NEWS & OPINION FEATURE
a restaurant,” she said, the foam coming up to her chest. “This is why you don’t build industrial developments in the middle of residential areas.” There are already a few warehouses and factories near Eppes’ home, mostly located on nearby Performance and Sam Wilson roads. There’s also the 855,000-square-foot Amazon Neighbors oppose massive fulfillment center that opened on Old Dowd Road industrial development in last year. west Meck She doesn’t mind those, as she said the topography in the area created a natural barrier BY RYAN PITKIN between the residential neighborhoods and industrial development, but now it’s coming to her As I walked with Missy Eppes through the yard doorstep — or backyard, rather. of her home on Moores Chapel Road, we passed a few roosters roaming the driveway. We also passed a few Volkswagen beetles and buses parked in the yard, where her husband works on them throughout the year in preparation for the couple’s annual Charlotte Transporter Show. We entered the woods, and after walking about 500 feet, we came across a creek where Eppes’ children play. That day, however, there appeared to be a cloud hovering on the surface of the creek. MISSY EPPES CHECKS OUT A FOAM CLUSTER IN A CREEK NEAR HER HOME. Upon closer look, the PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN cloud was actually a cluster of foam, which came down the creek after spilling A new rezoning petition from the Keith from a soap factory north of Eppes’ property. These Corporation, approved by city council on Nov. 16, were no soap bubbles, however; it was chemical will open the door for a 1.5-million-square-foot foam, and Eppes had no idea what was in it. industrial development on 156 acres right behind The foam eventually washed into the Catawba Eppes’ home. She and hundreds of area residents River, less than 3,000 feet farther downstream, but fear it could be the “tipping point” that turns their for the rest of that week her kids didn’t play in the residential neighborhoods into infill for industrial creek. development at a time when they should be Eppes showed me the foam cluster not to blow preparing for different types of development the whistle on some hidden environmental disaster arriving alongside the coming CATS Silver Line. — she said the spill came from an honest mistake at the factory and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm What does ‘smarter growth’ look Water Services was aware of it — but because it’s indicative of a bigger issue facing her community like? While city planners have pointed to the area in unincorporated west Mecklenburg County. The longtime residential area is becoming more near the western interchange of I-85 and I-485 as a “sweet spot” for industrial development due to industrial by the day, it seems. “This wouldn’t happen at a residence or from highway access and vicinity to the airport, neighbors
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A TIPPING POINT
are asking for “smarter growth” that melds better with the nearby U.S. National Whitewater Center, Iswa Nature Preserve and Lake Wylie. “Smarter growth looks like connected communities where people can live, work and play in the same area as you grow,” said Eppes. “It means that that growth is concentrated along corridors like the light rail, and then industrial [development] occurs as infilling in places where it already is … As one of my neighbors put it, a lake is a destination. It should be a place where people come to enjoy themselves.” Eppes launched an online petition opposing the development after city staff recommended its approval unanimously. As of the Sunday night preceding the vote, the petition had more than 1,100 votes. At its meeting on Nov 16, Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 to approve the petition, with proponents citing environmentally friendly practices from the developer and the nearly 1,000 jobs it will bring to the city.
‘The rural feel’
Eppes’ neighbor Sam Smith moved to the Moores Chapel area in 2017 because it was one of the last remaining underdeveloped spaces in Mecklenburg County. He knew development would come, but according to the Dixie Berryhill Strategic Plan formulated for the area in 2003, it would only come in the form of single-family residential development. “It was the rural feel, but also I know this is one of the areas in Charlotte that still had a lot of land left, and doing my research before moving over here, a lot of the land over here was locked in for residential development,” Smith said. “So what brought me here was that opportunity for the growth that was supposed to happen here.” What happened instead, he said, is that five factories popped up near his home in the first three years that he lived there. Now the petition, which developers have called the Square Grooves project, will be the biggest of the bunch. Smith fears what the impact on traffic will look like — city staff
estimates the development will generate 2,465 trips per day on surrounding roads — and the danger faced by the many cyclists who take the nearby roads to and from the Whitewater Center. He also fears that it will be the final straw that leads to a flood of more industrial development surrounding his home. “If this happens, I definitely think that’s going to open the door for more like this,” Smith said. “I think the size, just the square footage [of Square Grooves] definitely is a sign to us that the property here is valued more for logistical reasons than what it’s already zoned for, which is residential.”
A ‘sweet spot’ for industrial development
Speaking on the night before the vote, Keba Samuel, vice-chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, confirmed Smith’s fears. “One of the issues that Charlotte faces today is that industrial zoning is kind of being eliminated,” said Samuel, pointing to South End as an example of a once heavy industrial area that has been rezoned to residential and mixed use. “Areas in which industrial
SAM SMITH PHOTO BY MICHAEL NAIL
zoning makes sense are becoming kind of extinct in the city, so the trend around this area, particularly because it’s at a sweet spot between 85 and 485, it’s close to the airport, so as the airport continues to expand, you will see more industrial petitions that come our way, and I think targeting that particular area for what may be going in this particular site kind of makes sense just because of the transportation infrastructure that’s already there.”
