Developers say The Palisades will be a picturesque resort community with a private golf course, nature trails, equestrian facilities, as well as retail and office space. Critics, on the other hand, say it's an ill-conceived development and, more than that, it's the latest example of Crescent's environmentally unsound practices and projects.
Current plans call for The Palisades to be located on about 1,500 acres near the eastern shores of Lake Wylie just south of NC 49 near the SC line. This is a largely rural and heavily wooded area that drains into Lake Wylie and is considered part of the lake's critical watershed. Crescent owns most of this property, which extends from Buster Boyd Bridge south to Snug Harbor Cove, and extends inland about a mile. The site would accommodate around 4,100 homes, townhouses, and apartments, a 200-acre golf course, and potentially up to 210,000 square feet of retail and 100,000 square feet of office space. It's the largest project ever considered for Mecklenburg County, and is comparable to other jumbo developments like Highland Creek in the University area and Ballantyne, south of Interstate 485.
"It's too big, it's too dense and it's too close to the water," said John Byrd, speaking of the Palisades development. "Resources that took millions of years for nature to create will be wiped out." Byrd, who has been spending time at Lake Wylie since the 1960s and moved there permanently in 1993, is a member of The Lower Lake Wylie Association, which is currently going toe-to-toe with The Palisades' developers.
"This isn't just another neighborhood organization fighting a shopping center," Byrd said. "We're trying to generate a movement that will allow the people who live along the lake to have a say in how the area grows instead of just a couple of developers and powerbrokers."
"I want my son to be able to enjoy this lake the same way I did growing up," said Todd Little, president of the Association. Little said his stepdaughter contracted two bacterial infections from the already polluted lake water this past summer. "This is very critical land," he added. "Developments like The Palisades are short-sighted and will do incredible damage."
Walter Fields, of the Walter Fields Group, a consultant on the Palisades project, has another view. "What's interesting to me," he says, "is that the core of the opposition (The Lower Lake Wylie Association) has lived on the lake or owned property on the lake for 30 to 50 years. But I don't remember hearing a giant outcry about water quality from these longtime residents until about six weeks ago. This project has been going on for a long time. We've had public meetings going back 18 months. In fact, the Steele Creek Residents Association has endorsed it. This didn't sneak up on anyone."
Crescent, which has partnered with the real estate development company Robert C. Rhein Interests, says development is inevitable in this area as the city extends water and sewer lines down NC Hwy. 49 as part of the ongoing highway-widening construction. Crescent says a master-planned development like The Palisades is preferable to allowing the area to take shape in a piecemeal fashion, subdivision by subdivision. Under current zoning, developers could build up to five houses per acre, which could potentially result in approximately 7,500 homes. A master-planned community, developers argue, would result in fewer homes, more environmentally supportive features, and also give the county greater control.
Nonetheless, residents, environmentalists and some county commissioners still have reservations about continued development on Lake Wylie, as well as the entire Catawba River (which was recently ranked the 13th most endangered river in the country).
11,000 pounds of chemicals per year
"It's the biggest development ever proposed for Mecklenburg County and they're putting it in a particularly sensitive area," said Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby. "It's just a very bad design in the wrong place."
Lisenby said one of the most harmful aspects of the development is the 200-acre Jack Nicklaus golf course, which she said could contribute as much as 11,000 pounds per year of pesticides, herbicides and nutrients.
"In order to construct a golf course you have to mass grade," Lisenby said. "This means clearing out large areas of native hardwood forests and dumping all the dirt down in the gullies. This is going to create huge moonscapes of dead land that will drain off into the lake for long periods of time. It would absolutely decimate the area and wreak havoc on the wetlands and stream crossings."
"This property has very little waterfront," countered Fields. "It's not a lakefront community by any means. But we understand the property is in the Lake Wylie watershed. And we understand residents have concerns and were hoping that their part of the county would never be developed. But whether zoning for The Palisades is approved or not, the area is still going to be developed. What we have brought forward is a combination of limitations and restrictions on the property that you couldn't get any other way."
Mecklenburg County Commissioners heard from both Fields and members of the Lower Lake Wylie Association for the second time last week as they considered the rezoning petition filed jointly by Rhein Interests and Crescent. The commissioners rejected a proposal by the Association for a one-year moratorium on development in the watershed, and several indicated they plan to vote on the issue December 11. While some commissioners said they were satisfied with the developers' plans, other expressed concern over what kind of impact the project could have.
"I think that, overall, having a planned development with restrictions and monitoring is good, much better than doing it in a piecemeal fashion with different developers," said Commissioner Darrell Williams. "However, I am still concerned about the impact on the water. I really feel like we need more information on the project's environmental impact before we vote on it."
"It's hard to imagine how they're going to get that kind of density built without having a negative impact on the water," said Commission Vice Chairperson Becky Carney. "I have a lot of concerns. I'm not about to rush into this. We're talking about people's drinking water. This project can set the tone of what's to come. . .we can't come back and get people to tear it down when the water starts to go bad."
Environmental panel left in the lurch
It was August 1999 when Crescent Resources first announced plans to develop The Palisades (at the time it was called Evergreen). Critics say the way things have played out since then only crystallizes what they characterize as the company's reckless manner of conducting business. It has also rallied the environmental troops like never before.
As part of the announcement concerning The Palisades, much was made of Crescent appointing an environmental advisory panel to provide input on the project. The panel was made up of the Catawba Lands Conservancy, The Catawba River Foundation, and the Sierra Club. Representatives from each of these groups met with Crescent Resources' director of land sales, Phil Hayes, during the summer of '99, and collaborated on how the development should take shape. (It should be noted that when we contacted Hayes regarding this story, he referred us to a PR firm, which then referred us to Fields. This was after we had stressed to Hayes the Crescent-specific nature of many of our questions.)
At the time, folks like Ron Bryant from the Catawba Lands Conservancy expressed how pleased he was with the way things were proceeding, and was encouraged that Crescent Resources was consulting environmentalists on the project. However, after just two meetings, the collaboration process ceased, and no more meetings were held.
"At first we had lots of interaction and input," said Bryant. "But that quickly changed."
"I assumed we were going to have ongoing discussions, but that never happened," said Lisa Renstrom, who at the time was chair of the Sierra Club, and is now executive director of Voices and Choices. "I've had no more involvement since that first meeting. Clearly, I was disappointed that there was no follow through."
After a couple of years of inactivity, the already frustrated environmental panel got a shock this summer. It was announced in July that Crescent had entered into a contract with Robert C. Rhein Interests which would purchase the majority of the land (about 945 acres) planned for Evergreen -- which had now become The Palisades -- and would assume the role of principal developer.
Following this announcement, members of the advisory panel indicated they felt Crescent had abandoned their initial position of using environmental input in developing The Palisades. Moreover, they criticized Crescent for turning over the reins of the project to a residential development giant without informing them.
"They appointed us as an environmental panel but didn't even let us know the project had changed hands," Bryant said. "I started getting calls from people saying, 'Hey, why are you letting this Palisades thing happen?' I was totally caught off-guard."
Alarmed by these developments, Lisenby contacted executives at Crescent as well as the engineers designing The Palisades in an attempt to further discuss the project. To that end, Hayes of Crescent Resources and Jim Medall, Rhein Interests' vice president, met with Lisenby along with several members of the original environmental advisory panel November 1, during which time a revised master plan for The Palisades was unveiled. At the time, reactions to these revised plans seemed reluctantly optimistic.
"I'd like to say I'm encouraged, but I've been encouraged before," said Bryant. "The question still remains whether that size development belongs there at all."
"The plans Crescent and Rhein presented seemed to be that of an environmentally sensitive and sustainable development," said Bowman, who also attended the November 1 meeting. "But of course, the devil is in the details. Only when you get beyond conceptual planning will you be able to tell if it's truly environmentally friendly, or if compromises will be made."
These sentiments, however, came before developers revised the plans once again on November 9, and presented them a few days later during last week's County Commission meeting.
"Crescent and the developer actually backslid on several things they had agreed to do previously," Lisenby said.
According to Alan Giles, communication coordinator for the Mecklenburg County Department of Environmental Protection (MCDEP), while the developers have implemented some safeguards that surpass the county's requirements, there are several measures MCDEP have requested that the developers have not agreed to. These include things like buffer width. The county is asking for 150-foot buffers in some areas -- typically where the land slopes more than 25 percent -- but developers have only agreed to 100-foot buffers (The county requires 50-foot buffers). Giles said developers have not agreed to certain measures concerning sewage disposal, including hiring contractors to ensure proper maintenance and operation, and equipping disposal stations with audible and visible alarms. There are also certain criteria involving golf course maintenance and storm water retention and treatment not agreed upon by the developers. Finally, MCDEP has requested that developers work to develop water quality modeling before the project starts (this is essentially a computer program that simulates what is needed to prevent a certain level of water pollution). Developers, however, have declined to do this before petition approval.
"It's our opinion that the proposed development will impact water quality as would any kind of development activity in the area," Giles said. "But the measures they have agreed to will act to reduce some of the impact."
"They've made token concessions that are not adequate to protect the Catawba River," Lisenby said. "They're nothing but window dressing for what is a deeply flawed and inappropriate project."
Fields, on the other hand, says the developers have already gone above and beyond what is required, including enlisting an on-site enforcement officer during the construction process, and requiring all contractors working on the property to attend training classes with Mecklenburg County Environmental Protection. In addition to the environmental measures, Crescent has also agreed to limit office space to 30,000 square feet, and retail to100,000 square feet. However, there is an amendment provision included in the plan that would allow up to 210,000 square feet of retail and 100,000 square feet of office. Fields also said they've reduced the number of housing units from 4,500 to about 4,100.
"The County has nothing like this," Fields said. "These are all extra things that don't exist in any local ordinance. There's been a lot of conversation about the potential impacts of The Palisades, but there's been very little discussion about the impact of not having these controls in place. I'm not so sure in the grand scheme of things it's even all worth it. If at the end of the day you do a good job and still nobody appreciates it, what does that mean?"
As this process continues, the next major sticking point seems to be what level of input the environmental advisory panel will have in the development. In other words, what's the point of having an advisory panel if they're not allowed to do any advising?
"I talked to Phil (Hayes) a few times over the past two years about the environmental advisory panel, and he said Crescent had run into some unexpected delays," said Vicki Bowman. Bowman was also part of the initial meetings with Crescent back in '99 as a member of the Catawba Land Conservation Network. (She now chairs the local Sierra Club.) "I think the panel expected to see some specific plans regarding The Palisades before Crescent applied for zoning changes. But in talking with Phil he indicated they wanted our advice on the specifics once the rezoning was approved."
"Crescent's intent seems to be to consult the panel after the zoning has been approved," Lisenby said. "But the point at which there's an ability to negotiate and get the necessary safety measures for water quality is during the approval process, not afterwards. Crescent said they want to get everything established before they meet with the panel. That's not substantive negotiations. That's just them informing us what they intend do, in other words shoving it down our throats."
Fields says Crescent has already included the panel in the planning process, and their desire is "to continue to include them as the process moves forward." But with all indications pointing to the County Commissioners voting on the rezoning petition next month, it doesn't seem likely that any more consulting will be taking place.
Contact Sam Boykin at (704) 944-3623 or sam.boykin@cln.com.