Two months ago, Mebane’s planning board was unanimously opposed to a developer’s plans to build 162, three-bedroom townhouses on 25½ acres on the outskirts of Mebane in western Orange County along Ben Wilson Road (at the intersection with Bowman Road).
Sensing the opposition that might well extend to the city council, the developer went back to the drawing board and revised the two main issues that prompted the planning board’s 5-0 recommendation against his project.
This month, the developer, Jim Smith, spoke to the planning board about the changes made to the plans. The number of townhouses, which board members had criticized as “too dense,” has been trimmed by 15, down to 147 townhouses.
And the shortage of parking spaces for guests had also been revised, adding 85 parking spaces.
In June, Tim Smith with Summit Design in Hillsborough appeared before the planning board to explain the project, Meadowstone Townhomes. The intended builder, he explained, is Capital City Homes, the same builder of other houses and townhouses along nearby Bowman Road, including 55 townhouses directly across the street from the additional ones.
The same builder, Capital City Homes, is building another townhouse subdivision (with 55 townhouses) just across Ben Wilson Road from the proposed, much larger proposed townhouse subdivision with 162 townhouses. In response to a question from the board, Smith said he felt that the price ranges for the apartments would be in the range of $225,000 to $250,000.
Planning board member Lori Oakley, who had made the motion to give the project a negative recommendation in June made the motion Monday night to recommend approval for the revised project to Mebane’s city council, which will take up the proposal at its September 13 meeting.
The new variation received a 7-0 unanimous vote in support.
See earlier (June) coverage of the planning board’s first consideration of the project: https://alamancenews.com/planning-board-on-rezoning-proposal-for-townhomes-too-dense-insufficient-parking/
