Last-minute changes apparently win over several skeptical council members
After about four hours of a public hearing on the project and extracting several more concessions from the project’s developers, Mebane’s city council gave a somewhat reluctant OK to Greensboro-based Koury Corporation to rezone 82.921 acres along Trollingwood-Hawfields Road. The project is across from the entrance to GKN for a mixed- use development that proposes a shopping center with almost 300,000 square feet; 645 apartments (in 12 3- and 4-story apartment buildings); and 38 townhouses.
The acreage, now zoned for industrial use, is beside the residential area, and residents at the city’s planning board meeting last month expressed fears about traffic congestion, lighting, noise, property values, and even smells. Almost a dozen residents reiterated those concerns Monday night.
The planning board had voted unanimously, 8-0, against recommending approval for the rezoning.
Company made changes after planning board meeting
However, since the planning board’s action on November 18, the company had filed several modifications with the city in hopes of winning city council approval.
One of the most significant changes was to increase the proposed buffer between one of its internal roadways and the adjacent, existing neighborhood from 20 feet (proposed prior to planning board consideration) to 50 feet.
To accommodate some of its changes since planning board consideration, Koury Corporation also reduced the number of parking spaces in the shopping center by 39, from 1,464 to 1,425.
More concessions sought and made during public hearing
Amid skeptical questions from council members, the developer made three additional concessions which appeared to clinch council support for the rezoning.
At the urging of council member Katie Burkholder, the developer agreed to lower the height of the apartment building closest to the Copperstone subdivision, whose residents had voiced most of the concerns about the mixed-use project. The four-story building would be reduced to three stories. Three other adjacent apartment buildings would remain four-story. The eastern side of the project has an additional eight apartment buildings that would be three stories tall.
The developer also agreed to widen further the buffer immediately adjacent to the Copperstone subdivision, agreeing to 60 feet, plus a 10-foot strip for a 7-foot high privacy fence.
Koury president Richard Vanore assured council members that the fence would be kept in good repair and also avoid mildew; the Copperstone subdivision has strict rules against allowing the siding on homes to become unsightly with mildew, Burkholder explained. The company will also attempt to keep as much of the existing, mature wooded area as possible between the neighboring subdivision and its project.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: Read about controversy that arose from the meeting about county property being included in the Koury Corporation rezoning request: https://alamancenews.com/investigative-report-county-mgr-gave-koury-corp-authority-to-represent-county-owned-parcel-in-its-rezoning-but-she-says-company-didnt-request-what-county-had-intended/
Burkholder noted that her family’s first Mebane home had been in the Copperstone subdivision on the street directly beside the proposed new development, and she fought back emotion as she revealed to dear friends and neighbors from her original time in the subdivision of her ultimate decision to support the revised project, based on the concessions the developer made.
Burkholder ultimately made the motion for approval, which passed 4-1. While other council members had also expressed questions and skepticism about various aspects of the project, Sean Ewing was the only council member to vote against the rezoning. In addition to Burkholder, the project rezoning was supported by mayor pro tem Tim Bradley and council members Montrena Hadley and Jonathan White.
Bradley had also won a third concession from the developer. The Koury Corporation wanted to make a payment to the city of $446,000 in lieu of providing the required amount of public recreation area within the residential portion of the project.
As originally proposed, the company would have had that amount reduced by the cost of sidewalks it would install along South Third Street to connect the Copperstone subdivision.
Bradley had argued that the developer should be willing to pay for the sidewalk and the $446,000. In a compromise, the company agreed to build the sidewalk if rights-of-way can be obtained by the city from homeowners along South Third Street or pay an additional $20,000 to the city if not.
Mayor Ed Hooks, who does not vote except in cases of a tie, spoke at the end of the public hearing in support of the rezoning.
Hooks said he felt that retail and residential was far preferable to the projects that might come based on the industrial zoning that currently exists for much of the property. “This is a great use of land versus what it could be,” he said, alluding to possible warehouses with tractor trailers coming and going 24 hours a day at another potential distribution center that might otherwise end up on the property, given its existing industrial zoning.
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The cornerstone of the retail portion of the almost 300,000 square feet of retail space would be an anchor with 127,735 square feet. There are 11 other store fronts with a cumulative total of an additional 171,830 square feet beside the largest store, with square footages ranging from 3,500 to 22,250 square feet for each and another dozen storefronts (“small shops” in the parlance of the company) across the parking lot on the periphery of the retail portion of the project.
There are also four outparcels along Hawfields-Trollingwood Road that would be of interest to restaurants or perhaps financial institutions, Koury officials described.
The company has also left blank a 9-acre portion adjacent to property already owned by Duke Health along Gregory Poole Lane where a medical office building is planned, but on which construction has stopped. Koury officials said they hoped to work with Duke, but with or without such cooperation, there is a market for additional medical offices which they’re planning to accommodate.
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The company also touted that 1,232 new jobs would be created by the complex, bringing in more than $943,000 in annual property tax revenue, plus $1.2 million in county property tax revenue. Additionally it was noted that annual sales tax revenues might bring in $15 million annually, a portion of which would end up with Mebane, based on the state’s formula for allocating county sales tax receipts.
Altogether, the project is estimated to cost $223 million to build, resulting in a taxable property tax value of $255 million after construction, according to Mike Fox, an attorney representing the company.
Which retailers are interested in occupying the Koury retail spaces?
Both Fox and the company president, Richard Vanore, declined to elaborate at the planning board meeting on exactly which retailers might be considering any of the storefronts in the retail strip or any of the four outparcels.
Much speculation has focused on the possibility of a Target as the primary anchor, although all of the illustrations in Vanore’s presentation to the planning board about his company’s other developments focused on grocery stores – Publix, Harris Teeter, and the Fresh Market.
Fox said at the planning board meeting that while the company “is not allowed to name names,” the potential tenants “are retailers people would like to have.”
Another Koury executive, senior vice president Mike Longmore, pointed Monday night to the variety of national retail and restaurants that dot the company’s other nearby projects, at the Village at North Elm in Greensboro and at Grandover in Jamestown, as illustrative of the kinds of retailers who would be attracted to the Mebane project.
Although he did not name them, among the companies located at one or both other Koury projects are: Panera, several steak houses (such as Epic Chophouse, Porter House Burger Company), other specialty restaurants (such as Fuji Sushi, Cherry Pit Cafe, Santa Fe Mexican Kitchen, Barberitos, Ghassan’s Fresh Mediterranean Eats, Chipotle), and fast-food places (such as Penn Station, Jersey Mike’s, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks).
The two Koury projects in Guilford County are anchored by a Publix (at Grandover) and a Harris Teeter (at the Village at North Elm), although the space allocated for the anchor in Mebane (with 127,735 square feet) is more than twice the size of those grocery stores.
Longmore said there is much interest in the Koury Corporation’s Mebane project in stark contrast the relative dearth of interest in retail development over the past 20 years or so.
Longmore pointed to the nearby “second busiest highway” in the state (I-85/40) as one reason, and Mebane itself, as one of the fastest-growing communities, as another attraction to national companies who might want to become tenants in the retail portion of the project.
Longmore and Vanore said the company is already in discussions with retailers for all of the spaces in the shopping center, from the largest to the smallest, as well as for the four outparcels.
Neighbors still object
Many of the same neighbors who spoke out at the planning board’s consideration of the project last month came forward Monday night to voice their continuing opposition to the Koury Corporation’s project. [See earlier story here: https://alamancenews.com/neighbors-mebane-planning-board-oppose-koury-corp-shopping-center-apts-townhouses/.]
“They’ve asked for too many waivers [of city ordinance requirements],” said Katie Boone, a common theme among many opponents of the project.
Matt Skinner stressed that the projects still falls “short of what the city requires,” adding that he was afraid his subdivision (Copperstone) would bear the burden from the lack of green space and common areas in the residential portion of the Koury project.
Boone also warned that “crime is clustered around shopping centers.” If the project is approved, “Crime would be around my neighborhood,” she added. “They’re asking for things that will negatively affect our homes.”
Kevin Hartzog voiced concerns about the lack of open space in the Koury plan. “I’m not sure there’s enough open space.” He also said he wasn’t sure that the gated nature of the apartment complex would be a positive for Mebane.
Ashley Sue Bullers dismissed the presentation’s emphasis on “premier” quality saying the plan really amounted to “just a strip mall with residential in the back.”
The possibility that a Target might be the anchor for the center, as has been widely rumored, troubled Joan Franson. “Target would bring a lot more traffic.”
Frank Robinson cautioned, “Mebane is at an inflection point,” he said, in danger of “losing that small town feel.” He said of project of the density proposed by the Koury Corporation should be in a larger city.
Ursula Evans said she’s not opposed to all change, but stressed it “should be the right change.” She also focused, as did several speakers, on the failure to make road improvements along South Third Street.
