Williams Mill Road resident Rhonda Custer.
During the city council’s state-mandated public hearing on this development, Custer complained that Switzenbaum’s initial outreach efforts completely passed over people like herself, who live outside the limited area where the city requires the notification of neighbors.
“There has not been a lot of public involvement in the community,” Custer went on to assert. “So, I requested that they send notices outside the 300-foot radius…and Six months later, we didn’t receive anything.”
Custer went on to object to the sheer number of vehicles that this project would dump onto Williams Mill Road, and she urged the city’s leaders to press the developer to follow through on his plans for an alternate outlet onto University Drive.
Custer’s entreaties were later echoed by Kimberly Wood, a resident of Shepherd Drive, which “horseshoes” off of Williams Mill Road not far from the development’s site.
“It’s an older, quiet neighborhood,” Wood went on to inform the council, “and my main concern is the entrance off of Williams Mill Road. So, just to reiterate what others have said, I’d like that entrance onto University Drive to be developed sooner rather than later.
Switzenbaum’s neighborhood diplomacy proved more persuasive with Debra Jaggers, whose home at the juncture of Williams Mill and Rural Retreat roads lies right in the path of the development’s entrance. Jaggers admitted that she has come around to Switzenbaum’s vision as preferable alternative to anything else that might pop up in that location.
“I want this to go in,” she told the council, “because I don’t want 20 apartment buildings going in over there…I think this is much better for our neighborhood.”
The sense that some sort of development is inevitable in this location was also shared by several members of Burlington’s city council.
The ultimate destiny of these 29 acres was amply clear, for example, to Burlington’s mayor Jim Butler.
“As long as I’ve served on the council, the one thing that’s been guaranteed is that vacant property will be developed,” Butler told the rest of the council before Tuesday’s vote on Switzenbaum’s plans. “It’s only a matter of what level it’s going to be developed.”
VACANT PROPERTY WILL BE DEVELOPED
“As long as I’ve served on the council, the one thing that’s been guaranteed is that vacant property will be developed. It’s only a matter of what level it’s going to be developed.”
– Burlington mayor Jim Butler
“When all that infrastructure was put in [WHEN UNIVERSITY DRIVE WAS BUILT TWO DEACES AGO], YOu knew that at some point in time this development would come forth.”
– hAROLD oWEN, bURLINGTON MAYOR PRO TEM
Meanwhile, Harold Owen, Burlington’s mayor pro tem, recalled how the construction of University Drive some two decades ago made this once agrarian area a prime spot for both commercial and residential development.
“When all that infrastructure was put in,” he added, “you knew that at some point in time this development would come forth.”
The proximity of University Drive also persuaded Butler that Switzenbaum’s plans for an alternative outlet are more than some symbolic sop to the sensibilities of city officials.
“This traffic is going to feed to University [Drive],” he went on to predict. “It’s not going to feed into the neighborhood because there’s no where to go – it’s sealed off.”
Switzenbaum, likewise, insisted that it’s only a matter of time before “Sycamore” gets this secondary entrance off of University Drive.
“I can also promise you that we will do the roundabout,” he added. “We want it, and Jimmy Collins wants it, too.”
The council voted 5-to-0 in favor of Switzenbaum’s amended plans.
