The Mooresville Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 Monday to table a rezoning decision for a proposed 50-townhome subdivision near Interstate 77's Brawley School Road exit 35, after residents and board members raised alarms about narrow streets, missing sidewalks and children walking to school bus stops in the path of new traffic. The North Gibbs Townhomes project, pitched by national homebuilder D.R. Horton, would sit on 6.34 acres but has no direct access to Brawley School Road, instead routing residents through the neighboring Sunridge Place community.
Board Wants Traffic Study Before Moving Forward
Commissioners said they tabled the vote to give the developer time to complete a traffic impact analysis and to explore an alternate entrance off North Gibbs Road, according to the Charlotte Observer. The board also wants D.R. Horton to add 5% or 10% attainable housing to a proposal that currently includes none, the newspaper reported. As proposed, the plan calls for two large open-space areas totaling 1.5 acres, which per a project consultant would include a dog park and possibly a playground and other recreational amenities.
Commissioner Eddie Karriker said he could not support the project without a better traffic plan, while commissioners asked town staff member Ryan Rase to again pursue approval from the North Carolina Department of Transportation for a right-in, right-out access point at Brawley School Road and North Gibbs Road. Rase told the board that NCDOT had already told town officials no at least twice since he had been there, with town officials saying the agency has denied the access because of the southbound ramp from exit 35 onto I-77 at that location.
Residents Describe Kids Walking in the Street
Without that direct access, North Gibbs Townhomes residents would travel narrow, car-lined Sunridge Place streets to Silver Hook Drive and then Brawley School Road, since the area lacks sidewalks. Children in Sunridge Place currently walk in the streets to reach their bus stop on Silver Hook Drive, where they are picked up at 6:45 a.m. — a pickup time that, from Aug. 19 through April 19, falls before sunrise.
Ron Berst, who lives in the nearby Gibbs Cove subdivision and has a daughter and two granddaughters living in Sunridge Place, told the board that children already play in those streets and called the situation a very big safety issue. Commissioner Lynne Taylor said Mooresville's notoriously clogged roads make adding more homes a concern, though she also said the town need not occupy every shred of available space.
Developer Pitches Sound Wall, Gated Emergency Access
D.R. Horton has proposed gating its North Gibbs Road access for emergency vehicles only, and a project consultant, Jeff Brown, said additional right-of-way along North Gibbs is needed to build a road meeting state standards for other drivers — right-of-way that, per Brown, D.R. Horton does not currently own. Brown described the development as a relatively small project consistent with the town's zoning plan. A D.R. Horton representative told the board homes in the community would have no vinyl siding and said a metal garage on the site would be removed if the rezoning is approved.
The North Gibbs case follows a related rezoning effort nearby, where the Mooresville Planning Board voted 6-3 to recommend rezoning for up to 50 D.R. Horton townhomes on about 6.3 acres near the same I-77 exit, according to the Charlotte Observer's earlier reporting. That version of the project included a proposed eight-foot-tall sound wall to block I-77 traffic noise and would sit on land currently zoned highway business — zoning that would have allowed an originally proposed 120,000-square-foot car country club. The developer had estimated the community would generate just 14 trips per hour through Sunridge Place during peak morning traffic and 20 trips during peak afternoon hours.
Pattern of Delays Across Mooresville Townhome Projects
The North Gibbs delay is not an isolated case. Mooresville commissioners separately postponed a rezoning vote for a 78-townhome development near Lake Norman proposed by Mattamy Homes along Langtree Road, according to WSOC-TV. In that case, commissioners gave the developer until May 19 to submit a new proposal converting the three-story townhomes to two stories, while also pushing for more tree preservation and a crosswalk on Langtree Road.
Both cases reflect a town board increasingly wary of greenlighting dense residential projects without firmer guarantees on traffic flow and pedestrian safety. The Town of Mooresville's own transportation project page describes the Brawley School Road Widening effort, known as R-3833C, as an initiative aimed at improving safety and traffic congestion along that corridor, though it is unclear how that broader roadwork intersects with the North Gibbs access dispute.
