MONROE, N.C. — A group of Union County residents are fighting for their neighborhood, saying the area is growing too fast.
The group, mostly located off of Fowler Secrest Road, says their lovable piece of Monroe is losing its charm and family appeal.
The issue? A proposed development on a 50-acre piece of property at 2500 Fowler Secrest Rd.
What You Need To Know
50 to 119 homes potentially coming to 50 acres in Monroe creating unhappiness with the neighbors
Project is still in the planning phase and does not have city approval
Earliest the project could get a rezoning vote and decision is August, but even an August decision is not guaranteed at this point
The developer, BRD Land and Investment, says it plans on building 50 to 119 single-family homes on the 50 acres, selling them at market price.
Neighborhood organizers claim the development plan will create too many houses, overpopulate the neighborhood and create traffic and stormwater problems.
To date, a petition against the project has 298 signatures, more than halfway to the 500 request.
“This petition was started in order to get a NO vote from the Monroe City Council and the Monroe City Planning Committee,” it says across the top of the website.
David Dotson is a fan of his current neighborhood and one of the dozens against the development.
“It’s an older, established neighborhood, it has a good mixture of both older and younger people. There are young kids, there are retirees, we enjoy it a lot because it has bigger lots to it,” Dotson said while taking a walk along Fowler Secrest.
He’s lived in the Fox Hunt Estates area in Monroe for 11 years. The Fox Hunt Estates neighborhood is right next to the planned development.
Now, he’s worried the new development next door will ruin their community.
“There are currently five, I would say medium to large size, housing developments that are on this road as it sits right now,” Dotson explained, adding another would tax almost overwhelmed resources.
The planned development would bring anywhere from 50 to 119 homes to the area, according to developers BRD Land and Investment.
“The infrastructure here just can’t take it. The roadway, or any of the other city systems,” Dotson added.
Dotson and his neighbors are worried about traffic, water runoff, housing density and pedestrian safety.
The proposed development’s entrances and exits are a particular concern for Dotson.
“As you can see, seeing [while] getting out of here is already somewhat of an issue, without adding any more cars to the roadway,” Dotson said while taking Spectrum News 1 on a drive out of his current neighborhood.
He and fellow neighbor Mary Blythe Chipman are worried about growing traffic on Fowler Secrest, including putting a major entrance and exit to a 100-plus home neighborhood across from the senior living center located nearby.
“In that blind turn there’s a school bus stop that sits right there, and one of the proposed entrances will feed directly at that street and at that bus stop. Again, it’s a hill going into a blind curve,” Dotson said, referencing a school bus stop down the road.
Together, Dotson and Chipman are also worried it will take away the reason they love their homes.
“We moved here because we love Monroe, and we love the family feel that’s here, we love the quality of the schools here, the amenities that the city offers,” Chipman said.
“It allows you to get a feel that you’re not in a city, you’re away from the city, and you can just come here and — you don’t feel like you have the hustle and bustle,” Dotson added.
Together, the two say they are not against developing the property next to Fox Hunt Estates. They claim they simply do not want it rezoned to fit more than one house to an acre.
However, during a phone call, a spokesman for the BRD Land and Investment group said it was unlikely the developer would move ahead with one house per acre, saying it would not make financial sense for the project.
Instead, the spokesman said the company would focus on developing somewhere between 50 and 119 houses. In fact, BRD Land and Investment said they have already reduced the planned number of houses from an original 134, to the current 119.
The spokesman also said the company hired a traffic engineer to examine the entrances and exits, placing a right turn-only in and out at one end of the property, and the main multi-directional entrance and exit across from the senior living facility, keeping it away from the Fox Hunt Estates neighborhood entrance.
When asked about the potential for stormwater flooding and runoff, another neighborhood concern, the spokesman said a planned retention pond at a low elevation point in the property would manage the site’s water runoff and keep it from overflowing into a nearby creek.
In an email exchange about the project, the city of Monroe said the earliest the project could go in front of the Planning Board for review was August, however it was not confirmed the plans would be on the agenda for next month. No matter the Planning Board vote, it would still require approval or denial from city council.
“We’re going to kind of keep going back to the drawing board and make sure that we feel like we present something that people can understand our logic behind it and say, ‘Hey this is a good project and these guys have made some concessions, and done some things that feels like something that’s a little bit more in keeping with our neighborhood and our community, we can get behind this now.’ That’s our goal,” the BRD Land and Investment spokesman said.
But no matter what the city and developer decide, the struggle has made fast friends and a closer community.
“I think we’ve gotten to know our neighbors a lot better too through this process, and it’s really brought us together as a community for a common goal, and that’s been really exciting too,” Chipman added with a smile.