CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A developer is hoping to replace the closed Collinswood School on Scaleybark Road with an apartment community.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is selling the property and the 15 acres it sits on. Woodfield Development has filed a petition with the city of Charlotte to rezone the land in order to build higher-density housing and taller buildings.
However, many neighbors oppose the plan, worrying a high-rise apartment would overshadow the ranch-style homes that surround the school.
Jerry Maschke's house is right behind Collinswood. He choked up while talking to WCNC Charlotte about how the proposal could affect him.
“I’m, to say the least, upset over it," Maschke said.
Maschke worries the plans will demolish his privacy.
"It’s a one-story house and it's going to have a tower behind it," he added.
Woodfield Development is requesting to change the land from residential zoning to "Transit Oriented Development" zoning. TOD allows for building heights to be around seven stories tall.
Detailed plans haven’t been submitted by Woodfield Development, but the company has built 12 apartment communities in Charlotte, including The Silos in South End and Elizabeth Square in Plaza Midwood.
"I think that it’s great we’re moving toward progress but I feel we need balance between what the neighborhood wants versus what the developer and city need," homeowner Ginny Robertson told WCNC Charlotte.
Robertson isn’t opposed to growing Scaleybark Road but worries about having more traffic and less greenery.
"I'd love to walk to a café or what have you, but also again keeping that balance with having housing, having some retail shops or cafés within walking distance, but also leaving some greenspace," Robertson explained.
Maschke questioned why CMS is getting rid of the school in the first place.
"We’re taking one of the elementary schools, or just any school, out of the area where we have a population growing," Maschke said. "It just -- it makes no sense to me."
Many neighbors are banding together against the proposal with anti-rezoning signs in their front yards. They hope a compromise can be reached to build shorter apartment buildings.
A public hearing for the petition has not been scheduled at the time of this publication.
CMS told WCNC Charlotte in a statement it was decided in its 2017 capital improvement plan to replace Collinswood School with the Collinswood Langauge Academy which is now open on Flagstaff Drive. Woodfield Development is offering more than $21 million for the old Collinswood property.
A spokesperson for the district explained the land is not big enough and cannot offer what is needed and required by the state today to build a school facility.
"There is no need that the site on Scaleybark can immediately address; we certainly can’t build a middle school there, which is where we are seeing our greatest demand," the CMS spokesperson wrote.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.