PITTSBORO — Pittsboro could be getting a new 700-plus-acre, age-restricted neighborhood if the town’s board of commissioners elects to approve a developer’s rezoning request and issue a special use permit.
The commissioners entertained two public hearings in their regular meeting Monday to discuss potential for the 55+ community off U.S. Hwy. 15-501, south of the Moncure Pittsboro Road. The future Chatham Park Way would bisect the neighborhood, which would also encompass part of Sanford Road.
Jamie Schwedler, a partner at Raleigh’s Parker Poe Attorneys & Counselors at Law, filed the petition as a representative of PulteGroup Inc. and other vested parties.
The land — about 741 acres — is now zoned for heavy industrial and residential-agricultural uses. Schwedler has requested the property be rezoned as low-density residential. She has also petitioned the board for a special use permit to build a planned-unit development including no more than 2,223 one-family detached residences and townhomes, club houses and other amenity buildings.
Chris Raughley, vice president of land entitlements and development at PulteGroup — the country’s third largest home construction company ranked by closings — attended the hearings to explain why Pittsboro might benefit from an age-restricted community.
“In Pittsboro, there’s a significant aging population,” he said. “And persons 55 and older are expected to continue to move to the area.”
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which Raughley shared in his presentation, the median age in Pittsboro is 42.8 — 10% higher than elsewhere across the greater Triangle area and North Carolina as a whole. About 14% of Pittsboro residents are between 60 and 69 years old, and 10% are 80 years old and older, “more than double the rate for Durham/Chapel Hill, and more than double the rate for North Carolina as a whole,” Raughley said.
“So based on the trends and our experience in anticipating demand in the active adult housing market,” he added, “the project will meet the growing need for active adult housing in Pittsboro by providing multiple housing types in a location convenient to downtown Pittsboro.”
The rezoning and permit requests were each the subject of a dedicated public hearing. The rezoning hearing was closed and passed on to Pittsboro's planning board. The special use permit will be discussed further at a future meeting.
Commissioners and members of the public expressed varied opinions of Schwedler's request and floated several potential amendments to be further discussed when the hearing resumes.
Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify the status of the two public hearings.
Reporter D. Lars Dolder can be reached at dldolder@chathamnr.com and on Twitter @dldolder.