'Live-work'
irks some owners
Code has community's residents scrambling
Erica Beshears, The Charlotte Observer
CORNELIUS - "Live where you work, work where you live," was the slogan for the Cornelius Town Center Townhomes.
The picturesque row of brick "live-work" units grace Cornelius' East Catawba Avenue and were intended to get more people living and working in the budding downtown district.
But buyers have discovered that "live where you work" was more than a slogan. It's a building code requirement.
Homeowners have the option of living on all three floors or using the bottom floor for retail or office space. But they can't have a business on the upper floors, and they can't run a business downstairs and rent the apartment upstairs to someone else.
At least six homeowners have not complied with those, according to a county survey.
The Mecklenburg County code-enforcement department threatened to turn off utilities and revoke the occupancy certificates of violators in April.
Now, the owners must decide whether to pay to upgrade their units for more flexibility or accept the current limits. On Thursday, for-sale signs were posted at five of 25 units.
"I think a lot of people didn't do their homework," said Bud Stokely, owner of Shalom Christian Bookstore. "I think the town jumped into this, they were so excited to find someone willing to do this neo-urbanist planning. ...
"I don't know where you place the blame -- the county code, the town of Cornelius, the developer, the buyers," Stokely said. "A lot of people have lost a lot of money."
For the past 50 years, deciding which building code to use was simple. Commercial buildings were built to commercial codes, houses to residential code, and zoning kept the uses separate.
"It was rare that you could mix a use on a street, much less a building," said Jim Bartl, Mecklenburg County director of code enforcement.
But in the late 1990s, traditional neighborhood design, or new urbanism, took hold in north Mecklenburg planning departments. The concept encourages mixed uses so people can easily walk from their home to nearby businesses.
Builders applied the concept to Cornelius live-work units. The question became: Which code should apply?
"The building code really doesn't have any way to mix uses within a building other than using the commercial code," Bartl said. But the Cornelius builder wanted to use the residential code to make the final product more affordable, he said.
Bartl's department worked with the builder in 1999-2000, at the time Inland Homes, to come up with a customized plan under the residential code.
The requirements, designed to mitigate problems in cases of fire or other emergency, included: single tenancy (which means the "live" tenant and the "work" tenant must be the same) and work area on the bottom floor only.
Both Sam Burns, formerly of Inland Homes, and Nate Bowman, whose company marketed the townhomes, declined comment. In a written statement, Burns said the buyers were made aware of the code requirements.
However, some homeowners said they didn't understand the single-tenancy requirement when they bought. Others said they knew, but didn't think the rules would be strictly enforced.
Live-work units that Burns built more recently in Huntersville's Rosedale and Mooresville's Morrison Plantation have been built to commercial code.
Complaint raised issue
In spring 2001, someone complained to Cornelius that one of the unit owners had a business upstairs, first drawing attention to the problem.Then in April, the code enforcement department realized how widespread the noncompliance was, Bartl said. Of the 25 units, just seven were in compliance. Six were in direct violation, three were vacant, and inspectors couldn't gain access to the other nine, Bartl said.
That's when the county sent the letter, threatening to shut off utilities. It worried homeowners, even those in compliance.
"They actually are inspecting people's bedrooms, and that is ludicrous," said owner John Barrett, who leases his whole unit to someone else.
The homeowner's association got involved, president Greg Smith said. The issue became everyone's problem when the county sent the letter, he said.
"It's an investment property for me," said Smith, who added that his unit complies. "We don't want to do anything that devalues the property. ... What we decided to do was work hand-in-hand in a positive direction."
The homeowner's association has hired an architect to determine how much it would cost to make the units meet commercial code. Doing that would allow homeowners separate tenants upstairs and downstairs. The estimates should be ready in mid-July, said Smith, who said he could not guess the cost.
Bartl said the county would wait until the homeowners get the architect's report and make decisions before the next step: court action against noncomplying owners. "We recognize it's a difficult situation for the town and the owners of the units," he said. "We've invested a lot of time in helping them find a solution."
Moving on
There is a for-sale sign on the unit Michelle and Rodney Miles bought last year. The seller informed them of the requirements, but, "When we bought, (the county and town) were not pushing the issue," she said. "We didn't think it was a big deal."
The Mileses have a new house in Concord, but opened a shop selling antiques, pottery and candles in the live-work townhome. They rented the apartment upstairs, and thought the rent money would help them until their business was established.
When they got the letter from the county, their tenant moved out, Michelle Miles said. They needed the rent money to stay afloat, and decided to sell.
"They're trying to build the town up, and now they're trying to close it down," she said.
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