New Townhomes Approved in Baird Cove Community.

The Woodfin Planning and Zoning Committee and Board of Alderman have approved construction of a new development in the Baird Cove community.

The project will be built on an old horse farm and consist of 115 townhome units.

Meeting a specific price point between $250K-$350K , a current market need. Some concerned community members felt that the price point was not exactly "affordable".

The developer stated that he chose the property with the intent to offer a product that meets a need in the current marketplace. The level topography lends itself to a more economical build and makes it possible to sell in that specific price point.

After some heated public meetings and opposition from a few community members, the project will continue to move forward.

Michael Posey, developer addressed some of the concerns of the public in response to a letter written and distributed by a community member.

Some of the concerns that were brought up and addressed were erosion and water detention, traffic congestion, safety, and water usage. An independent traffic study by a certified traffic engineer was presented at Monday night's meeting. The conclusion of the study determined that no need for improvement needed to be made at this current time for this specific project.

However, some citizens were still not satisfied with the response by the Engineer, stating that the data did not include the build out of other nearby subdivisions utilizing Baird Cove Road such as Ventana, Versant, and Serenity.

Other concerns were safety and ingress and egress for emergency services. Michael Parrish, developer at Serenity, a newer subdivision including a tree house community, once again reiterated that they would be willing to allow access to their adjacent subdivision for emergency services to alleviate some of that concern.

After a civil and sometimes heated discussion, the P&Z Committee and Alderman voted to pass the project based on the fact that the project meets all the requirements and falls within all the guidelines for which it is zoned.

In a February meeting, the subject property was moved from R-7 to Mountain Village Zoning upon request of the developer. Jason Young, Town Administrator, clarified that the current project would have been allowed to be built within the old zoning. However, Mountain Village Zoning would allow additional incentives for the developer to be rewarded for additional green space, natural building materials etc. He also was able to shed some light on the history of the land and offered to meet individually with anyone to answer any detailed questions they may have in regards to the property.

Some community members were still dissatisfied with the ultimate decision and felt that there was very little recourse in having their voices heard.

The development, as all developments, still has to meet all of the county, state, and federal requirements along with the oversight of each of these entities.

Building will begin soon and is due to be completed by 2020.