Just a few yards west from where speeding cars roar past the Gillespie Property driveway there is a stand of tall Pine Trees and Cedars that conceal an unnoticed treasure in our suburban landscape.
The seldom noticed wetlands, that border the Gillespie Property on the opposite side of Elm Lane total more the 30 acres. Mecklenburg County owns 24 of those acres, and the White Oak Homeowners Association owns the remaining 12.
The area known as Pooh’s Corner by local kids because of the shape of the boardwalk (a corner) is a cornucopia of nature beholding a storybook setting of a 100 Acre Wood. The Four Mile Creek boardwalk leaves Bevington Place and heads southwest running along the western bank of the marshland and pond and then turns the “corner” heading west again.
This area is home to “everything” from King Fishers and Hawks, Red Wing Black Birds, and Eagles. In the late fall the Herron and Egrets will begin to gather and at times you can find a hundred or more in the trees along the marsh. Mammals large and small live here as well, from Otters to Coyotes and White Tail Deer. Plus an endless list of snakes and turtles, lizards and aquatic life.
These wetlands are constantly changing and serve as a filter for the Four Mile Creek Watershed and the Catawba Basin.
The area is a shock absorber that helps compensate for heavy rainfall and in return provides an abundant source of food for birds and mammals of all types.
The Rea Road Gillespie Property is surrounded on three sides by a FEMA flood zone and these “wetlands”.
More than 13 acres, 25% of the Gillespie Property is within the FEMA flood zone as well and is unbuildable. The property has elevations that range from 610 feet to 540 feet (above sea level), much of which would require a massive amount of site work to make it buildable for a project the size of which is proposed by RK Investing, LLC.
The size and scope of the site work, the resulting runoff and sediment is a direct threat to these wetlands. Once constructed this massive apartment project would produce unimaginable amounts of stormwater water hard surface runoff.
The problem with impervious surfaces is that they prevent the natural soaking of rainwater into the ground and slowly seeping into streams. Instead, the rainwater accumulates and flows rapidly into storm drains. This results in severe harm to streams like Four Mile Creek in three important ways:
Water Quantity: storm drains deliver large volumes of water to streams much faster than would occur naturally, resulting in flooding and bank erosion. Stream inhabitants are stressed, displaced, or killed by the fast-moving water and the debris and sediment it brings with it.
Water Quality: pollutants (gasoline, oil, fertilizers, etc.) accumulate on impervious surfaces and are washed into the streams.
Water Temperature: during warm weather, rain that falls on impervious surfaces becomes superheated and can stress or kill stream inhabitants.
In other words, The Rea Road Gillespie Project has the potential to destroy the delicate balance that has been established at “Pooh’s Corner” and within the FEMA flood plain that surrounds the Gillespie Property.
Therefore, it is obvious that a formal environmental impact assessment is needed before any consideration is given to rezoning this property. An assessment that we believe would prove the need for an alternative to a large multifamily development.