Mebane’s city council gave the go-ahead Wednesday night to a large new development on the Orange County side of the city.
In a unanimous 5-0 vote, the council approved the rezoning necessary for the builder to move forward on constructing 409 homes (134 townhouses and 175 single-family houses) on about 134 acres which is bounded by three roads, where there will also be three entrances and exits into and out of the development: on Oakwood Street, Mattress Factory Road, and Washington Street.
Amenities, which the developer promised to complete during the first phase of development, include a clubhouse, pool, two turf fields, multi-purpose court, a tot lot, two dog parks, as well as a shared-use path around the development.
The developer is Meritage Homes, which has been active in Wake County, but this will be their first subdivision in Mebane and Orange County.
The rezoning would change industrial and R-20 zoning to: conditional R-8 for the townhouse portion of the development and conditional R-10 for the single-family area.
The subdivision when complete, with 409 proposed homes, would become the third-largest in the city’s history – behind only Mill Creek on the north side of the city and Cambridge Park (now under construction on the south side), and not including apartment complexes.
The developer’s representative, Tim Smith, estimated that it will take about five years to build out the complete development. He also told the council that the company is interested in building another 50 or so townhouses adjacent to the proposed townhouse development, but those homes are not a part of the current rezoning request.
Smith also told council members that he expected the price points, broadly, to be low to mid-$200,000’s for the townhouses, and high $200,000’s to $300,000 for the single-family homes, based on current market conditions.
Mike Owens, another Meritage representative, also told the Mebane council members that the company is moving forward with another single family development in Graham. [See separate story in this edition.] The Mebane and Graham projects, he told the council, are the company’s first in Orange County and Alamance County, respectively.
In a last-minute offer to the council, Smith expanded the company’s willingness to provide a payment in lieu of providing public space. While the development will have a multi-use trail along the main corridor of the development, as well as sidewalks, the company had originally suggested that its expected payment-in-lieu contribution be reduced to account for its multi-use path.
The original offer was to pay the city $150,103, but Smith upped that amount during Wednesday night’s meeting to the full amount otherwise expected by the city, of $205,318 – with the multi-use path to be included without any offset from the city.
The council ultimately approved the rezoning on a 5-0 vote.
