Petition to deny conditional rezoning application R20-03 made by Northstate Development, LLC.

As an undersigned, I affirm that I am a resident of the Town of Huntersville, that I am over 18 years of age, and that I am opposed to rezoning application R20-03 for many reasons, including but not limited to:

• Utilizing our limited remaining space in the downtown area to develop multifamily/rental attached dwellings in lieu of premium retail space, within the existing Town Center zoned properties, eliminates the path for future downtown growth and development. This is not in keeping with the long-term plan for downtown.

• The existing properties represent one of the last central locations within Huntersville with a mature tree canopy and wildlife population. As such it represents one of the last opportunities for development that will define our downtown core. Ideally it would be developed as the completion of a very diverse, decades old neighborhood that complements the surrounding neighborhoods and the downtown core. It should build on the work currently underway to make Huntersville a destination for those looking to put down roots as well as visitors looking for a pleasant place to visit and shop. Ideally it would include a wooded park, walking paths, ponds to address existing flooding and destination retail and commercial space fronting the Gilead road corridor.

• The current infrastructure for Police, Fire, EMS, water, and education are all significantly burdened. The immediate explosive addition of potentially several hundred residents in leased housing would place an undue burden on an already straining system and undermine the sense of community so important to making out town a destination for shoppers and visitors.

• Developing the parcels inside the boundaries of Greenfield Park for anything other than detached single family housing is not in keeping with the existing neighborhood and our charming small town character. It will directly and injuriously affect all adjacent and nearby homes, and would violate the guiding principles of the Town of Huntersville planning strategy. Those parcels currently zoned neighborhood residential can be developed in keeping with town planning principles under the current zoning restrictions, eliminating the need for rezoning.

• The streets within Greenfield Park, specifically Greenway, Hillcrest, Holbrook, and Watkins Streets, are designed as 25 mph streets within an established low-density neighborhood with a very low acceptable traffic threshold. Those streets would suffer an undue and unsafe traffic burden with the additional traffic proposed, potentially creating millions of dollars in future maintenance and improvements costs.

• There is an existing storm water runoff problem with floodplains already touching existing homes along the stream between Greenway and Hillcrest Drives a long history of flood issues. That stream flows into Torrence Creek and Mountain Island Lake. Current zoning only requires the development plan to “not make it worse” and as such is failing to implement a reasonable and safe storm water management plan, particularly for a critical drinking watershed.