The site of the Town Center North townhome project is outlined in red. Photo courtesy of Town of Indian Trail
INDIAN TRAIL – A townhome project proposed for downtown may have people thinking they’re in Charlotte, and that bothers Indian Trail Councilman Jerry Morse.
The Moser Group has introduced its vision for Town Center North, a project with up to 65 townhomes on 2.96 acres at the old town hall site on Indian Trail Road.
The firm has not applied for rezoning yet, opting to get preliminary feedback on their idea during a developers workshop held prior to the Jan. 28 town council meeting.
“The goal would be to create an opportunity to live in downtown Indian Trail – a walkable neighborhood,” said Mackenzie Moser, a broker with The Moser Group, told the council.
Four-story buildings will consist of a garage on the first floor, three floors of living space and a rooftop patio. The townhomes will have two or three bedrooms that may be for sale or rent.
The concept is based on townhomes that can be found at the corner of South Boulevard and I-277 in Charlotte, Moser said, noting they have “a really pretty look.”
“I didn’t move out here to be Charlotte,” Morse said after Moser’s presentation. “I’m just going to be upfront. On the surface, this is something I would be totally opposed to the way it is presented right now. It’s just a massive amount of townhomes.”
Morse wasn’t aware of any other property in Indian Trail zoned for 22 units per acre. He said the “sardine effect” bothers him.
“It looks like it is just jammed in there,” Morse said. “Again, when I go down to Charlotte I see those massive high-rises. If that’s what Indian Trail wants, OK, but I just know that when I ran for council one of the things that I hear is this high-density development being (put) into tight spots.”
He also took issue with another 40-plus townhomes that have been approved in downtown but not yet built.
Indian Trail Councilman Todd Barber was concerned about the traffic that’ll be added to Indian Trail Road. He’s was also hoping to see more of a mixed use for the property and downtown.
“If everyone just builds townhomes, there’s nothing to walk to,” Barber said.
However, The Moser Group came into the discussion thinking they were adding to the mixed use by adding residential.
Michael Theberge, senior project manager with Bohler Engineering, worked with town staff to develop the project. He explained the town’s comprehensive plan talks about adding more height in areas where it’s not going to impact neighbors, such as along the rail line.
One of the challenges for developers is that Indian Trail is in between versions of a Unified Development Ordinance, which may have different development philosophies.
“It is good to have feedback of what y’all’s vision for the downtown area if it is different from the current plan or what the new UDO will be,” Moser told the council. “Personally, I’m 25. I think this would be a really cool place to live where people can have ownership in downtown. It does kind of look like an apartment but it allows for ownership versus renting one unit.”
Moser asked the council if they would be open to commercial fronting the road with residential in the back.
Councilman Marcus McIntyre brought up the idea of ground-floor shops with residential above them, which Moser interpreted as something akin to downtown Matthews.
The Moser Group also informally presented a second townhome project, dubbed Uptown Trail, on 3.7 acres at Indian Trail Road next to Indian Trail Elementary. This project includes up to 55 for-sale three-bedroom units with first-floor garages.
Theberge told the council they thought townhomes would be more appropriate use than commercial for being next to the school. This drew concerns about how the project would affect the queuing of parents in the school’s parking lot.
Morse asked if there was something more conducive to a school that could go there, like a daycare.
Stop trying to make Indian Trail into Charlotte. Does the name Indian Trail sound like a city to you? No, because it’s a town. There are many citizens in this town that remember when it was small and wonderful. Now, Indian Trail has become a congested mess. What about the roads, the overcrowded schools and the landfill that’s reaching its limit. How much is too much for you. I am grateful to the council members who are concerned with the housing plans, but being concerned isn’t enough. Action needs to be taken to save our town and focus on what use to make our town special. The open fields and beautiful trees.If people want a big city feel, they can move to Charlotte.
My family and I bought a home recently in Indian Trail partially for the reasons Jerry Morse is referring to. We think Jerry Morse is taking the right stand on this.
An9ther question where is our stormwater money that we pay 44,000 families 1.5 million and we have paid this for 10 years I have a email from Micheal Alvarez that states the storm water is so far behind it will never be caught up they have even told me different locations addresses and I would go there and nothing done where is our money and all our families need a refund for all these years that we have paid and nothing has been done
My fear is that Indian Trail will become overly congested and lose the wonderful intimacy that the area offers its residents.
I’m not to happy with the idea of more town homes and no plan to fix and widen roads. It would essentially start Indian Trail down the path to be like Charlotte and bring more people that like Charlotte and their philosophies to Indian Trail. It’s a community seeking to be unlike Charlotte, not sardines and terrible traffics with liberal view points that negatively affect working traditional families.
Adequate Infrastructure… roads, schools, law enforcement, utilities. We have 3,300 approved residential units yet to be built. Current Indian Trail residents will pay for the impact of these future residents. NCDOT has no money to improve our roads, evident in their delayed projects. To compensate for over capacity, Indian Trail schools use trailers as classrooms that, last time I checked, have no bathrooms, running water, panic button, security system; are not fire, lightning or bullet proof and throughout the day expose children/staff to all kinds of weather. Right now, we have about 24 contracted UCSO Deputies. More people, more crime, we’ll need more law enforcement. And, we already got notice we will be paying 30% more to use our water. Unless the Town Council requires developers to mitigate these impacts to our infrastructure or just says NO to their proposals, we will be paying for the new people who move into our Town.
This is a terrible idea. I live in Indian Trail and it already has the same traffic problems (if not worse) that Charlotte has. We need to really slow down the huge amount of people moving out here. Leave the forests alone so we can breathe.
Traffic is already herondous.Where are we putting all these people and cars??Please vote it down.There needs to be a cap on building in UNION COUNTY .HUMAN and Wildlife is being destroyed.
How about not approving all of these apartments and homes until Indian Trail has roads that are READY for increased traffic. Are any impact studies even done? Do the people who approve these ridiculous expansions consider what the people living here have to go through? Better yet do these people even live here in Indian trail?
Don’t let ithappen, enough is enough union has enough development now,same old roads except crooked toll roads,quit selling out to developers, growth is not always good, more crime,traffic, goofy, intersections,pollution, turning in the northeast,enough is enough !!!!!
One more thing if you approve this the flood gates will open,OK moser group build a new four lane road in front of your project,ofcourse not just another blood sucking developer!! Dont, let them play you indian trail. Like I said in the past growth is not always a good thing(tomuch) Indian trail has reached that allready.Just say NO No No No No!!!!. THE way I figured that will create another 130 more cars on these nice updated roads lol. SAME OLD ROADS THATS BEEN HERE FOREVER NOT COUNTING CROOKED TOLL ROAD! just say NO!!!!!!!
Definitely do not bring multi housing units to the area!!! “There goes the neighborhood” for sure! Awful! Terrible idea!
Just say no to the townhouses, condos, and new housing. We have so much new housing that is being built. Give it a rest.