A developer wants to put new homes near Catawba Nuclear Station. Residents remain wary

A prime but contentious property on Lake Wylie could add several dozen homes near Catawba Nuclear Station .

The York County planning commission voted 3-1 Monday to recommend rezoning for 215 acres on the Concord Road peninsula. That move is part of a plan to put homes in the Legacy Park subdivision, though it isn’t clear yet just how many.

Neighbors to the property asked the county several times in recent years not to allow dense residential construction there, including again ahead of Monday’s vote.

York County Council will have final say on the rezoning, which would take three votes for it and a public hearing. Dates for those votes and the hearing haven’t been set.

How many homes could go on Concord Road?

The rezoning application submitted by property owner Titan Land Partners ’ attorney in June states the rezoning would create about 34 homes. A submitted subdivision plan shows 38 lots. The county planning staff report on the project mentions lots at at least 5 acres.

But an official subdivision proposal hasn’t been submitted, and the rezoning would allow development of lots as small as 1 acre. Neighbors shouldn’t expect 215 homes, or one per acre, said county planning manager Diane Dil.

“Given the topography, given the coves and everything, they’ll never get that max,” she said.

Dil received half a dozen emails from neighbors asking for property restrictions ahead of Monday’s decision. Neighbors want the county to keep lots at 5 acres or more and require 20% open space, Dil said. Planners say the property takes care of many of those concerns.

Homes would be on well and septic, and going less than 5 acres on lots would trigger traffic and environmental requirements that would be difficult to meet. Utilities can’t cross a major bridge on the peninsula or go under the lake bed.

Going below 2 acres per lot would mean additional permits, said residential planner Marion Ray. “It’s very doubtful 1-acre lots would ever be developed there,” she said.

The tip of the peninsula, on Concord Road between the nuclear station and Lake Wylie’s main channel, has 84 homes on it. They’re almost entirely lakefront lots in the half-acre to 3-acre range. They average almost 1 acre, Dil said, and the new homes would go in between them.

Residents push back on new homes

In 2004, Duke Energy looked into selling close to 500 acres near its Catawba Nuclear Station but delayed it due to federal relicensing work .

Concord Road residents got a letter from Duke in 2017 inviting them to a meeting to discuss sale plans for almost 350 acres. About 200 people turned up , arguing high-density development would cause traffic, public safety and environmental problems.

Concord Road is the only road to and from the homes there now, and it passes a nuclear station. Residents said more homes would mean greater risk if an emergency happened.

In early 2020, the county planning commission approved a plat for the Peninsula at Lake Wylie. That project included 161 residential lots on 348 acres. Various site conditions and requested changes followed for more than a year, but the project didn’t happen.

Titan Land Partners bought almost 250 acres of the property from Duke Energy two years ago for $5 million.

County staff approved four plats for the original 348 acres. Last year residents turned out again to protest the proposed subdivision of lots on the property, which they said the developer could use to create high-density housing.

Titan Land’s attorney denied that was the intent.

High-end homes common to Lake Wylie

If new homes come to the Concord Road peninsula, particularly on larger lots, they could be expensive. The highest-end homes in the region largely have proximity to water in common.

In the past 18 months, the three-county Rock Hill region saw 217 home sales at $1 million or more . Lake Wylie had 24% of them, or 52 total sales. Tega Cay, born on a peninsula similar to Concord Road, had a dozen sales.

Lake Wylie has two of the four tri-county sales this year at $2 million or more, including the highest price so far with a $3 million Mallard Point Drive home bought in January. The region’s biggest residential sale was a River Oaks home in Lake Wylie that sold last summer for almost $3.7 million.

A home north of the Titan Land property, but still on the Concord Road peninsula, sold in May for $2.2 million. The peninsulas immediately north and south of the Concord Road one are littered with million-dollar sales.

What were the top single-family home sales around Rock Hill in 2023? Here’s the rundown

Duke Energy owns about 170 acres of buffer space between Catawba Nuclear and the Titan Land property. The new home sites range from about half an acre to almost 2 acres from the center of the nuclear station.

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