Charlotte residents push back on townhome project

CHARLOTTE — Residents in a Charlotte neighborhood are pushing back on plans for a new townhome project, saying the development does not fit their historic neighborhood and raising questions about how many units could ultimately be built on the property.

Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz was on Roslyn Avenue in Biddleville on Friday, just blocks from Johnson C. Smith University.

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The historically Black neighborhood has many single-family homes. Residents say they welcome new neighbors but are not so open to what is planned for one property on their street.

There is a city-approved plan to build a quadruplex between two single-family homes.

“I don’t believe that this is going to be a quadruplex. I’m fairly certain that it’s going to be an eightplex,” said Kim Schrom, a Biddleville resident.

Schrom lives next door to the lot and said she believes that because of the project’s floor plans.

“We saw that the bottom floor of these four townhomes had individual kitchens, bathrooms, washers, dryers, just a complete living unit with exterior access,” Schrom said.

Neighborhood leaders used AI to create renderings of what the project could look like.

According to the interior layout, there is a door to the second floor of each unit, along with another kitchen and living area, with bedrooms on the third floor.

“This could happen all over the neighborhood,” said Jerod Brown, president of the Biddleville Smallwood Neighborhood Association.

He says that because part of the community is zoned the same way.

“I think someone is trying to get around some rules, and under the guise of building a quad,” Brown said.

“That’s a multi-family zoning district, so a quadraplex is allowed in that zoning district,” said Lisa McCarter, deputy division manager for planning for the city of Charlotte.

McCarter said the city does not look at interior layout plans before approving a project, only whether it meets zoning requirements.

She said if the owner wanted to build an eightplex there, he technically could because of how the property is zoned.

“A compliant project is entitled to be built,” McCarter said.

Residents in Biddleville say they don’t believe that’s right.

Sáenz spoke with the property owner over the phone. The owner said the project has four units with four addresses and that he intends to rent them before some of his family members move into them.

He said the floor plan on the first level should be seen as flex space. He also said he bought the land, can do what he wants with it, and is following the rules.