News Stories concerning Mint Hill
Mussel decision may limit growth
Mussel decision may limit growth
Ruling calls for wide Goose Creek buffers for endangered heelsplitter
BRUCE HENDERSON
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
Mint Hill, Stallings and Indian Trail will have to limit development in a watershed that's home to an endangered mussel, a state panel ruled Thursday.
Without measures to protect it, biologists say, the Carolina heelsplitter could be wiped out of Goose Creek in two to five years. Water too polluted for the mussel to survive isn't healthy for human communities either, they say.
But limiting growth in one of Charlotte's fastest-developing suburbs, eastern Mecklenburg and western Union County, won't go down easy.
Thursday's decision says the towns will have to protect 200-foot-wide buffer zones -- the widest in the state -- on both sides of Goose Creek and its larger tributaries. Buffers 100 feet wide will surround smaller, intermittent streams.
Stormwater control structures will have to be installed where development disturbs 10 percent or more of a tract.
The measures could make some property unbuildable when they go into effect in July, unless either side appeals. Mint Hill is expected to feel the impact because much of the watershed is there.
"It would have a tremendous negative impact on development and development possibilities, not just on large projects but on those of individual property owners," said interim town manager Brian Welch.
Welch said he left the Raleigh meeting with many unanswered questions, including whether development that's already under way would be affected. Groundbreaking is expected this year on a regional shopping center, The Bridges at Mint Hill.
Stallings Mayor Lynda Paxton said the ruling would not substantially affect her town because it has less undeveloped land than the others. But Paxton said she was frustrated that the towns' joint request for 35-foot buffers wasn't honored.
"Nobody has ever produced evidence that shows 200 feet is scientifically better than 35," she said. The towns have another, if unlikely, option: delay development in the watershed until the state completes a plan to protect the heelsplitter. The plan isn't expected to take effect until 2008.
That plan will also require creek buffers, but their width hasn't been decided, said Tom Reeder of the N.C. Division of Water Quality.
The issue arose when the N.C. Wildlife Federation and local Sierra Club chapter challenged state stormwater-control permits for the three towns.
An administrative law judge ruled for the groups in October. The judge said the permits were so lax they essentially doomed the mussel, which can't survive in water polluted by construction sediment and urban runoff.
Thursday, a committee of the state Environmental Management Commission upheld the judge's recommendation by requiring the wide buffers.
But the environmental groups called it only a partial victory.
Committee members altered or omitted some of the judge's recommendations, such as setting a higher threshold for development where stormwater structures are needed, said John Suttles of the Southern Environmental Law Center. The center represents the Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club.
"It's far better than the (original) permit," Suttles said of the committee vote, "just not far enough." -- Staff writer Mike Torralba contributed.
-- Bruce Henderson: 704-358-5051.
MINT HILL - Mayor Ted Biggers knew the Mecklenburg County ABC Board wanted to build a store in Mint Hill. But he didn't know they had decided on a location until he saw the sign Tuesday morning.
The site of the liquor store is in the center of town.
"The ABC Board contacted me several months ago to talk about a site. I told them we'd rather not have a store in town at all. We (Mint Hill Commissioners) unanimously agreed that we did not want them going ... in the middle of town," Biggers said.
"Over the past couple weeks, we've sent letters, made phone calls and more. They said they would call us when they made a decision. But they came out, put up a sign and blatantly ignored what we had to say. Now we're both going to spend taxpayer money to fight one another."
The store would be beside Jimmie's Restaurant on N.C. 51 in the new Mint Hill Pavilion Shopping Center. It also would be across the street from a library, just down the road from Queens Grant Charter School and a day-care center, and adjacent to Brighton Park, a new 380-home development.
Officials with the Mecklenburg County ABC had not returned calls late Tuesday.
Ten years ago, the Alcoholic Beverage Control board dropped plans to build a store in Mint Hill because of residents' reaction. That site also was along N.C. 51.
Since then, Interstate 485 has circled one side of the town with five exits. Mint Hill also has grown and undergone massive changes with much focus on downtown development.
Mint Hill Baptist Church pastor Lee Proctor, who actively opposed the proposed store a decade ago, says he's prepared to voice his concerns again. "I don't think they are trying to hurt or ignore us. I just don't think they've heard from us, and we need to let them do that," Proctor said.
The ABC board's next meeting is at noon on Feb. 21 at 3333 N. Tryon St.
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Road near planned mall gets potent push Strings pulled by Black net windfall for project jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com When $6 million to widen Lawyers Road suddenly turned up in the state budget last summer, Mint Hill Mayor Ted Biggers was elated. But puzzled. "I don't know who to thank for it," he says. Turns out, Biggers can thank Jim Black. Black, the House speaker from neighboring Matthews, made sure the money was included as House and Senate leaders hammered out a compromise $17 billion spending plan. He did it even though the widening had not been requested by transportation planners or appeared on any state priority list. His reason: to aid development of a regional shopping center, whose construction some fear could threaten an endangered species of mussel. The mall's boosters include Belk Inc., which would build an anchor store at the site on Lawyers Road at Interstate 485. "We put it in for the whole region," Black says. "Anywhere that I can help with economic development, I'll do that." The road illustrates how projects favored by top lawmakers can bypass normal procedures. Road planning and funding often take years. "This is, to me, the latest example of a process that needs dramatic overhaul," says Chris Fitzsimon, director of N.C. Policy Watch, a Raleigh think tank. "We have a transportation planning process that involves local governments and metropolitan authorities. ... When legislative leaders can spend millions of dollars building roads without going through that process, it's very frustrating to people who play by the rules." Black says he discussed the road needs last year with representatives of developer Childress Klein and Luther Moore, Belk's general counsel. The present two-lane road is considered inadequate to support the planned 1.3 million-square-foot mall, to be called The Bridges at Mint Hill. Like his bosses, Moore is a longtime Black supporter. Moore, company Chairman John Belk and other members of the Belk family have contributed a total of nearly $25,000 to Black's campaign since 2003. Moore says he doubts the road was a political favor. "We've been in Mecklenburg for a long time," he says, "plus it's a good project for that part of the area." Black says he agrees that roads should be built "through the regular policy." So what prompted the shortcut for Lawyers Road? The fact that Raleigh-area lawmakers included a controversial road extension in Wake County, though with no specified amount of money. "As long as the rules allow transportation projects to make their way into the budget, I'm going to make sure that ... we get our fair share," Black says. "If a project is going to show up in the budget for another part of the state, I'm going to match it. "... As long as that situation is somewhat out of hand, until we can get our arms around it, I'm not going to let that money go somewhere else." Black has faced controversy since a federal grand jury subpoenaed records from his office late last year, including some involving a former aide who lobbied while serving as his unpaid political director. His lawyers say he isn't a grand jury target. Transportation Department officials this month voted to use $500,000 of the money for preliminary improvements to Lawyers Road. Like the rest of the $6 million, the money will come from an additional $44 million intended for road maintenance. DOT board member Larry Helms of Indian Trail says he's not bothered by the failure to go through normal channels. Members of Congress, he says, often earmark money for favored road projects. "We're excited to get all the money we can get," Helms says, "because we need so much money for roads." The proposed shopping center -- which would be bigger than Northlake and Eastland malls -- has been in planning for more than three years. Last summer, town commissioners rezoned 215 acres. But the project still must get state and federal permits to disturb the stream and wetlands. The site straddles Goose Creek, home to the endangered Carolina heelsplitter mussel. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities has asked the state to revisit a 2002 permit that forbids new water lines in the area until extensive environmental studies are made. State officials are trying to resolve the issue. Rick Roti of the Sierra Club says his group remains unconvinced the mall can be built without harming the watershed. David Haggart of Childress Klein Properties says the mall will have "no impact" on Goose Creek. He says 40 percent of the site will be used for green space and stormwater will be filtered before running into the creek. The $6 million, he adds, will pay for "a fraction" of total road improvement costs, and Childress Klein and its co-developer will fund the rest. The Lawyers Road money appears to give the Mint Hill location a leg up on a competing site farther south on I-485 at Idlewild Road. That site is favored by the Union County town of Stallings. "Mecklenburg always gets more road funding," says former Stallings Mayor Lucy Drake. "And then when you have the speaker of the House pulling a magic trick and giving $6 million to a favored town and favorite department store personnel, then it just does not seem fair." Black says the criticism doesn't bother him. "Lucy Drake ought to run for the legislature and come down here and try to be speaker," he says. "And she'd have more influence." -- Staff writer Bruce Henderson contributed. -- Jim Morrill: (704) 358-5059
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