Statesville council approves special-use permit for 14 townhomes near Winston Avenue after evidentiary hearing

The Statesville City Council approved a special-use permit for a 14-unit townhome development on Winston Avenue following an evidentiary hearing that drew testimony from the applicant’s engineers and appraiser, city planning staff and an opposition witness representing the Statesville Housing Authority.

Applicant attorney Lisa Valdez introduced expert testimony from civil engineer Corey Sloan and appraiser Michael Berkowitz, who described the one-acre site plan, utility capacity and design and concluded the project complied with the Unified Development Code. Sloan said the plan would place 14 townhomes in four buildings (three 3-unit buildings and one 5-unit building), provide the city-required 20% common open space (10% active), accommodate two parking spaces per unit with shared driveways, and that NCDOT had provisionally cleared the driveway configuration pending permit.…