Mooresville OKs massive waterfront community despite concerns over traffic, crowding

In a split vote Monday night, Mooresville commissioners approved a rezoning that will allow an Alabama developer to build a massive waterfront development.

Birmingham-based LIV Development’s plans include 353 multifamily units, 136 townhomes, 90 duplexes, a Lake Norman waterfront restaurant and a public multi-use shoreline greenway along Transco Road in southern Iredell County.

The greenway in the 96.8-acre community will offer rare public access to Lake Norman through a shoreline greenway, Estes McLemore of LIV Development said in the rezoning application.

“Currently, residents of Mooresville have a very small number of public accesses to the water,” McLemore wrote. “This development will provide a rare opportunity not only for the residents that live there, but for the entire community to enjoy each other’s company in a beautiful setting.”

“Most importantly,” developers said, the project will provide a major public road extension through the entire site, according to the request.

The 0.57-mile road will extend Langtree Campus Drive to the future Mooresville East-West Connector road, further opening the area to development, the developers said.

Town commissioners approved the rezoning by a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Miles Atkins casting the deciding vote. The mayor only votes in cases of a tie among the town board of commissioners. Commissioners Bobby Compton, Thurman Houston and Tommy DeWeese voted in favor of the rezoning.

“It’s a solid project, a tremendous community benefit,” Atkins said.

Commissioners Lisa Qualls, Eddie Dingler and Gary West voted against the rezoning.

SIGN UP: Have The Lake Norman Observer email newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

What critics say about project

Qualls, the board’s mayor pro tem, said the project proposes no employment opportunities other than the minimum 3,000-square-foot waterfront restaurant.

Mooresville had long eyed the area as an employment center.

“The site should be held for industrial/commercial uses,” Qualls said. “We worked for years to keep this as a jobs-focused area.”

“We have a big ‘F’ problem,” Qualls added, referring to funding and focus.

She said that includes broken funding promises from the North Carolina Department of Transportation when it comes to Mooresville roads.

Funding also is a concern with the Iredell-Statesville Schools, including where the system is going to get the money to build a needed high school in southern Iredell County, Qualls said.

“F’ also stands for “focus,” she said, meaning a lack of focus on the part of drivers causing wrecks and other issues.

Dingler cited over-development concerns.

“What are we going to do with 579 more cars on our roads without any infrastructure?” he asked.

Residents of nearby Lake Davidson in Mecklenburg County also have denounced the project in recent months, citing over-development and environmental concerns.

Project timeline

Speaking on behalf of LIV Development Monday night, consultant Cindy Reid said the construction of homes would not begin until October at the earliest, and certificates of occupancy for the first 50 units aren’t expected until June 2025. The restaurant, greenway and 275 more homes would be completed in July 2026, she told the commissioners.

That times well with the East-West Connector, she said.

The developer, meanwhile, tried to allay traffic concerns in recent months by agreeing to link a proposed road from the development to the planned Mooresville East-West Connector. A federal grant is helping fund the connector.

Monday night, Reid said 80% of traffic generated by the new community would use nearby Interstate 77, and only 20% of drivers would use N.C. 115.

In January, commissioners continued a public hearing on the developer’s rezoning request to learn more about funding and a timetable for the East-West Connector.

Then, Qualls said, “NCDOT is failing us” in expanding overburdened state roads in the town. “And we’re stuck holding the bag.”

The construction timetable is now more definite, town officials said. Norfolk Southern also OKed the route crossing its tracks, officials said.

Work on the four-lane East-West Connector is expected to begin in June, The Charlotte Observer recently reported. Town officials first proposed the connector decades ago for drivers to escape backups when traveling east-west across Mooresville.

Construction bids are due Tuesday for Phase 1 of the connector, Mooresville Public Services Director Jonathan Young has told the Observer. Phase 1 will stretch from Langtree Road to N.C. 115 and include a realigned Transco Road and a new rail crossing at N.C. 115. Construction will take about two years, officials said.

Phase 1 construction will cost just under $22 million, partly funded by a 2019 U.S. Department of Transportation BUILD Grant, Young said. Including design and right-of-way, the overall project could roughly turn out to cost around $25 million to $27 million, he said.

A future second and final phase of the project will connect Highway 115 with Shearers Road at the intersection of Shearers Road and Rocky River Road, and is anticipated to cost around $50 million, Young said.

The new Transco Road community will consist of two “villages,” with more dense buildings in the north village, the developers said.

The 96.8-acre site is bounded to the south and east by Lake Norman and by Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. to the west, Danny Wilson, Mooresville planning and community development director, said in a memorandum to the commissioners.

Mooresville also has budgeted the money to build fire station 7, which will serve areas including the new development, town officials said. Lowe’s Cos. Inc. agreed to donate land for the station, officials said.