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A Charlotte developer will soon make the first of 700 homes available in a Publix-anchored mixed-use community on former farmland in east Mooresville.
The 136-acre Harris Farms will include 165 single-family homes, 168 townhomes, 382 multi-family rental units and a 15-acre retail village at Coddle Creek Highway (N.C. 3) and Kistler Farm Road, according to developer Cambridge Properties.
The first single-family homes and townhomes should be ready by the middle of this year, the developer says, although no opening date has been announced.
Publix intends to open in late fall, Erika Martin, Mooresville Planning & Community Development director, told The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday.
The grocery store will anchor the retail village, which also will include three outparcels and 11,800 square feet of retail shop space, according to the Harris Farms site plan on the Cambridge Properties website.
A dentist and a nail bar have signed leases for space in the retail village, the site plan shows.
A community park also is planned in the development, and a McDonald’s is pursuing a rezoning request to be in Harris Farms, too.
“The growth in the community, including numerous requests from customers for us to expand in Mooresville, made this an ideal location,” Publix spokeswoman Kimberly Reynolds told The Charlotte Observer in February 2022 when plans for the store were announced.
The approximately 400-acre Morrison Plantation development near Lake Norman is the largest such master-planned, mixed use community in Mooresville, Martin said.
Mooresville, in south Iredell County, stretches from Lake Norman east across more rural areas to Rowan County. Downtown Mooresville is about 27 miles from Charlotte’s city center.
Speeders A Concern
In a split vote on March 12, the Mooresville Planning Board recommended a rezoning for the planned McDonald’s in Harris Farms.
The Mooresville Board of Commissioners, which has final say on rezoning, will consider the request at a future meeting.
Citing speeders, including himself, Planning Board member Shaun Hooper voted against recommending the McDonald’s rezoning.
Even he drives 70 mph on 45-mph N.C. 3 through the intersection at Kistler Farm Road, Hooper told fellow board members, according to a video of the March 12 meeting reviewed by The Charlotte Observer.
“I speed pretty bad out there,” Hooper said. “I’m doing 70 sometimes out there.”
Hooper said he’s concerned about students crossing the busy roads to get to the McDonald’s — Mooresville Middle School on Kistler Farm Road and Mooresville Intermediate School on Coddle Creek Highway.
“My concern is safety,” he said.
“I love McDonald’s,” Hooper said before pointing to his stomach and quipping, “Can’t you tell?”
“It’s nothing against them.” he said. “It’s just infrastructure. And then you’re going to have kids crossing Route 3 to go to McDonald’s. That’s going to be kind of tough. It’s like a major highway … and everybody speeds.”
Cambridge Properties is adding sidewalks, crosswalks and other measures to lessen traffic dangers, Martin replied.
“This is one of our most walkable neighborhoods, and it’s (a concern) that our police department shares with us often, that there are a lot of traffic violations,” she said.
“But there are dozens of children that walk to the school now, and there’s going to be even more out there,” Martin said. “We’re a Vision Zero community, we’re always looking for ways to slow down and make the traffic safer.
“And the development coming in is going to change the context of the area,” she said. “It’s not going to feel like a rural road you can speed on anymore.”
“Harris Farms did complete a traffic impact analysis and entered into a development agreement with the Town for all needed traffic mitigations … in which they included 1 drive thru use,” Martin said in an email to the Observer.
A signalized crosswalk along N.C. 3 at Kistler Farm Road is already in place.
Green Space, “Harmonious Features”
McDonald’s also plans to create a .174-acre corner of open space that “will be visually appealing and create character for … the entrance to Harris Farms,” Will Marshall of Georgia-based Integrity Engineering & Development Services told the Planning Board. His company represented McDonald’s at the March 12 meeting.
The corner will include sidewalks and benches and will be owned and maintained by the shopping center, he said.
The exterior of the McDonald’s will “remain harmonious” with the rest of the retail village, he said.
Brick pilasters will prevent “long expanses of blank walls” along the building, he said. A peaked tower will rise above the Golden Arches on the building, and a 3-foot-tall decorative knee wall and pergola will grace the two front axes of the restaurant.
“We believe this site will be an asset to the community,” Marshall said. “We believe it will be visually appealing … The corner feature will provide a kind of monument and a great characteristic to the entrance to the development.”