Lancaster County’s latest mega subdivision proposal poses several key questions.
Among them are, who will be able to afford to live there? And, how much is developer Lennar Homes willing to pay to make the neighborhood happen?
The Lancaster County Planning Commission took nearly two hours to make its recommendations on The Haven at North Corner on Tuesday night.
The 605-acre site near Lancaster, across Charlotte Highway from West North Corner Road, would add 926 homes. Commissioners had concerns with affordability and an unwillingness by Lennar to pay development impact fees that could be approved soon.
The Planning Commission recommended in favor of the Lennar-proposed development agreement, 5-2. The commission unanimously recommended a rezoning to allow the new homes. Both decisions will go through a county ad hoc committee, public hearing and three Lancaster County Council votes before they’d become official.
Do new home prices fit Lancaster County?
Jon Hardy, division president at Lennar, lived in Lancaster County for 18 years before a recent move to Rock Hill. He’s overseen rezoning for about 8,000 homes in Lancaster County including work at Sun City, Tree Tops and Roselyn.
Still at least two years before construction starts on The Haven at North Corner, Hardy expects an average sales price there of $479,000.
“These folks want new affordable homes near town,” Hardy said.
Affordability at that price point concerns some commission members. The Haven at North Corner would start in the $350,000 range, something Hardy called extremely affordable in the current new home market.
“I guess I’d have to meet those people that consider that extremely affordable,” said Commissioner Frances Liu. “We have people hanging on by their fingernails.”
The $350,000 bottom end price is $200,000 to $250,000 below what Lennar communities across Lancaster County are selling for now, Hardy said. The $479,000 average price projection is still affordable for the area, he said.
“Relative to the balance of the county, especially in Indian Land where it’s well over $600,000 today,” Hardy said.
Commissioners wonder, though, if Lancaster County would be able to support those prices as several large residential developments are planned.
“There’s so many opening right now,” said Commissioner Lynette Hinson, “and there’s not that many jobs.”
Indian Land is much closer to Charlotte, which can draw from higher-paying jobs there, Liu said.
Commissioner Sheila Hinson, though, sees the proposed prices as the cost of business. “As a Realtor I can tell you, $350,000-up is what everybody’s looking for,” she said. “Now I do sell a lot less. But most people are looking for that price range, even in my area of Kershaw.”
Development costs like land, sewer, water, asphalt and concrete have all increased more than 76% in the past five years, Hardy said. That’s why new homes everywhere are significantly more expensive, he said.
“The hidden costs are incredible in today’s environment,” Hardy said. “And it’s not the tariffs. It’s stuff that started happening five years ago.”
Would Lennar pay new impact fees?
Lennar proposed a development agreement for The Haven at North Corner that includes land donations and per home fees to help with public infrastructure. It also asks, though, for the project to be exempt from any development impact fee.
Impact fees are charges on new construction, where the revenue is used to offset growth costs. Lancaster County has impact fees of about $9,000 per home in the Indian Land panhandle. The county is considering an expansion to countywide impact fees.
“Knowing that this is skirting in right before the approval of that, it just doesn’t put a good taste in our mouth,” said Commissioner Judianna Tinklenberg.
Lennar proposes a $4.1 million mix of donations for school, public safety and recreation. Along with 168 acres for open space, Lennar proposes donations of nearly 13 acres for an elementary school site, 5 acres for a trash and recycling site and 3 acres for a fire or EMS station.
“We’re trying to help solve infrastructure needs,” Hardy said.
Offering a lower amount to get in before impact fees could be much higher makes Liu uncomfortable. But Commissioner Jason Cavalier commended Lennar for offering something, when the project is in an area that doesn’t have impact fees today.
Lennar also proposes a revenue stream for public services, though future residents would be the ones to pay it. Lennar wants to set up a special tax district like the one Sun City, Tree Tops and other communities in Lancaster have.
The company had less success in Fort Mill, where the town didn’t allow a tax district for the massive Elizabeth neighborhood.
Homeowners would pay $90 per year for public services or fire protection, in perpetuity. The tax district would generate more than $83,000 annually.
Pushback against Lennar community plan
The scale of Lennar’s plan concerns some people for how it would change the area.
“We brag about living on a dirt road,” said Van Wyck resident Libby Sweatt-Lambert. “We brag about living in the country. We brag about how peaceful and quiet (it is).”
She and her husband Steve moved to rural Lancaster County 25 years ago. They worry so many homes, increased traffic and faster traffic as roads are paved, would destroy a way of life.
While Hardy said the subdivision plan asks for about a home an acre less than the land would allow, the clustered-together homes could pack them five or six to an acre in spots. “It goes completely against the nature of rural Lancaster County,” Steve Lambert said.
Deborah Cox lives on property her father bought 40 years ago. The new neighborhood will bring growth pains the county doesn’t need, she said.
“You’re creating more problems when you need to take care of the problems you already have,” Cox said.
Commissioners also had concerns with the ongoing Roselyn neighborhood, that ended up being restricted to age 55 and older. The county planned it near a large regional park before many people knew that was the plan, commissioners said.
Commissioner Michelle Richards would like to see a written commitment from Lennar not to make the same change for the new project: “We have enough 55-plus communities in Lancaster County.”
Building the future of Lancaster
Hardy agrees The Haven at North Corner will change Lancaster. That’s what sets it apart from projects he’s done in the area the past 35 years, he said.
“The reason why is the positive impact that it can serve for our county and this city,” Hardy said. “It can help augment the growth necessary to return Lancaster to the golden age.”
Indian Land has been the growth center for Lancaster County, and the region, for decades. Now, large projects are coming south of the panhandle.
The property just south of the Lennar project would add 578 homes on 356 acres, according to submitted plans.
The Haven at North Corner would be phased front to back, with the early construction happening along U.S. 521. It would have a seven-to-10-year build-out.
Hardy intends to continue negotiations with Lancaster County Council, and its ad hoc group that could lead to changes in what Lennar offers.
“There’s always room for discussion and potential change,” Hardy said.