Barriers block the end of South Street last week. Completing the covered bridge roof (background) is all that remains before the road can open into Cornelius, developer says.

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

The South Street extension, which will link Davidson with a new 1,000-home development across the town line in Cornelius, will open to traffic within days, the developer’s spokesman and Davidson town officials said this week.

The impending opening, and a marketing campaign that plays up the project’s Davidson connections, are rekindling concerns among Davidson residents about traffic, both in the South Street/Walnut Street neighborhood and on Main Street and other town streets.

Until now, South Street has been a dead end. A citizen committee several years ago recommended opening the street as part of a broad plan to increase connectivity in and around Davidson and ease traffic pressures on the town’s main thoroughfares.

Then, 3½ years ago, Davidson agreed to open the road just south of Davidson Elementary School. The agreement with Cornelius came as developer Venture Properties, of North Wilkesboro, was beginning planning for a mixed-use transit-oriented development on the Cornelius side to be called Antiquity Cornelius.

The new roads through Antiquity eventually will provide an alternate route south from Davidson and will bring a mix of new offices and shops nearby.

“The architecture is supposed to be an old town feel, a mix of architecture so it will look like it was built over time,” said Joseph T. “Joe” Roy IV, who is overseeing work for Meeting Street Cos. and is the project’s spokesman. “The feel is going to be like a Birkdale Village (in Huntersville), but more mom and pop type shops.”

But some Davidson residents are concerned, among other things, about an apparent lack of progress on a southern entrance that would connect the development to N.C. 115 and Catawba Avenue in Cornelius. Some also are wondering anew if Davidson gave up too much when it agreed to the road connection.

Residents also are up in arms over advertisements and website promotions that trumpet the development’s Davidson focus. Maps and directions send potential buyers to the site via Exit 30, through downtown Davidson and down South Street, entering the development via a new covered bridge on the new South Street extension. A map on the website (www.antiquitync.com) depicts the South Street extension as ending in a cul-de-sac, with no access through Cornelius (see related article below, “Antiquity: In Davidson or Cornelius?”).

Bill Worsley, of South Street, said Thursday he wants Davidson officials to “help me and others understand why this was ever a good deal for the Town of Davidson. … Many of us continue to be under the opinion that we agreed to a deal in which Cornelius gained and Davidson gave up way too much.”

RATIONALE FOR THE AGREEMENT

The Antiquity project is unusual because it involves a development beyond the town line. Davidson has had no say over planning and will receive no tax revenue, though the development’s effects – including traffic and utility work – affect existing neighborhoods in Davidson most, at least initially.

As with other growth issues in Davidson right now – Exit 30 development, an affordable housing exemption for property off Pine Road, and the Village at South Main project — residents’ concerns about the Antiquity project can be traced to a Town Board decision several years ago.

Because the Antiquity development’s success would hinge on the opening of South Street, Cornelius and Venture Properties were eager in 2004 to persuade Davidson to allow the connection. For Davidson, incentives to open the road were few – other than a desire for connectivity. Drawbacks were easy to list: traffic, parking, strains on roads and other public facilities, and a lack of tax revenue because the project is in another town, to name a few.

On Feb. 10, 2004, the board voted unanimously to adopt the “interlocal agreement” with Cornelius. (Board members at the time were Margo Williams, Cary Johnston, Bruce McMillen, Garfield Carr, and John Woods.) Since then, Davidson officials have defended the agreement. When the town board held a special meeting with unhappy neighbors in February 2005 aimed at easing tensions, Mayor Randy Kincaid told residents Cornelius could have asserted its right of eminent domain to force the connection if Davidson had refused to allow it.

Town Manager Leamon Brice told residents at the 2005 meeting, “We did the best we could.”

Davidson did win some concessions from the developer and Cornelius, including a ban on construction traffic on South Street, cooperation lobbying for future school sites, and a pledge by Cornelius officials to allow a connection from Bailey Road into Davidson – which has since opened. (Critics of the agreement believe the Bailey Road connection would have happened anyway, once the new middle school was built there.)

The developer agreed to remove an abandoned tank at the old sewage treatment plant at the end of South Street.

The agreement also requires the development to provide for possible future street connections to property owned by The Pines at Davidson retirement community, though it’s not clear if Davidson can or will follow through on developing those streets.

LAST STEP: BRIDGE ROOF

Town Manager Leamon Brice and Town Board member John Woods say Davidson has been working to ensure that Cornelius and the developer adhere to the 2004 agreement.

Now they say the checklist of requirements is nearly complete. Mr. Roy, the developer, said his company needs only to finish the covered bridge roof before the road opens. Once that’s done, which could be as early as next week, he expects barriers at the end of South Street to be removed.

Davidson officials said the developers and Cornelius have met all other conditions for the street opening, although one sore point remains: Work on a main entrance at the southern end of the development in Cornelius has yet to begin. The developers and Cornelius are in the midst of a painfully slow approval process, seeking permits from the state Department of Transportation, Norfolk Southern and Charlotte Area Transit (CATS) for the new railroad crossing at Catawba Avenue.

“It has been frustrating,” Mr. Roy said this week. Although some Davidson residents are concerned the rail crossing may never happen, Mr. Roy said he needs it, and the new entrance at an extended Catawba Avenue, so he can develop the final office and retail phase of the project.

The first dozen or so of about 700 single-family detached homes, townhouses and condos are already under construction. The Phase I site plan on view at the Cornelius Town Hall makes it clear that the southern entrance to the development is a secondary consideration for now; a note on the plan says South Street “is the primary access to this phase of development” and says homes may not be issued certificates of occupancy until the South Street connection opens.

CROSSING NOT REQUIRED

The interlocal agreement stipulates that new rail crossing was supposed to be in place by Sept. 30, 2006, or Davidson would have the right to keep South Street closed. But language in the agreement softens that requirement, saying the street can open if Cornelius and developer can show that “any necessary permissions for the crossing construction have been requested in a timely manner and have been unreasonably withheld by the permitting authorities.”

That’s how the developer sees it, and Davidson officials agree.

Mr. Roy has supplied Davidson with a timeline of meetings and other actions taken over the past few years in an effort to secure the necessary approvals. Besides meetings, the efforts include Cornelius’s recent efforts to begin closing some streets across the tracks to allow for the new connection.

Mr. Roy said the timeline shows they’ve been working on the deal. “You have NCDOT, Norfolk Southern, CATS, the county and the town. Trying to please that many different people is hard,” Mr. Roy said.

Mr. Brice said Davidson officials believe those efforts satisfy the interlocal agreement. “At least in my view, if you look at what Joe Roy sent, they have been working with Norfolk Southern and DOT on what appears to me a rigorous, routine basis, trying to get the approvals they need to open the Catawba Avenue crossing. We feel like they’ve done everything (in the agreement) but that, and they’ve tried to do everything they could do to get that,” Mr. Brice said.

Mr. Woods, a longtime board member who is running for mayor, said, “We have an agreement, and it’s pretty well defined. It has one issue that’s a bit more qualitative than quantitative, and that requires a good faith effort to work with (transit officials). At our last meeting on this, Leamon (Brice) asked the developers for proof of the fact that they’re working to get the approvals. We think that they are, in fact, doing that.”

RESIDENTS REACT

South and Walnut neighborhood residents said this week they are unhappy with the lack of a visible, high-profile entrance in Cornelius, with the developer’s description of the development as having its only entrance in Davidson, and with the lack of teeth in the original agreement that Davidson commissioners signed with Cornelius in 2004.

“I just think they made a poor deal,” Jay Neal, a South Street resident, said this week. “I think we got completely out-negotiated on this. We gave up a whole lot more than we got.”

Mr. Worsley, who served on a Davidson town task force that studied street calming and traffic issues, said he and other residents are “very disturbed.”

“We know now that our greatest concerns regarding this development have come true – South Street in Davidson has become the entrance to a Cornelius development that has plans for over 1,000 homes, with no plans that we know of for the Catawba Avenue railroad crossing and entrance required by the inter-local agreement in sight,” Mr. Worsley said.

TRAFFIC TO COME

The interlocal agreement requires only a 20-foot wide street connecting to Zion Street in Cornelius, which runs parallel to N.C. 115. That new entrance is called Market Street, and drivers in theory can enter and exit the development there, and use Zion Street to reach N.C. 115 via an unprotected, at-grade rail crossing at Railroad Street, near New Method Cleaners.

But as of Thursday, none of the existing or newly constructed streets in Cornelius had signs pointing to or identifying the Antiquity project. A large black and white sign facing Zion Street announces that Market Street is a construction entrance.

Davidson residents are concerned that the lack of a clearly marked, improved southern entrance is a sign that Davidson will be the development’s main entrance, especially as more and more homes are completed.

Mr. Roy initially told Mr. Brice this spring he expected about 100 homes to be completed before a new southern entrance is completed next summer. This week, Mr. Roy acknowledged that it now appears it will be fall 2008 or later before that entrance is completed. Neighbors of the project are concerned that will mean even more homes will be built and occupied while Davidson remains the main entrance to the project.

Meanwhile, officials at Davidson Elementary School on South Street, which is near where the road will open, are bracing for the advent of two-way traffic. Principal Celeste Ellis said automobile traffic at school opening and closing hours is already heavy because a large number of parents drive their children to and from school.

In the past with South Street a dead-end, the line of cars has snaked down South Street, in and out of the parking lot, and back up the street. But with two-way traffic expected to be open by the start of school, Ms. Ellis and Davidson town staff say they have been discussing whether there is a need for a new traffic pattern. Planning director Kris Krider said he would like to wait and see how the street opening affects traffic before changing the pickup and drop-off procedures. Ms. Ellis said, “We’re going to work very closely with the police department … We’re talking about getting some increased traffic patrols and crossing guards. The police department is commited to making this successful for us.” (updated Wed. July 25, 2007)

OLD SUSPICIONS

Residents are wary in part because some past promises and statements about the project already have not held true. Although the interlocal agreement bans construction traffic through Davidson, cement trucks and other construction vehicles were seen using South Street to get to the Davidson side of the bridge project in August 2006. Town officials took no action.

With new traffic expected from Cornelius, two speed humps were built on South Street and stop signs were re-jiggered on Walnut Street. Residents of the South and Walnut neighborhood asked Davidson in 2004 and 2005 to consider additional measures to keep the street safe.

Davidson planners led neighbors through a series of meetings in 2005 that they said were to identify locations for additional traffic calming measures. Residents were hopeful after they spent hours at one Town Hall workshop discussing potential street changes, sidewalks and other issues, and drawing on maps. The Town Board added money for traffic calming to the town budget, but when it came time to allocate the funding, the money was spent elsewhere.

Davidson officials also tried to get residents to aid their own cause in 2006, in part through a neighborhood committee that was supposed to come up with low-cost tactics for slowing traffic (painting intersections, putting up planters, expanding on-street parking, for example.) But that effort withered when residents were told they had to raise money or pay for the work themselves.

David Boraks is editor of DavidsonNews.net and lives on South Street. In 2004 and 2005, he was involved in neighborhood discussions and meetings with town officials about traffic related to the Antiquity project.

DOCUMENTS AND LINKS

Website of developer Venture Properties, N. Wilkesboro, N.C.

Marketing Website for Antiquity development, www.antiquitync.com

Town of Davidson web page on South Street issue 2004-2005, with documents (note: some material outdated)

Interlocal agreement between Davidson and Cornelius, governing the opening of South St.

Timeline of work on Catawba Avenue/N.C. 115 rail crossing, provided by developer Joe Roy to Town of Davidson (as of January 2007)

Design for reconfigured N.C. 115/Catawba Avenue intersection, provided to Town of Davidson

Antiquity site plan, on Developer’s Website

Marketing map and directions through Davidson to Antiquity, showing South Street as a cul-de-sac

Other stories in DavidsonNews.net’s “Living With Growth” series