Growth Management Working Group Presents Findings

After months of thorough review and dialogue with key subject matter experts, the Growth Management Working Group presented the following recommendations to the town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners on September 5, 2023.

BACKGROUND

As Mooresville continues to welcome new residents and businesses to our thriving community, we want to ensure we are approaching growth in a thoughtful and cohesive manner that upholds our excellent quality of life for generations to come. On April 10, 2023, the town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution to establish a Growth Management Working Group to contemplate strategies for thoughtful and cohesive growth, while ensuring we have the critical infrastructure needed to support this growth.

CHARGE

The Growth Management Working Group was charged with evaluating and exploring the feasibility of implementing a development moratorium pursuant to the requirements of G.S. §160D-107. The Working Group shall advise the Board of Commissioners after thorough consideration and review of each of the following statutory elements:

The problems or conditions necessitating a moratorium and what courses of action, alternative to a moratorium, have been considered and why those alternative courses of action are not deemed adequate.
The development approvals that should be subject to a moratorium and how a moratorium on those approvals will address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of a moratorium.
A proposed date for termination of the moratorium and a statement setting forth why that duration is reasonably necessary to address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of the moratorium.
The actions, and the schedule for those actions, proposed to be taken by the town during the duration of the moratorium to address the problems or conditions leading to imposition of the moratorium.

MEMBERS

Members of the Growth Management Working Group include a mix of issue-area experts from education, economic development, transportation and planning. The 10-member working group includes:

Lisa Qualls (chair), Town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners
Tommy DeWeese, Town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners
Eddie Dingler, Town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners
Michael Cole, Town of Mooresville Planning Board
Mike Jones, Board of Adjustments
Dr. Boen Nutting, Iredell-Statesville School District
Dr. Jason Gardner, Mooresville Graded Schools
Bert Connolly, Iredell County Board of Commissioners
Jenn Bosser, Iredell County Economic Development Corp
Bill Thunberg, Lake Norman Transportation Commission

PROCESS

The Growth Management Working Group met on four occasions over three months to hear presentations from key experts on transportation infrastructure, historic and future growth, future transportation and mobility projects, updates on capacity from Iredell-Statesville Schools and the Mooresville Graded School District, and public safety updates and response times from Mooresville Fire-Rescue and Mooresville Police.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The group recognizes there is significant and rapid growth and development and continued strain and demand on the transportation infrastructure; however, after hearing the presentations and having open dialog among themselves and with town staff, the group does not feel the concerns raised over increased growth and the inadequacy of the transportation network and infrastructure meet the four (4) statutory requirements of G.S. 160D-107 to implement a temporary town-wide development moratorium.

The working group would like to provide the Board of Commissioners with the following recommendations to control and manage growth and infrastructure needs within the town:

Investigate a local transportation bond to improve intersections and add other mobility options such as sidewalks, greenways and micro-transit, and expand the Mooresville Main bus system.
Identify areas with adequate infrastructure and encourage high density development in those areas. Educate the board about the tools they have authority to use to manage growth in those areas.
Provide incentives to developers to direct high density growth to infill areas that are currently served with adequate infrastructure, are walkable and provide access to other multimodal transportation choices.
Explain how the annexation process can be used to manage growth and have staff provide strong suggestions based on other approved development and infrastructure in the area.
Investigate by-right developments and determine their potential impact on the area if they are developed as approved.
Describe current issues and future concerns for the area and develop a plan of action for how to address them. Create a schedule of actionable steps to alleviate the problems and identify specific development approvals that should be limited during the moratorium to provide adequate time to address the issues.
Complete a housing study to determine what housing types are needed to achieve a healthy balance of product for workers to minimize the need for people to commute into Mooresville for their jobs adding to the congestion on the roadways.
Provide an update on the traffic control measure at the Perth Road/Cornelius Road intersection.
Create an information campaign to help the public understand property rights and what is/is not under the control of the municipality.
Update One Mooresville Plan and Unified Development Ordinance for better alignment of what the future Mooresville looks like as it has dramatically changed with the delay in NCDOT projects.
Escalate Traffic Management Center operations to better manage current road infrastructure.

RESOURCES

The full presentation video (with discussion) from the September 5, 2023 Board of Commissioners meeting can be viewed linked here.

A PDF of the slides presented at the September 5, 2023 Board of Commissioners meeting is available linked here.

Learn more about the Growth Management Working Group and find meeting agendas and minutes on their committee page.