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Plans to develop on historic Charlotte land upsets neighbors

By Angela Hong
By Angela Hong

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some neighbors in Charlotte are upset after learning that a developer plans to build nine new homes on historic land surrounding a 170-year-old house.

The historic house sits on five acres of land along Tilley Morris Road.

Dan Morrill with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission explained that the owners of the land have tried to sell the house and the land for the past five years.

Morrill said when they were unsuccessful, they had to sell it to a developer.

Diane Long's homes backs up to the historic land. She doesn't like the plans for the property.

"We're losing history," Long said. "The property will not be historically significant anymore and these [new] homes will add no historic context to the house."

Morrill explained that right now the land is zoned for housing.

The house and the land will keep their historic designation.

"That means the land and the land alone will be subject to automatic deferral of 50 percent of the property taxes,” Morrill said.

So, the owners of the brand new homes will pay less in property taxes for being on historic land.

"It doesn't seem fair at all," Long said. "I just can't understand why the historic designation remains on the land and the tax benefit continues to be passed on to the future homeowners."

Morrill said keeping the historical designation means the commission will still have design control over what happens to the land.

"The property owners will have to get our approval for any material alterations they make to their land," Morrill said.

Long said there needs to be a better plan.

"We're losing land rapidly in Mecklenburg County. Development is not a bad thing as long as it is done correctly."

Eyewitness News did try to talk to the homeowner, but she did not want to comment.

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