WILMINGTON — Preserving the character of one of Wilmington’s older neighborhoods went head-to-head with a desire to add to the city’s housing stock at the Wilmington Planning Commission’s Wednesday meeting, though ultimately the latter won.
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Neighbors of a 3.9-acre tract at the corner of Oleander Drive and Independence Boulevard showed up in the dozens for the planning commission’s vote on Dave Spetrino’s rezoning request for 1320 Independence Blvd.
The residents expressed opposition to rezoning the property at all and a distaste for the project due to its height, traffic impact and perceived incongruency with surrounding properties.
The buildout would include 16 three-bedroom townhomes and a four-story, 32,900-square-foot building with 24 one bedrooms and over 2,000 square feet dedicated to commercial space.
According to Commissioner John Lennon, staff had received around 300 comments from constituents ahead of the meeting, most of them asking for the commission to vote rezoning the property from R-15, moderate density single-dwelling, to office and institutional for a mixed-use development.
Several commissioners acknowledged the arduous public hearing and discussion ahead of them, saying it was going to be a “long night.”
After more than two hours of discussion with multiple outbursts from the audience, the commission voted 4-1 (Richard Collier and Ron Woodruff absent) to recommend approval to the Wilmington City Council based on perceived consistency with the 2016 comprehensive plan.
Commissioner Jack Pollock was the sole dissenter after raising questions on traffic flow into the busy intersection and whether or not the development provided the desired “transition” from single-family residential to the high-density housing across the intersection.
According to planning staff, which recommended the commission approve the project, the development supports the comprehensive plan’s identification of needed infill development. Staff note the housing units would be placed along two major corridors while serving as a transition from higher intensity uses and the existing neighborhood to the west.
Sam Franck, the attorney representing Spetrino, said the intent of the design, which includes buffers separating the development of the existing neighborhood, was a gradient shift away from single-family. He also pointed out the comprehensive plan calls for exactly what his client is proposing.
“What we specifically need is to improve the diversity of houses and address the missing middle,” Franck said. “The location where we need those houses, ideally, is in commercial-focused areas where we have existing, well-established infrastructure. This proposal aims to deliver exactly that as you’ve identified.”
Commissioner Lennon backed this up, describing the development as the “perfect product” in line with the comprehensive plan, which employed extensive public feedback. The plan was adopted in 2016, and as the city’s population grows and swaths of land dwindle, more emphasis is being placed on infill and redevelopment, as well as increasing housing units.
“We’ve told the developers this is what the city needs,” Lennon said.
The Cape Fear Housing Coalition also wrote a letter to planning staff in support of the development.
In what turned out to look more like a trial than public comment, Grady Richardson, representing the project’s neighbors, countered Lennon and Franck’s argument.
“In my group, no one says or denies that growth doesn’t happen; we understand that,” Richardson said. “But why do we have to go and put six times, all under the guise of a mixed use development, six times what could be built there right now? That is not harmonious.”
Richardson claimed his clients were not demonstrating NIMBYism but saying enough is enough. The attorney pointed to the “over 7,000 multi-family homes” within a two-mile radius of Spetrino’s land. He pointed out middle housing could also include duplexes or patio homes, like Dram Tree neighborhood down the road.
“You don’t need 40 townhomes here,” Richardson said.
Though Spetrino has not received any offers for the property, Franck said Spetrino could construct seven single-family homes by-right, each with their own driveway coming off Independence Boulevard. Franck also said if each plat was sold separately, no stormwater improvements would need to be made, as would be under Spetrino’s plan, and all the trees could be clear-cut.
Though seven houses would face some traffic problems at the busy intersection, residents claimed the traffic from an estimated 300 daily generated trips would be the unfavorable option. A traffic impact analysis is not required, as the estimate doesn’t exceed 1,000 trips.
“You’re increasing a significant amount of traffic for people who are going to try to not use Oleander or Independence and come in the back way — there’s been no mention of that whatsoever,” resident Dan Monk said. Aside from Richardson, Monk was the only speaker for the opposition during the public hearing.
Pollock questioned staff’s thought process on this as well. Associate Planner Brian Chambers explained the site has access to multiple alternative transportation modes — Wave Transit, as well as pedestrian sidewalks and the Cross City Trail for biking.
Still, it ultimately wasn’t enough to convince Pollock.
“At this point I can’t support this project,” he said.
All other commissioners expressed similar views to Lennon, chair JC Lyle saying this project is what the city wrote the codes for.
Commissioner Ace Cofer expressed some reservations about the height of the building — 45 feet — looking down on the neighborhood aside it, but ultimately voted for the motion.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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