The rezoning request that could lead the way to a controversial upscale apartment complex on Cross Creek Parkway has been pulled from city council's upcoming meeting Tuesday night.

“City officials have received numerous telephone calls and office inquiries related to your application for the proposed zoning change … for property located within the Villages at Cross Creek community,” says a letter dated Tuesday by Planning and Development Director Kelly Lasky to Mark Gregory, president of MaSuki Incorporated, the developer of the project. “In response to the inquiries, the planning and development department staff re-evaluated your request with the city attorney. This recent analysis of the requested rezoning has resulted in a decision to discontinue the current rezoning process and a recommendation to proceed as a request for a conditional use permit.”

Lasky explained in a telephone interview this afternoon the conditional use permit process requires the developer to come up with a concept to show how he plans to reconfigure the approximately 25 acres of land. It also requires those who believe they may be affected by the development to present evidence of how they may be adversely impacted, rather than just hearsay.

Lasky's letter also gives a history of the project that leads up to the decision to scrub the rezoning request from the council agenda Tuesday.

The Villages at Cross Creek, she explains, was initially approved as one planned unit development project that addressed traffic, density, utilities and infrastructure. “During 2005, the city council approved a conditional use permit authorizing Villages at Cross Creek as a planned unit development with various zoning districts to include multi-family, single-family and commercially zoned areas fronting North Carolina Highway 125.”

After a few years of sales and development, however, the original developer suffered with the downturn in the economy and lost ownership of the property to the bank, the letter says. “Today, the project is less than half-built.”

In late 2013, MaSuki bought a 104-acre tract of property from Benchmark Community Bank, and subsequently applied to rezone 25 acres from R-12 to R-3, which would permit multi-family housing. “Currently, this request has been processed as a standard or conventional zoning,” the letter says. “Staff has recently determined that if the zoning districts of the Villages at Cross Creek had been approved as standard zoning districts, then the current standard rezoning process would be appropriate. However, the standard rezoning process does not apply to your property given the approved conditional use permit for the Villages at Cross Creek planned unit development zoning map.”

PUD districts are authorized by conditional use permits obtained from city council. “A planned unit development requires an overall concept plan for the development of the tract prior to rezoning or establishing a new zoning district,” according to the letter.

The conditional use permit, Lasky wrote, is perpetually binding upon the property unless subsequently changed by council. “Staff has concluded that the proposed rezoning is a significant change from the authorized conditional use permit due to the change in characteristics of the approved PUD zoning map. Additionally, the proposed change has a potential impact on those who occupy or intend to occupy the development.”

The letter continues, “City staff, in consultation with the city attorney, have determined that the current rezoning process for your property must be discontinued; the requested change of zoning to the originally adopted Villages at Cross Creek PUD zoning map … shall be processed in accordance with the land use ordinance as a conditional use permit request.”

To move forward with the process, a new conditional use permit application requesting an amendment to the PUD zoning map should be submitted. “An overall concept plan for the proposed changes to the approved development of the tract will be required for consideration to amend the Villages at Cross Creek PUD zoning map. As part of the CUP process, all property owners within the Villages at Cross Creek will be notified.”