Mebane’s city council last week approved rezoning for a unique single-family subdivision aimed at the Nepalese immigrant community in the Triangle and Triad.
A 52.57-acre parcel along Rock Quarry Road on the easternmost side of Mebane, in western Orange County, is slated to have 106 lots, most of which will likely be sold to members of the Nepalese American Cultural Center (NACC), that owns the property.
Bal Krishna Sharma, speaking on behalf of the NACC, said about 26 or so lots would not be obligated for Nepalese residents. Many of the future homeowners are owners of the property through NACC, he explained.
Sharma and engineer Phil Koch of EarthCentric Engineering outlined four phases of the planned construction.
Developers had told the planning board that the prices for homes were estimated to be between $265,000 to $397,500, a range defined in Orange County as “workforce housing.” Sharma and Koch said the houses would be “similar in style and size” to neighboring Bowman Village with between 2,400 to 3,000 square feet.
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The proposal, entitled the Nepalese American Cultural Center (NACC) Subdivision, would also include a 6,000-square foot event or cultural center, which could be rented to various groups; a 6,000-square foot worship center, described as a Hindu temple; as well as a pool with a bathhouse; a playground; a grassed play area; a walking trail; gazebo; picnic tables; and benches.
The amenities would be built during the third, of four, phases of construction; the group’s engineer estimated the total build-out period would likely be two to three years.
However, much of the council’s focus was on guaranteeing the development of the amenities, which Sharma and Koch said were planned for phase three, after about 42 houses had been constructed in the first two phases, which would be at the front of the lot facing Rock Quarry Road.
Mayor Ed Hooks asked about the possibility of having a bond to guarantee that construction of the amenities. He and councilman Tim Bradley referred to previous subdivisions over the years in which developers abandoned a subdivision before having started, or completed, promised amenities.
Ultimately, the council extracted a voluntary concession from Sharma that NACC would sign a bond for construction of the amenities with the exception of the temple, with the amenities to be built at the beginning of the third phase of construction.
Councilman Sean Ewing also encouraged the group to preserve the existing mature trees as a part of the buffer with neighboring properties.
The council was largely disinterested in a plea from neighboring property owners Phil and Tina Young, initially delivered through an attorney from the Brooks Pierce law firm, to have access to a lake that they have customarily reached over the property now being developed by NACC.
Phil Young said they have been using an existing path to the lake “for over 30 years.” Some discussion focused on whether the boat could be hauled to the lake over a planned walking trail around the development. But Young later described the boat as a pontoon boat that would need a pickup truck to get it to the lake.
Council members ultimately encouraged the Youngs to work out an easement agreement with Sharma and NACC, but were not willing to make such an agreement a condition for approving the rezoning.
The council ultimately voted 5-0 for both the annexation of the property into the city limits and its conditional rezoning for the new subdivision, with the offered condition that a bond be signed to guarantee the amenities (other than the Hindu temple) to be constructed at the beginning of phase three of the development.
The council agreed to accept the developer’s request for a reduction in side setbacks (from 10 to 7.5 feet) and street side setbacks (from 18 to 15 feet). The developer was also successful in offering the city $100,443 as a payment-in-lieu of providing 3.04 acres of public recreation space.
Lot sizes would range between 7,200 and 9,715 square feet – or about 2.03 lots per acre, according to the proposed site plan. Approximately 26 acres of the total site would be developed, and the other half, another 26 acres, would remain as open space.
