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Morrisville Commissioners Approve Zoning Change for Development

The 95-acre development, at the corner of N.C. Highway 54 and Cary Parkway, has generated support and opposition in Morrisville and Cary.

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MORRISVILLE, N.C. — The town Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 Monday evening in favor of a zoning change needed for a retail-and-residential development that has raised objections in the town and in neighboring Cary.

Casto Lifestyle Properties, based in Columbus, Ohio, and 1st Carolina Properties, a retail developer from Cary, are the proponents of the plan to tear down a now-vacant Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical plant and replace it with Park West Village.

Their plans call for shops, offices, 350 apartments, a hotel and a 3,000-seat movie theater on the 95-acre site at the corner of N.C. Highway 54 and Cary Parkway.

Opinions about the development have been mixed.

“I think this offers more of an evening out kind of place, where you go to a nice restaurant, you have a nice theater, you have upscale stores,” supporter Michael Roberts said.

Park West Village could generate $800,000 in annual tax revenue for Morrisville. Because the proposed development is close to Cary, however, many residents there  have been against it.

The development is a mile and a half away from the northeast corner of the High House and Davis Drive intersection. Shops, restaurants, office space and more than 300 multifamily units are planned for the area.

Cary resident Lindsey Chester said she is opposed to the High House and Davis Drive project, as well as the Park West Village development.

Chester has worried “that it was going to be bringing so many people from outside the area to that corner, and that corner currently has horrific traffic that I'm in every morning and every evening.”

Traffic studies showed the Park West Village development would generate more than 20,000 car trips a day. Part of residents' concern is that the area's population has tripled over the past seven years, and traffic is congested already.

Opponents in Morrisville and Cary have signed an online petition against Park West Village. Supporters have circulated a petition, too.

Morrisville's Planning and Zoning Board voted 3-2 not to recommend the commissioners approve Park West.

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