Call it the biggest carrot in town.
The Kinston City Council approved a permit last week allowing the construction of a new 60-unit apartment complex at the north end of Doctors Drive. It’s meant to not only provide more rental options in town, but serve as attractive housing that could keep young professionals in the area.
An earlier attempt to build a complex in the area failed after protests regarding its status as affordable housing. The new complex, “Cambridge Farms Apartments,” is designed to be higher-end and won’t accept Section 8 residents.
“I believe the council supported the project because it appeared that the constructive criticism of the project, the developers were willing to implement some of those ideas, including water-related issues,” Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy said. “As well as, there is obviously a need for newer apartment complexes with amenities to attract young professionals.”
A petition signed by 14 North Herritage Street businesses — including Piggly Wiggly, San Juan Mexican Restaurant, Sweet Frog and U.S. Cellular — and the King’s Restaurant North Queen Street location, supported the complex.
The petition read, “These apartments are being built to house young professionals such as teachers, police officers, firefighters, computer technicians, etc. They are not public housing.”
Murphy said he had heard requests for assistance and read the petition.
“Some of the public comment documents included a letter from the (Lenoir County) school superintendent (Steve Mazingo) regarding the ability to recruit teachers, as well as a petition from several business owners in the community in support of building new apartment complexes with amenities for young professionals,” Murphy said.
Residents of Stallings Drive, writing the City Council, are less enthused. The road lies on the other side of a tree line from the field that will be the Cambridge Farms location.
“It will definitely affect the property value of the homes in this area,” former Kinston Mayor Buddy Ritch wrote. “You may gain the taxes that will be generated with the new project, but you will lose the tax value on the existing homes in the area.”
A number of people had concerns about the flooding of Adkin Branch, noting the field’s location in a FEMA flood zone and exacerbation caused by runoff from solid surfaces.
“It is easy to understand replacing ‘crop land,’ that has a heavy absorption, with a lot of hard surfaces will embed the flow of water,” RaDonna Marshall wrote. “I seriously doubt raising some of the buildings solves the problem of water shed.”
To handle the problem, developers will create a retention pond. Marshall wrote that a suggestion she made to the developers — putting a fountain in the lake to discourage mosquito breeding — was accepted.
As plans currently stand, there are to be three apartment buildings three floors high, a clubhouse with a screened-in porch, picnic area with two tables and a grill, several seating areas and a gazebo. Each apartment will have either two or three bedrooms.
Part of the funding from the project comes from a state-based grant and the plans have been given the Energy Star endorsement. There are plans for 36 two-bedroom apartments and 24 three-bedroom apartments.
Heading up the project is Pendergraph Development out of Raleigh. The company is part of a corporate group that’s also responsible for the recent Abbey Gardens affordable housing apartment complex near A Street and U.S. 258. The Pendergraph Companies is responsible for 68 complexes in North Carolina and 13 in South Carolina. Planworx Architecture is involved with the project as well.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.