Mooresville approves Mooresville Village planned development with grocery, transit reservation and modest affordable housing set-aside

The Mooresville Board of Commissioners on Dec. 16 approved PD-2024-01, a planned development for a 98.17-acre site along Mecklenburg Highway known as Mooresville Village that will include retail, office, a 50,000-square-foot grocery, and up to 625 homes.

David Cole, senior planner, summarized the zoning request at the public hearing, saying a planned development "is a special zoning district in which developers may voluntarily enter into an agreement, which allows modification to the UDO in exchange for higher quality development design and or significant benefit for the public." The proposal replaces prior parcel zoning and would consolidate development across two parcels, with the northern portion already inside town limits and the southern portion proposed for annexation.

The developer team led by Peter Pappas of Pappas Properties said the project is intended as a walkable mixed‑use village. "Our goal with Mooresville Village is simple. We want to create a wellness focused master plan community with a mix of housing, a grocery store, restaurants, and office," Pappas said during the presentation. Project representatives showed designs with a central village square, a main-street retail area near the grocery, office and commercial uses along Highway 115, and a mix of housing types including single‑family, cottages, townhomes, active‑adult housing and multifamily.

Key commitments recorded in the developer agreement and described at the hearing include:
- A committed 50,000-square-foot grocery store. Project representatives said a lease with a grocer was signed the day of the hearing and that the grocery is scheduled to begin vertical construction in the second quarter of 2026 with anticipated opening before many of the residential buildings are completed.
- Up to 625 residential units across multiple phases and product types; 17 multifamily units will be set aside as attainable housing for households at or below 80% of area median income with a 15‑year affordability period. The agreement requires the affordability covenant to be signed prior to the first certificate of occupancy for the phase that includes those units.
- A one‑acre reservation for a future transit stop. The agreement requires the town and the transit authority to agree on a station location within five years; if no agreement is reached the acre would revert to the developer. The agreement also includes a six‑year window to dedicate or sell the site if the parties do agree later. If a referendum to fund the proposed commuter rail is defeated within five years, the reservation automatically terminates, per the terms described at the hearing.
- A series of on‑ and off‑site transportation commitments, including a planned signalized intersection at the project entrance to the East‑West Connector, construction of multi‑use trails along Highway 115 and Bridges Farm Road, and other mitigations that project traffic engineers will refine in the pending traffic impact analysis (TIA). The developers said they would construct the listed mitigations whether or not they appear in the final TIA report.

Traffic, emergency response and neighborhood impacts drew sustained discussion. The project team said much of the multifamily development would be sited toward the East‑West Connector and below the highway grade to reduce visibility from Highway 115. Michael Wickline, the project traffic engineer, told commissioners the TIA will study roughly a dozen intersections in the surrounding area and evaluate how the proposed internal street network can provide alternate routes so nearby neighborhoods can access retail without using Highway 115.

Several adjacent property owners and residents spoke during public comment. Richard Beck, who identified himself as having reviewed documents posted to the town website, urged commissioners to obtain a new TIA before voting and said he opposed the project. Davidson Day School submitted a letter of support read into the record that said the school welcomed the pedestrian connections and the proximity of attainable housing for staff.

The motion to approve the planned development was made by Commissioner DeWeese and seconded by Commissioner Qualls. The board voted to approve the rezoning and the developer agreement by voice; commissioners discussed that the PD provides public benefits such as the grocer, trail connections and the transit reservation. The approved developer agreement includes the commitments described above and requires the developer to construct certain mitigations and comply with other conditions spelled out in the agreement.

The developer and staff also presented a concurrent voluntary annexation and utility extension request for the southern portion of the site; the board approved the annexation first reading (see separate item).

As approved, the PD uses the planned development mechanism to allow several modifications to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) on matters such as building height (a request to allow up to five stories for multifamily buildings in specific phases), parking requirements for the grocery tenant, reduced active open space percentage compared with mixed‑use defaults, and flexibility in cottage housing standards. The planning staff and planning board recommended approval, noting consistency with several elements of the town’s 1Mooresville plan while flagging a limited set of plan inconsistencies (for example, surface parking and certain drive‑through uses) that the board weighed during its recommendation.

The agreement requires that the grocery be delivered before completion of key residential phases; the developer told the board the lease was executed the same day as the hearing. The project will proceed through required engineering, permitting, and construction phases and the town will enforce the timing and mitigation commitments laid out in the developer agreement.

Votes and formal actions on the planned development and related items are recorded in the meeting minutes and in the developer agreement filed with the town.