Davidson Commissioners to send ironic letter opposing Mooresville's Lake Davidson neighborhood

"The one thing I don't see in here is this whole concern about the intensity of the neighborhood - how big it is; how many houses it is; how many people you're trying to put in that space compared to the R3 zoning it was.

It seems a little bit like it's not strong enough.  It's like we have some concerns, but basically, we don't like it at all."

That was Davidson Commissioner Stacey Anderson referring to a draft letter put together by Planning Director Jason Burdett on behalf of the Board.  At last week's Board meeting the Board discussed sending the letter to Mooresville expressing their concerns around the proposed Lake Davidson neighborhood in Mooresville's ETJ right on Davidson's border.  Anderson's comment came as the discussion opened.  See video at minute 160 here.

Commissioners spent several minutes critiquing the Mooresville project.  There were questions and concerns about Mooresville's process, by right versus conditional zoning, and whether this plan fit within the stated plans for the area.  Mayor Woods told of speaking to area land owners and there being little detail on the actual future plan at this point.  They also danced around the fact that it's a bit unusual for one local Board to offer direct criticism or even suggestions to another elected Board.

However, what may have been the most unusual thing of all was the level of seemingly unnoticed irony in this discussion considering that what Mooresville is doing is effectively the same thing as what Davidson just recently did itself with its mass RAP rezoning. To allow for more density in major portions of its rural area, Davidson uptiered the zoning of 1100 acres from Rural to Neighborhood Edge, Neighborhood General, or Neighborhood Services - all of which allow much more density than Rural.

During the RAP debate, many of the concerns expressed by Davidson's citizens were the exact same ones expressed by Davidson's Commissioners in the discussion about the Lake Davidson neighborhood.  One has to wonder if Davidson Commissioners could hear themselves as they expressed them.  Did they hear the irony?

When the citizens expressed them about the RAP, Davidson Commissioners rammed through their plan anyway.  Those same Commissioners shouldn't be surprised if they get the same treatment from Mooresville on June 5th.