The Planning Commission voted to recommend a major mixed-use development despite significant community opposition, while rejecting a smaller townhouse project over blasting and well-water concerns that emerged as a major regional issue during the meeting.
The commission voted 10-1 to move forward with Lee Village Center, a proposal to rezone 81.75 acres near Fairington Road and the NC-54/I-40 interchange into a compact suburban design district for 1,667 to 2,294 mixed-use units. Only Commissioner Woke opposed the rezoning. The applicant, Silven Lee LLC (owned by the Harris and Booker families), committed to affordable housing at multiple income levels for 30 years, but six community speakers raised concerns about traffic being funneled through Eastwood Park on local streets rather than direct NC-54 connections, environmental impacts on natural areas, inadequate transit access (the nearest bus stop is 1.28 miles away), and school overcrowding. The applicant negotiated live during the hearing to preserve a natural heritage area in the project's southwest corner as open space and constructed wetlands, with no development permitted there. Patrick Biker, the applicant's attorney, emphasized this is an owner-led project with strong environmental commitments, and that traffic and transit analyses will occur at the site plan stage.
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