The vacant site of the old Phillips Place Cinemas in SouthPark would become a single building of up to 275 apartments, as tall as 120 feet, with room for shops or restaurants on the ground floor, under a rezoning that a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission committee is scheduled to review Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 5:30 p.m.
The plan sets aside none of the apartments as affordable housing. At a September meeting with neighbors, the attorney for the petitioner, Mid-America Apartments, L.P., "stated that there is no affordable housing proposed as a part of the development," according to the petitioner's own report of the meeting filed with the city. City staff told council in September that a North Carolina statute prohibits mandatory inclusionary zoning, the practice of requiring affordable units in new development.
The petition, 2026-050, goes to the commission's Zoning Committee, which recommends whether City Council should approve it. City planning staff recommend approval once a few remaining issues are settled. Council held the public hearing Monday, Oct. 19. No one signed up to speak against the petition, and council closed the hearing without voting on the petition. The city has not set a date for the council's decision. The petitioner's own schedule lists Monday, Nov. 16, as the earliest possible date, and says it could be deferred.
Shorter than what is already allowed
The 3.65-acre site, at 6920 Fairview Road east of Cameron Valley Parkway, already carries an approval, from a 2021 petition, for something much bigger: an office building up to 250 feet tall with 250,000 square feet of offices and 20,000 square feet of commercial space. It has not been built. Asked by neighbors in September why the office plan was dropped, the petitioner's attorney said he did not have that information, according to the meeting report.
"Petitioner is proposing to drastically reduce the building height," the attorney, John H. Carmichael of Robinson Bradshaw, told council. The ground-floor space, up to 15,000 square feet, is limited to a list of uses that includes restaurants, shops, offices, a fitness center and an enclosed car showroom, which Carmichael compared to the electric-vehicle showroom already in SouthPark. A leasing office or residents' gym does not count toward that total.
Only the 3.65 acres would be redeveloped, Carmichael told Council Member Dimple Ajmera, an at-large member. "It's good to see that there is a plan to activate the theater space," Ajmera said.
The new building would still be taller than the shops and offices around it. Asked by Council Member Danté Anderson of District 1 how its height compares, Carmichael said, "It's taller." He put the Phillips Place buildings at probably two to four stories and the office buildings across Fairview Road at three to six.
"It seems like this would be sort of a bit out of character," Anderson said of the surrounding area, adding that she would leave further questions to the district's council member.
Fewer trips than the office plan
Anderson's other worry was cars. "It can get very congested over in that area," she said.
By the city's count, the apartments would generate fewer trips than the office building the site is already zoned for. The Charlotte Department of Transportation estimates 2,051 vehicle trips a day under the new plan, against 4,593 under the current approval. Jacob Carpenter of the transportation department told council the petition amounted to what he called "down tripping instead of down zoning."
No traffic study was required. The department says the project's trips fall under the city's threshold for one, and Carpenter told council that with the reduction in trips the city could not require a study. A member of the petitioner's team told neighbors the project was allowed to discount its count by 30 percent for trips expected to stay on the site, according to the meeting report. In its latest review, dated Oct. 28, the department said all of its outstanding comments on the petition had been addressed.
At the September meeting, one neighbor called traffic at Fairview Road and Cameron Valley Parkway "a nightmare," the report says, and asked whether the roads would be widened. Carmichael said he knew of no such plans.
What neighbors asked for
About 20 people attended the petitioner's community meeting on Sept. 9 at the Hampton Inn & Suites at Phillips Place. They asked about traffic, parking, stormwater and construction noise, and several asked for paths into the shopping center: through the site, from Broad Street and Peggy Oaks Lane, and "through the woods" to the site's southeast corner. The SouthPark Association of Neighborhoods, a coalition of neighborhood groups known as SPAN, has asked the petitioner for pedestrian connections, Carmichael told the residents.
"I didn't get the sense that people were opposed to the use," Carmichael told council on Oct. 19. He said he felt the neighbors' issue was "about the connectivity rather than height or use."
Council Member Kimberly Owens, whose District 6 includes the site, said she had talked with SPAN and agreed. "This is pretty close to my neighborhood," she said, and residents often ask her about making the area "a much more pedestrian-friendly and safer environment." She encouraged the petitioner to keep working with the group.
The plan commits to an 8-foot planting strip and a 12-foot path for walkers and cyclists along Fairview Road, and to a 15-foot easement for a possible public greenway trail, which Mecklenburg County would have to build and pay for. Council Member Joi Mayo of District 3 asked whether the petitioner would fund the trail. "We're not proposing any funding to the county," Carmichael said, though "we are proposing some funding for connectivity" in talks with SPAN. He did not give an amount, and neither the Sept. 14 site plan nor its Oct. 22 revision mentions that money. He said the county could not tell him when the greenway might be built.
The mayor steps aside
Mayor Rob Harrington, a lawyer at Robinson Bradshaw, did not preside over the hearing. "I'm going to recuse myself from presiding over item 15 due to my law partner's representation of the petitioner," he said, citing a state statute. Council voted to have Council Member Ed Driggs of District 7 run that part of the meeting, and the hearing was closed on a unanimous vote, the city's record shows.
Council Member LaWana Mayfield, an at-large member, questioned whether the mayor needed to step aside, since he does not vote. Terrie Hagler-Gray, an assistant city attorney, said the mayor may have to break a tie or issue a veto, and that her office would review the question.
What the committee will see
Staff tied the recommendation to a short list of outstanding issues: a tree survey, more detail on the open space and a note on handling stormwater, because the site drains to McMullen Creek, which the staff analysis calls "an impaired/degraded stream." A revised site plan dated Oct. 22 adds a requirement that the Fairview Road improvements be built before the city issues the building's first certificate of occupancy, the permit that lets people move in, and a fee in place of any required public open space not provided on the site. It does not add a tree survey or a stormwater note.
The staff analysis estimates the building could add 94 students to the three public schools that serve the site, raising each school's enrollment by one to four percentage points of its building's capacity. All three would stay below capacity.
Carmichael told neighbors the petitioner does not yet know the mix of apartment sizes and has no renderings, according to the meeting report. He said the new building and Mid-America's existing apartment community nearby would be separate projects under the same management.
If council approves the rezoning, Carmichael told neighbors, construction likely would not begin until 18 months to two years afterward, according to the meeting report.