Commerce Station Industrial rezoning approved to aid industrial expansion and future road alignment

Huntersville commissioners unanimously approved petition R24-14 (Commerce Station Industrial) on April 22, allowing corporate-business conditional district uses with several modifications and conditions, and reserving right-of-way flexibility for a potential future Verhoff Drive alignment.

Planning staff said the proposal does not change allowed corporate uses but requests modifications to stream and corporate-business buffers, block length, and sidewalk width along a private drive. The applicant agreed to staff recommendations to add sidewalks and street trees on the private drive but requested a 5-foot sidewalk to match existing Commerce Station Drive conditions; staff supported that modification.

A major topic of discussion was the future Verhoff (Virchow) Drive alignment. Town consultants had developed preliminary alternative alignments (red, orange, purple on staff slides). Staff and the applicant worked to ensure the proposed site plan would not prevent the town from pursuing the preferred alignment in the future; staff concluded the plan can accommodate the current town alignment options, and the motion included a condition reserving right-of-way dedication between the red and orange alignments on Lot 2.

The board added conditions requiring an urban open-space element connecting buildings to the pedestrian realm and that water-quality mitigation fees be applied to the Mecklenburg County Cane Creek project if allowed by the county. Planning staff recommended approval; the Planning Board had earlier recommended unanimous approval.

The motion passed unanimously with conditions. Staff noted the plan will also require addressing final redlines before permits are issued.