Albemarle City Council has passed motions to annex and zone 12 acres of property off Morgan Road that is part of a proposed subdivision.

The property will be developed as a single-family residential cluster subdivision and will have 43 lots. Of the 12 acres, 5.76 will be for open space.

Carolina Development Services will develop the subdivision and then sell the lots.

Each lot is designed for 4,200 square feet and would be around 51 feet wide by 82 feet, said Michael Sandy, who works for Carolina Development Services.

The annexation allowed the property — most of which was originally outside the city limits — to be incorporated into the city while the zoning transfers the property from county residential district to city residential district.

The council passed motions approving the subdivision, which as of now will be called Morgan Ridge, and also approved the conditional use permit.

The Morgan Ridge subdivision is part of one subdivision Carolina Development Services plans to develop which involves three to four phases over a five-year span. The annexation and zoning is part of phase 1 of a master plan to eventually have roughly 500 lots on Morgan Road. The entire subdivision would have 168 acres, of which 90 would be open space.

Kim Faulkner, who lives on Marlbrook Drive near Morgan Road, spoke out against the development during the annexation public hearing.

“I’m quite concerned about what kind of impact this is going to have on our neighborhood,” she said.

While phase 1 will not directly affect her neighborhood, she said subsequent phases will. She worried that traffic would increase and the influx of people would be so great it would change her “nice quiet neighborhood.”

“So if saying no to the annexation will stop that (development) then I’m against it,” she said.

Carolina Development Services employed Ramey Kemp, a Raleigh-based transportation consulting firm, to perform a transportation analysis to see what traffic impacts would be created with the proposed development. The analysis is complete and under review by N.C. Department of Transportation, Sandy said.

The cost of the homes would be $160,000 to $210,000, Sandy said.

He presented the proposal to the council at its last meeting in June. Sandy estimated that at the current tax rate of 64 cents per $100 valuation, the entire proposed development would equate annually to $460,000 in new real property taxes.

The proposed development would offer benefits to Albemarle and Stanly County, Sandy said, including sales tax revenue with expansion of the tax base and new citizens contributing to the city’s growing local businesses and services and housing for the working and middle class services.

In other news:

• Kevin Robinson, director of the city’s planning and development services, presented new text amendments the city staff recently made in regards to owning animals in the city.

The amendments include: Requiring two acres for a horse and another half-acre for each additional horse; limiting ownership of rabbits/fowl to four and reducing setbacks to 20 feet from the property lines; limiting fowl to one per 2,000 square feet and a maximum of 20 per property; requiring two acres for a rooster (when complying with noise ordinance) and half-acre per additional rooster; and allowing one domestic pig in the city as long as it is no more than 24 inches in height.

• The council approved a financing agreement with Pinnacle Bank for the construction and renovation of the new police headquarters which will be at 155 W. South St.