Building boom: Developments adding hundreds of housing units across the county

Feb. 4—While large housing developments coming down the pike in Waynesville have captured headlines over the past year, they are only part of the picture.

Numerous projects across the county will collectively add 380 housing units over the next couple of years, helping to alleviate the acute housing and rental shortage. That's in addition to hundreds more slated to come online in Waynesville.

In the issue, The Mountaineer walks through the housing developments in the pipeline from Canton to Maggie Valley. See Wednesday's edition for part II on the projects in Waynesville.

In the Canton area, three housing projects are in the works.

Robinson Ridge Apartments

What: 160-unit apartment complex in Canton on 35 acres. The apartment complex will include six buildings, four- and five-stories high, with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments renting at market prices. The $25 million project will include a clubhouse, an open courtyard with green space and ground-level retail stores.

Where: Near I-40 Canton exit 31, just below Western North Carolina Freightliner and accessed off Champion Drive.

Rest of the story: Developer Michael Parrott, a 2017 Pisgah High School graduate and owner of Mill Ridge Properties, said the needed infrastructure permits are in hand, and he is awaiting construction documents from his architect. Tentative plans are to break ground in the spring.

The phased construction project will start with one of several apartment units, which should be completed within 18 months or so. Phase II will start shortly thereafter.

The land was originally owned by the Robinsons, a well-known Canton family with a rich heritage and legacy. To honor that history, Parrott named the development Robinson Ridge Apartments.

"It's important to recognize history and family," he said, noting he's would like to commission a local artist to come up with an art piece to display prominently in the lobby or common area. "It's important to preserve history and not erase what the land once was."

At one point the land was the site of the Canton livestock market.

Patton Cove

What: 52-unit subdivision on 20 acres between Canton and Clyde. Homes will be in the 1,700- to 2,200-square-foot range, with the smallest in the 1,200-square-foot range. Lot sizes will be just over one-tenth of an acre.

Where: Along Old Clyde Road at the site of the historic Patton farm.

Rest of the story: Developer Ken Jackson with the Arden-based LB Jackson and Company, said the clearing operation on the 20-acre parcel has been completed, as has the demolition for unneeded buildings on the property.

The historic home place on the property along with two acres was carved out of the development tract to be sold separately. It drew great interest, Jackson said, and a deal was made with the first person who made an offer.

Homes will be constructed on site by national builder DR Horton. To reduce building costs, the company uses a concrete slab as opposed to a crawl space or basement, which will require a good bit of cut and fill since the property is gently sloped. Grading for the slabs is the next step.

"With the weather, it will probably be June before we are wrapping up," Jackson said. "We'll have 52 lots and DR Horton will be closing on half of them when the sites are complete and will buy the rest six months later."

DR Horton will also put in the required infrastructure — roads, water, sewer, storm water systems, electricity, etc. — which Jackson calls the what he calls the "horizontal" components, and can get the "vertical" part done in quick order.

One holdup is the sewer connection to the Pactiv Evergreen wastewater treatment plant. Canton doesn't have its own treatment plant, but instead sends its water water through the mill, so the mill is the one that permits hook-ups.

The new sewer connection would typically use ductile iron pipe, which makes for a stronger line, but has been in short supply since the Covid pandemic, Jackson said. Using PVC piping is an alternative, especially at shallower depths, he said, so the latest discussion with Pactiv Evergreen has involved the depths needed to use PVC lines.

The Canton town board agreed to provide water service to the development that is outside town limits. An estimated 20,000 gallons a day of both water and sewer capacity will be needed once the lots are built out, Jackson estimated.

Harkins Avenue Subdivision

What: 23 modular homes on 6-acre parcel, also between Canton and Clyde.

Where: On Harkins Avenue, located off Old Clyde Road between Clyde Elementary and West Canton in the same vicinity as Patton Farm.

Rest of the story: The project is being built by Mountain Projects as part of the Smoky Mountain Housing Partnership program. The homes will be in the range of $240,000. Prices are kept down by Mountain Projects buying the property and putting in the infrastructure, so those don't have to be absorbed by the homebuyer as part of the sale price.

With federal funding to help offset the upfront cost of putting in infrastructure, Mountain Projects Executive Director Patsy Davis is confident the units can fit the "affordable housing" criteria.

Haywood County received a $7 million federal grant to address affordable housing in the wake of Tropical Storm Fred, which damaged 563 homes in the county.

Walnut Ridge

What: 17 homes on 10 acres between Canton and Clyde.

Where: On James Street, also off Old Clyde Road in the same vicinity as Patton Farm and Harkins Avenue.

Rest of the story: The developer for the project is Kituwah LLC, an economic development arm of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Kituwah engages in real estate development projects as a way to generate profits for the tribe, with other others in the pipeline in Haywood County along with building acquisitions in Frog Level and downtown Waynesville deemed investment opportunities.

Walnut Ridge was a pre-existing subdivision that was never completed. Kituwah bought 8 unused acres from the previous developer, along with an adjacent tract of 1.5-acres.

Eleven homes have been completed, with six more to go, according to Mark Hubble, Kituwah CEO. Water and sewer is provided through shared wells and septic systems.

Kituwah owns a modular home manufacturing company it acquired in 2019 after purchasing Cardinal Homes out of bankruptcy for $5.8 million. The company is known for using high-quality products and building in a controlled temperature environment, making the homes comparable to homes constructed on-site.

The Virginia factory is able to turn out six to seven modules a week, and since there are two modules per home, that's slightly more than three homes a week.

Villages of Castle Creek

What: 40 homes on 16 acres in Clyde

Where: Behind Tuscola High School

Rest of the story: Kituwah is also the developer of this project, and it too was a pre-existing subdivision that was never completed.

So far, six homes have been built, with six more planned to start in the next few months. The higher-end homes have paved streets and are on the Junaluska Sanitary sewer system, which feeds into with Waynesville's sewer treatment plant. The taps were approved before the moratorium on new hookups was implemented.

Quiet Creek properties

What: 92 housing units on 22 acres on Jonathan Creek, a mix of home and townhomes.

Where: Less than a mile past Jonathan Valley Elementary.

Rest of the story: The tract had been purchased by Haywood County in the mid-2000s for a recreation complex with ball fields that never came to fruition. The county eventually decided to unload it, and after being unable to court an industry, it was sold to the highest bidder last year, when ended up being a housing developer, Quiet Creek Properties out of Buncombe County.

The developer applied for annexation into Maggie Valley town limits in order to get sewer, which has ben approved. The developer also went through the process to get the property zoned under the town's land-use plan since it was a new addition to the town.

"They've gone through the annexation and zoning process, but I haven't seen a site plan," Maggie Valley Planner Kaitland Finkle said. "They have not started the subdivision process, but are working on other state permits."

In addition to town permits, Finkle said the developer will need state approval for the water and erosion plans, as well as a driveway access through the N.C. DOT.

Wood developments

Despite a spate of 10 annexation and zoning changes shepherded through the planning process by South Carolina developer Frankie Wood in 2021, he has no completed developments in town, and has only started one project.

Maggie Valley Planner Kaitland Finkle said the project that's the farthest along is on Moody Farm Road where Wood got the green light to build homes on 4.2 acres near the Maggie Valley golf course.

At the time, Wood told planning board staff and members he expected to build 22 dwellings on the property where he envisioned golfers possibly buying the dwellings to be priced at around $300,000.

This project still requires a final plat approval; the preliminary plat approval expires in July.

Finkle said Wood and Dave Angel visited the office recently to discuss using a performance bond approach to installing the needed infrastructure for the development at the Moody Farm project.

Typically, all infrastructure must be in place before a final plat approval is issued, but a performance bond could also trigger a final plat approval, she said.

In an October 2022 story, Maggie Valley Town Manager Vickie Best said Hyatt Pipeline of Canton provided a detailed infrastructure cost estimate to the town for $578,000 for the "Wood project" on Moody Farm Road.

Once the town has a performance bond or a letter of credit from a bank, the infrastructure installation work can proceed.

This is standard procedure for infrastructure projects, Best said at the time, noting the financing will be 1.25 times the project quote, or about $722,000.

Other projects promoted by Wood are either dormant or expired, Finkle said.