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The Town Board on Tuesday rejected a proposed seven-story, 100-foot retail and office tower off I-77 Exit 30, as commissioners said they saw no reason to exceed the district’s 75-foot height limit. Meanwhile, the board approved the site plan for Davidson Hall, a 34-unit development of luxury homes off Pine Road, after a long list of voluntary concessions by the developer.

The board voted 4-0 to deny developer/architect Rick Mack’s request for a conditional zoning permit for his Meeting Place office tower. And it voted 4-0 in favor of the Davidson Hall plan, after property owner Lawrence Kimbrough and developer Ray Killian, of Killian Simonini LLC, agreed to limit tree cutting on the 17.1 acre site, both during and after construction, and other conditions.

The votes came during the board’s monthly work session, which was the last working meeting for board members Bruce McMillen and Cary Johnston, who are retiring. The board had agreed to depart from its usual practice of avoiding formal business at work sessions.

Both votes were 4-0 because of the absence of Commissioner Margo Williams, who was reported to be out of town. Mayor Randy Kincaid, who will retire next month, also was absent.

LUXURY HOMES TO COME

Approval for Davidson Hall came after months of sometimes tense discussions between town officials, neighbors and the developer. The plan calls for 34 luxury homes, costing $500,000 to $1 million on a 17.1-acre parcel off the end of Pine Road.

Mr. Killian had noted on several occasions that the project did not require exceptions or rezonings. Nonetheless, during negotiations he and Mr. Kimbrough agreed to a variety of voluntary conditions, including: preserving trees, limiting home sizes to no more than 5,500 square feet, setting up a neighborhood review board and making financial contributions for landscaping, new trees in neighbors’ back yards, and to create a neighborhood park.

Mr. Killian said plans call for houses between 2,800 and 4,200 square feet, chosen from a limited number of designs – not custom home plans for each buyer. But the 5,500 square foot limit would allow for custom designs in the future if circumstances changed, he said.

Mr. Kimbrough said after Tuesday’s meeting that “the process has worked because we’ve had a willing buyer and a willing seller. I mean the developer-owner and the planning staff and the planning commission have all worked together to reach compromises, which by the ordinance are not required. But none of us wanted to come in here and try to shove anything down anybody’s throat, because it’s very much in our interest to have a top-quality development.”

Neighbors, who had worried about the size and density of the new homes as well as the loss of trees, seemed mostly comfortable with compromises.

Mary Beth Kuzmanovich, who lives on Pine Road and had joined neighbors opposed to the project, said afterward: “I think the dialogue we established with the developer since September was very productive in addressing the concerns we brought to the planning board.”

The project had aroused controversy after it was first unveiled last spring, not for home sizes or trees, but for an exemption granted to Mr. Kimbrough by the Town Board in 2004. In a little-publicized land swap, the town agreed to exempt the property from the town’s affordable housing requirements. In return, the town got land, some of which was needed for completion of the Southeast Greenway.

The land swap issue didn’t come up during the main discussion Tuesday, though local homebuilder Rodney Graham mentioned it briefly in comments suggesting that the board should reject the development plan. Mr. Graham also argued that the board should reject Mr. Kimbrough’s and Mr. Killian’s proposal because in his opinion does “not reflect the as-built environment” of the surrounding neighborhood – a reference to language in the town’s village infill planning rules.

TOWER PLAN REJECTED

The board’s rejection of the Meeting Place master plan sends Mr. Mack back to the drawing board. Town planning staff members and commissioners urged Mr. Mack to come back to the board with a plan that retains the unique architectural character of the building he showed, but stays within the ordinance’s height limits.

The project had received a negative review from the Design Review Board, on the question of height. The Planning Board narrowly recommended approval in a 6-5 vote Monday night. And the town planning staff had recommended denial of the conditional zoning request.

Ms. Johnston, before what she noted would be one of her final votes as a commissioner, said, “There’s no way I’m going to put pressure on future boards” by approving a building that exceeds height limits.

She said she was heeding the Design Review Board’s opinion that there is “no compelling reason” for the extra height. “We don’t disobey our rules. To me, if you make a rule, you’ve got to stick to it,” she said.

The developer suggested that the town’s height limits were “arbitrary.” That view found some sympathy among board members, including Ms. Johnston. Rather than approving a building that doesn’t fit the rules, she said, “I would want to go at it by changing the ordinance.”

Mr. McMillen said he thought Mr. Mack could achieve his desire for a unique structure within the height limits. “What makes this particular project of yours exciting,” he told Mr. Mack, “is not height. … We do have a limit (on height) and we ought to stick with it until we decide it needs to be changed.”

Mayor-elect John Woods said at the start of the discussion about Meeting Place that in his job as a banker, he has helped finance the land purchase in this project. He said that connection would not influence his vote, and he later joined other board members in opposing its approval.

TIME TO CHANGE ORDINANCES?

The idea that the town might need to review its planning ordinance was a recurring theme Tuesday.

Craig Lewis of the Lawrence Group, a planning firm working with Mr. Kimbrough and Mr. Killian on the Davidson Hall project, called the approval process grueling. Noting that the original plan they submitted met all the town requirements for approval, he said the town may want to consider strengthening its planning rules.

“Clearly we have standards, and we have expectations,” Mr. Lewis said. “We need to raise our standards to meet our expectations.”

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