Fate of Lake Davidson mega-community may be decided by judge. Town, developers at odds.

A judge may decide the fate of a developer’s proposal for apartments and a waterfront restaurant on Lake Davidson north of Charlotte.

Two developers have been in a monthslong legal battle with the town of Mooresville over a vote last year involving their planned 96.8-acre community.

The development along Transco Road in southern Iredell County would include 353 multifamily units, 136 town homes, 90 duplexes, a waterfront restaurant and a public shoreline greenway.

The greenway would offer rare public waterfront access, Estes McLemore of Alabama-based LIV Development stated in a rezoning application for the project.

At 341 acres, Lake Davidson straddles the Mecklenburg-Iredell county line along Interstate 77 and is part of the larger Lake Norman, according to Duke Energy. Under federal license, the company manages the chain of lakes it formed along the Catawba River in the Carolinas in the mid-1900s.

Why the development stalled

A previous Mooresville Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning for the project but deadlocked last year over annexing the site and extending water and sewer to the property.

In a second vote months later, commissioners unanimously rejected the annexation and utilities extension, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

Commissioners cited concerns over fire response and spilling more traffic onto already-clogged Mooresville roads. The proposal faced broad opposition from people living at Lake Davidson.

Without water and sewer, the project can’t proceed, a lawyer for LIV Development told The Charlotte Observer in an interview.

“We feel like we are in a position where we can’t do anything with the property,” Chapel Hill lawyer T.C. Morphis said.

Vote needed a supermajority, town says

The court dispute involves the Mooresville commissioners’ deadlocked vote in April 2003, according to a lawsuit filed in November against the town.

LIV Development and the Ohio-based property owner, Langtree Development Co., sued Mooresville in Iredell County Civil Superior Court in Statesville.

Former Mayor Miles Atkins broke the 3-3 tie and voted in favor of the annexation and utilities extension. But town legal staff told the board at the time that state law requires a supermajority of commissioners to approve an annexation when it’s first proposed, so the measure failed, according to the lawsuit.

Town wants case dismissed

The lawsuit contends the town was wrong to declare the vote invalid because it didn’t get a supermajority, or three-fourths vote of approval by the board.

The supermajority requirement applies only to the date an annexation request first comes before a board — in this case, Jan. 3 , 2023, according to the lawsuit. By not voting on the request that night and instead pushing the vote to the April 3 meeting, the annexation required only simple majority approval, per state law, the lawsuit says.

In a court filing in response to the lawsuit, the town argues a supermajority was still required April 3 because that’s the first time the board voted. The case should be dismissed, according to the court filing by the town.

No date has been scheduled for the sides to argue before a judge or jury.

The developers spent at least $2 million combined just to get the project to the application stage and before the Mooresville town board, according to the developers’ lawsuit.

But they can’t proceed without water and sewer from the town, Morphis said.

Just give us the water

Interim Town Manager Jim Landon told the Observer that the disputed vote happened before the commissioners hired him.

So he researched the proposed development when the Observer asked him to comment on the lawsuit, he said.

Landon said in an email that he learned “that our previous Board made a decision to not annex the subject property. The property is currently in unincorporated Iredell County and, as such, the Town will not be providing municipal services at this time.”

He said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him “to address any questions regarding pending litigation.”

Another option?

In a March 14 letter, Morphis pitched another option to attorneys for the town.

He formally requested the Board of Commissioners waive the required annexation of the property before it can get water and sewer.

“Further, I respectfully ask that the Town Board authorize the connection of the property at 179 Transco Road to the Town water and sewer system,” according to the letter, a copy of which Morphis provided to the Observer.

If that happened, the development could proceed and the developers would “be prepared” to dismiss their lawsuit, he wrote.

Town Attorney Sharon Crawford replied in an April 19 letter.

Per town rules, she wrote, “any member of the public can request that the Board include an item on its regular meeting agenda by submitting the request to the Town Clerk. However, the Board is not obligated to place an item on the agenda just because a request has been received.”

She suggested Morphis offer dates when he could present his request to the board, “and we can facilitate scheduling this item.”

Morphis said he will take Crawford up on her suggestion.