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Continued – Board of Adjustment, Planning Commission Requests Regarding Proposed Stonegate Development

By Jesse Wood

March 11, 2014. In the past several days, the Boone Board of Adjustment and the Planning Commission were expected to hear requests from Cornelius-based Stonegate Developers regarding the proposed mixed-use student housing development in between Blowing Rock Road and Faculty Street.

Both matters were continued, according to Boone Planning and Inspections staff. 

stonegateThe mixed-use project – Standard at Boone – is proposed on several parcels of land that include the Red Carpet Inn, the condemned Scottish Inn and the vacant property adjacent to McDonald’s.

The Boone Board of Adjustment was scheduled to hear requests for eight variances from representatives of the project last Thursday. Like the previous month, the applicant asked for a continuance, though, before presenting before the Board of Adjustment. The Boone Board of Adjustment has now scheduled the Standard at Boone presentation for its April 3 meeting.

According to the meeting’s agenda, requests included variances to increase the maximum building footprint; to reduce the minimum percentage of commercial total gross floor area required; to increase the building height for the single-use multi-family building; to allow encroachments in the floodway zone; to allow temporary and permanent encroachments in the 25-foot buffer zone; to encroach in the secondary height setback; to allow two driveways onto the protected thoroughfare and two allow reduction in spacing between those two driveways.

The development is slated to be completed in summer 2015 and will feature 450 beds with 9,000 feet of commercial space on the first floor, according Stonegate’s website. Other amenities include a 3,600-square-foot gym facing Blowing Rock Road, a coffee shop and multiple atriums throughout the development, according to a description on its website.

“The Standard will be Boone’s premier off-campus student housing project when delivered and will incorporate a mixture of high country design while keeping an urban feel,” the website states.

Currently, Jill Atfield Patel is listed as the property owner, and the Scottish Inn, having been condemned by the Town of Boone, is secured from the public by a chain-link fence. The property has been slated for demolition for some time, but the demolition deadline has been extended multiple times in the past year.

In September, Dale Tweedy, a partner with Stonegate Developers, told High Country Press that it was looking to begin demolition and subsequent construction in the spring of 2014. 

On Monday night, the Boone Area Planning Commission was expected to hear from representatives of the development. Standard at Boone is requesting a conditional district map amendment approval to zone property to the general business district for site-specific development. 

That matter was continued as well.