ON BUTLER BRIDGE ROAD JUST SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT
Henderson County’s Planning Board wants more information before looking further at a proposed large scale residential housing development on the sprawling Tap Root Dary Farm property on Butler Bridge Road. And specifically the board wants a traffic impact study and more information on the possible impact on the Asheville Regional Airport from the Federal Aviation Authority, before making a call.
The developer is seeking a conditional rezoning in order to build more than 1,200 housing units in 10 phases on the property. The planning board decided to table the issue to a later meeting, but did not set a hard date. The next scheduled meeting is March 21.
Around 30 people showed up to the board’s meeting this week, hearing from the developers and neighbors who oppose the project, including Asheville Regional Airport. Officials spoke out against the project, citing safety concerns, litigation risks and more.
Asheville-based developer Ken Jackson has submitted plans to the county for hundreds of homes, townhomes and apartments on 286 acres of the 319-acre former farm, with plans for the 10 phases to be built out over eight years. The total number of units would total more than 1,200.
That figure includes 545 single-family homes, 312 multi-family units and 361 townhomes for a total density of 4.2 units per acre, according to the plans.
The phases would begin with the 312 multi-family units, followed by 70 single-family homes in phase two, 259 townhomes in phase three, 102 townhomes in phase four and 64 townhomes in phase five.
The development would require three parcels to be rezoned to Residential One Conditional from the current Regional Commercial. That rezoning is what planning board members were weighing at Thursday’s meeting, though the Henderson County Board of Commissioners will make the final call.
At Thursday’s meeting, Planning Director Autumn Radcliff noted nearby subdivisions, including Riverstone, which she said has been approved for 549 single-family units. Also nearby are Hollowbrook Farms and the Glens of Aberdeen.
She also said the property includes some recreational aspects in the acreage near the creek on the north side of the property, but developers won’t put other development in that area, even though county regulations would permit that.
Radcliff said the entire property is used to determine the density, and the development is well within the county’s density requirements, which allow up to 2,300 units on the site.
The plan also triggered a traffic impact study with the state Department of Transportation, she said, though the results of that study haven’t yet been received. She said if planning board members decided to wait on making a decision, the results would likely be available by the next meeting.
Tap Root had been one of the largest dairy farms in the state, owned an operated for generations by the Johnston family...it went out of the dairy business several years ago. Its land stretches along I-26 from Butler Bridge Road to the airport...and the land has been looked at for a number of commercial and industrial uses. The French Broad River runs through the dairy farm property.
