Town staff presents voluntary annexation at Oak Ridge Farm Highway; commissioners raise traffic and impervious-cover concerns

Town planning staff presented a voluntary annexation request for a 4.697-acre property at 754 Oak Ridge Farm Highway and told the Board of Commissioners the owners intend to use public utilities for a small retail development.

Veronica Bateson, planner II, said the property lies in Mooresville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and, if annexed, would be in Ward 2. She said the site is in tier 1 of the town’s growth map and that water and sewer are available with no capacity issues. The owners were identified as All About U Holdings LLC and the applicant as Mylan 2, Bateson said.

Bateson said the parcel is currently zoned Hybrid Light Industrial and that the applicant told staff they intend a small retail establishment (staff mentioned a nail salon as an example). She said the site is constrained by town sewer easements, a stream buffer, NCDOT right-of-way, and the Back Creek watershed, leaving a 12% impervious coverage limit under town policy. At that coverage limit the developable impervious area is small, Bateson said.

Commissioners said the intersection at Overhill Drive and Selma Highway is a local concern and asked whether NCDOT had weighed in on driveway location and right-of-way requirements; staff said they had not yet received DOT input and would obtain that information. Some commissioners urged the applicant to pursue conditional zoning rather than a by-right annexation so the board could consider limits on allowed uses because the 12% impervious cap will effectively constrain many uses.

Staff said the site meets statutory requirements for voluntary annexation; the board did not take a final vote during the briefing.