Press Release: September 29, 2006
MARKET SHIFTING TO SMALL INFILL PROJECTS
Charlotte Business Journal
September 29, 2006
by Julie Bird
Robert Bugg is a big believer in infill development. But he's not trying to pack condos and townhomes onto small lots.
For Bugg, the quickest path to infill success is a traditional single-family home. The strategy typically avoids messy rezonings while also finding a ready market for builders and home buyers.
Bugg has subdivided 10 small parcels in SouthPark and south Charlotte since 2003 and hasn't needed a rezoning for any of the projects.
"Rezoning is a lot of hassle, is very expensive and not cost-effective on small lots," says Bugg, principal broker at Queen City Realty Group, whose development arm specializes in single-family infill developments. Zoning changes typically require expenses such as the cost of engineering studies, wetlands research and land-planning services. In addition, he says, the R-3 zoning category already in place in many neighborhoods allows significant density.
For example, Bugg recently completed a project in which seven $1.5 million homes were built on property that had an original tax value of $300,000.
Although he says the city encourages infill developments because they reduce sprawl, he acknowledges that neighbors -- especially older residents -- generally don't.
Real estate analyst Emma Littlejohn, principal at The Littlejohn Group, says one advantage to small single-family subdivisions is that a developer can build one at a time and sell one at a time. The process is much less capital-intensive than a condominium or townhome project.
Developers are also pursuing single-family infill projects even if a rezoning is required.
Keith MacVean, land development project manager for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, says he has seen 12 or 15 cases over the past year in which lots as small as 1 to 3 acres have been subdivided for single-family homes. That represents a shift from multifamily projects on lots of that size.
Collin Brown, a real estate attorney who specializes in rezoning, says it's a matter of developers meeting market demand. "We are seeing pockets of cluster developments because there's not 100 acres left lying around any more."
MacVean says planners consider the location when deciding whether to recommend approval of rezoning requests. "If they want to do that in the heart of a community, we're not going to support that. It's more likely on the edge of a neighborhood, in the transition area."
In the North Davidson Street area, for example, property owner occasionally ask to subdivide a lot or two to build a couple of homes. So far, the requests have been approved, but planners are watching carefully that the requests don't multiply and change the neighborhood's density, he says.
The goal, MacVean says, is to integrate a project into the existing fabric of the community.
That's also the goal of Dienst Custom Homes with its WheatonGrove infill project on Sharonview Road near Colony Road, says managing partner Ben Yeakley. "We try to be a good neighbor." That means developing homes that both fit together and fit into the surrounding neighborhood, while also saving as many trees as possible, he says.
The 5-acre gated community will have six homes, all but one measuring roughly 4,800 square feet and selling for $1.45 million to $2.5 million. Dienst razed the property's original home, which sat empty after a fire.
Part of the appeal of a small infill development is "to have control of it ourselves," Yeakley says.
Still, it's important to carefully position the homes on the sites, he adds. "Our goal is that a year after building, it doesn't look like a new home."
Infill development is also attracting first-time developers such as physician Richard Wynn, who wants to build 15 single-family homes on 3.78 acres at the site of a failed swim and tennis club on Coatbridge Lane near Monroe and Rama Roads. He also plans to redevelop the club into a fitness facility.
One potential builder proposed townhomes for the site, but Wynn wasn't interested because single-family homes "fit better with the neighborhood."
"I have to think the multifamily (housing) boom is going to bust at some time," adds Wynn, who has a rezoning request pending for the tract. "It's so transient and lacking in a sense of community and connectivity."
The biggest challenge so far, he says, has been navigating the maze of city bureaucracy. "There are so many nuances to the process."
Julie Bird is a Belmont-based free-lance writer who can be reached at hedline@carolina.rr.com
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