Mebane’s city council voted 5-0 Monday night to grant a conditional rezoning request that will allow the construction of 565 single-family homes on 229.3 acres in a new subdivision, the Preserve at Mill Creek, an expansion of the 32-year-old Mill Creek subdivision.
The council’s unanimous vote followed a nearly 2½-hour presentation from an attorney for the developer who highlighted: the Preserve at Mill Creek represents a continuation of plans that were conceived of and approved in 1993; changes made to the plans to alleviate neighboring homeowners’ concerns; the need to add to the area’s housing supply; and multiple ways in which the subdivision is consistent with the city’s long-range development goals (see related story, this edition).
Two speakers addressed the council during the public hearing. Steve Beckner, who said his family owns land east of the site for the Preserve at Mill Creek, told the council he was not opposed at all.
Jonathan Warren, who lives along Saint Andrews Drive within the existing Mill Creek subdivision, told the council he was concerned about the alignment of one of the multi-use paths to the Mill Creek Golf Course, telling the council, “It doesn’t make sense to locate a pedestrian pathway that close to the golf course.”
The Preserve at Mill Creek is an expansion of the Mill Creek subdivision. Most of the project, approximately 165 acres, is located within Alamance County, while a 64-acre portion across the back side of the site is located within western Orange County.
Mebane’s planning board voted 7-1 last month to approve the rezoning request for the Preserve at Mill Creek, completing the Mill Creek subdivision on the north side of the city, first begun in 1993.
The existing subdivision partially surrounds the Mill Creek Golf Course.
The Preserve at Mill Creek will have three different zoning classifications, based on the plans presented and approved Monday night for Lennar Carolinas of Morrisville. The section with the most lots, R8, will have 335 lots; the smallest, R10, will have 107 lots.
[Story continues below layout for the Preserve at Mill Creek.]
A portion of the homes within the R10 zoning district will be targeted to active seniors but not age-restricted, based on the presentation that Mebane’s city council heard Monday night.
