From 9-irons to new homes
A pair of new neighborhoods help push Charlotte's boom across the
Catawba
DOUG SMITH
A public golf course that closed almost three years ago soon will be
teeming with home owners and shopkeepers.
Cramerton's former Lakewood Golf Links is now known as simply Lakewood,
a planned traditional neighborhood development of 675 homes, a village
commercial center and pockets of green space.
Such developments are the darlings of urban planners because they
promote pedestrian friendliness and reduce air-polluting car trips.
Cramerton town planner Steve Baucom said Lakewood, about 14 miles west
of uptown Charlotte, might be Gaston County's first to fully integrate all
the elements of traditional neighborhood development.
Housing will range from
single-family to live-work units atop shops and restaurants.
Many homes will include deep front
porches and other features reminiscent of the architectural styles of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Houses will have alleys in back
instead of driveways in front.
Pocket parks and water features
will promote outdoor activities and walking.
The main through street will be
landscaped with trees in the median and on both sides, much like Queens
Road in Charlotte.
A civic building, clubhouse and
pool will provide neighborhood amenities and create gathering places.
A site within the neighborhood is
earmarked for a school. The developers say a Montessori school is
interested.
But what really pushes Lakewood into The Next Big Thing category is its
neighbor -- Eagle Lake, a Belmont traditional neighborhood development of
294 homes under construction next door.
Together, they will boost Gaston's housing stock by nearly 1,000 units
and push Cramerton's population to new heights.
Baucom said that with Lakewood and other projects under way the town's
population of 3,200 could nearly double by 2015.
Similar growth is occurring in Belmont, McAdenville and Mount Holly as
Charlotte's residential boom surges westward across the Catawba River into
eastern Gaston.
Rob Pressley of Firmitas LLC, whose principals are involved in
developing both Lakewood and Eagle Park, compares what's happening there
with the 1990's surge in north Mecklenburg County's towns of Huntersville,
Davidson and Cornelius.
Now, with north Mecklenburg and other ring counties facing congestion
and school overcrowding, "What direction can the growth go?" he
asked. "The answer is obvious. It's west."
As land becomes scarce and expensive in Mecklenburg and surrounding
communities impose restrictions on growth, developers no longer view the
Catawba River as a natural barrier.
Commute time also is a key reason home buyers are willing to cross the
river.
Pressley, who just purchased a house in downtown Belmont for his
family, said the drive from there to his office in South End takes about
15 minutes.
Officials in Gaston's small towns for the most part have seen the
housing boom coming and prepared for it.
Baucom said Cramerton had begun working on traditional neighborhood
development ordinances about the same time Firmitas proposed Lakewood.
"They worked with us in what we were preparing to do," he
said. "It's something that works."
Two-lane Lakewood Road -- a major connector now -- will become a
neighborhood street.
Firmitas will build a new connector -- a four-lane divided boulevard --
consistent with Gaston's thoroughfare plan, Baucom said.
"It will give us a new gateway into the community," he said.
Pressley said construction began in May 2005 in 56-acre Eagle Park, a
$150 million neighborhood where about 14 houses have been completed across
the street from an elementary school.
Firmitas expects to start site work on 140-acre Lakewood in the spring.
The estimated $250 million project will be developed in phases and take
six years to complete.
Home prices in both communities will range from the $200,000s to the
$800,000s, Pressley said.
He said Firmitas is negotiating with Beazer Homes to be the first
builder in the project. Starting in early 2008, it would develop all of
phase one, which includes 170 townhomes and single-family houses.
Eagle Park Homes, the developer's custom builder, is building the
initial single-family houses in Eagle Park.
Meeting Street Homes & Communities plans to start building as many
as 70 first-phase townhomes there early next year.
Pressley said the developers are negotiating with five other regional
and national home builders to participate in the two communities.
Lakewood's village center, which will include about 34,000 square feet
of commercial space and 8,000 square feet of civic space, will provide
services and amenities to both neighborhoods.
THE DEVELOPERS
Firmitas LLC includes four principals who formed the development
company to "create high-quality human habitats." They are:
Tom Graham of Atlanta-based
Graham Development, which developed the I'On Village traditional
neighborhood on the Cooper River in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and also plans
to redevelop Charlotte's Morningside Apartments as a new community called
Morningside Village.
Rob Pressley, president of
Coldwell Banker Commercial MECA, which worked with Graham on acquiring
Morningside.
Mark Turner, experienced in
engineering and site development.
Francis Reiner, experienced
in land planning and urban design.
The Firmitas principals are partners in both Lakewood and Morningside
Village.
HOW LAKEWOOD EVOLVED
Firmitas principal Rob Pressley was golfing with a partner in the
company that owned Lakewood Golf Links when he learned it could be bought.
He took the idea to Tom Graham, whose Eagle Park Development LLC had
demolished an old mill on the property next door for the Eagle Park
neighborhood.
Lakewood is in Cramerton, and Eagle Park is in Belmont, but the
projects are separated only by a railroad track.
Graham liked the idea of creating a traditional neighborhood
development similar to his I'On Village near Charleston.
But another developer had failed in an earlier attempt to rezone the
52-year-old golf course for a shopping center and 500-plus houses.
This project was different. It proposed a traditional neighborhood
development mixing homes and commercial uses amid walkable streets just as
Cramerton was considering amending its ordinances to embrace such
projects.
Firmitas petitioned Cramerton for a rezoning, and agreed during the
process to make road improvements to ease traffic around the neighborhood.
Lakewood site work is to start early next year, and the first home
owners should be able to move in by mid-2008.
LAKEWOOD
Site size:
140 acres
Open space:
46 acres
Single-family homes:
332
Townhomes:
185
Duplex units:
100
Quadplex units:
8
Condominiums:
50
Commercial:
34,000 square
feet
Civic: 8,000 square feet
Timetable:
Starts 2007
Value:
$250 million
EAGLE PARK
Site size:
59 acres
Open space:
6 acres
Single-family homes:
164
Townhomes:
57
Duplex units:
28
Quadplex units:
4
Sixplex units:
6
Live-work units:
16
Shop front/condos:
18
Civic space:
1 unit
Timetable:
Under
construction
Value: $150 million
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