SOUTHPORT — A Southport project that was withdrawn more than a year ago is being brought back to the surface with less units. Though there have been jurisdictional changes, with the county now approving site plans first, developers from what was once known as Project Indigo are working on a development agreement with Southport.
READ MORE: Developers ask city to negotiate, withdraw proposal to bring 1,500 houses to Southport
ALSO: ‘Robbed of our ETJ’: Per new legislation, Southport to turn over surrounding land to county
Now called “Waterway,” the project is from developers Bald Head Island Limited and East West Partners. It is set to hit the Brunswick County Planning Board on Dec. 9 with 1,190 residential units proposed, located off Robert Ruark Drive, West 5th Street and Indigo Plantation.
In a public meeting held Nov. 19, the developers laid out their recent application to the county. There is a proposed 400 single-family lots, 500 multifamily units, and 200 cottages, duplexes, and townhomes, with 100,000 square feet for commercial use on 326.96 acres.
Bald Head Island Limited and East West Partners, who also built Indigo Plantation in the ‘80s and ‘90s, proposed to the City of Southport a 1,500-unit mixed-use development on 346 acres in March 2022 that would neighbor the Indigo Plantation Marina, Smithville Woods, and Cades Cove. They withdrew the application in September 2022 to give more time for the city and developers to address changes to the development plans.
However, since the first application, 75% of the 391-acre development that was formerly in the Southport extraterritorial jurisdiction was given over to the county. An ETJ is land outside city boundaries that municipalities still have some development and zoning control over.
Effective in July, all of Southport’s ETJs were relinquished by the North Carolina General Assembly and given over to the county. This means developments in Southport’s ETJs that paid taxes to the city are now null and void.
The city lost approximately 1,911 acres or a total of 615 tax parcels. The first 612 parcels were approved and rezoned by the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners in August, and three tabled at that meeting were later approved and rezoned in September.
The decision made in Raleigh has been unwelcomed by Southport officials.
“We lost our shirts when we lost the ETJ,” Southport alderman Rebecca Kelley commented at last week’s city meeting.
The Waterway project came up in a surprise discussion after a motion passed unanimously for the City of Southport to initiate cooperation with the developers, in preparation for annexing the full acreage into city jurisdiction in the future.
“We didn’t lose our shirts,” Alderman Robert Carroll refuted of the city’s ETJ loss. “We were left naked.”
“Local legislatures have zero power anymore. That’s all been taken away,” Alderman Frank Lai told Port City Daily on a phone call Monday. “We said: ‘We don’t want that,’ and they said ‘too bad.’”
The former ETJ was zoned R-20 (low-density residential) and last year BHIL and East West requested a planned unit development (PUD) for 346 acres. PUD is a high-density-friendly zone and allows up to six units per acre. As of today, only 25% of the project’s land remains within Southport’s jurisdiction and is zoned as PUD, which could be developed into about 150 units.
Should the county approve the 1,190 units, in total Waterway is anticipated to have 1,340 units — about 200 less than the first application. But it could change, according to BHIL CEO Chad Paul.
Southport’s former ETJ is zoned R-7500 (medium-density residential), the lowest the county had for that property. By right, it would allow for 2,800 units.
East West and BHIL intend to begin building infrastructure in accordance with the county’s current zoning and later apply to annex the entire project back into the city. While the annexation could be a lengthy process, the developers want to get started on the development’s needs now.
According to Paul, this is also the way his father approached it decades ago.
“The original project, which my dad did in the 1980s, he completed all the horizontal infrastructure — all the water and sewer, all the roads — while it was in the county. And when he was done with the horizontal infrastructure, then he annexed it into the city,” Paul explained. “That would be the proper course on this.”
Once annexed into Southport, Paul said they would request PUD rather than reverting back to R-20 zoning.
“That allows us to mix and match and move things around on the site,” he said.
It also would allow for higher-density build-outs with greater green space preservation. Southport residents have spoken out against the high density, citing it would put too much of a burden on the city’s infrastructure. Many wanted to keep the land zoned R-20, the residential agriculture district allowing up to 500 single-family homes.
“People want R-20 zoning — that may result in fewer homes — but what it results in is clear-cutting. Big big backyards with lots of grass and not lots of trees,” Paul explained.
Basically, R-20 zoning scatters houses across a large property, which means the entire land gets cut back. Higher-density zoning, like PUD, Paul said, concentrates the houses in one area, which saves the rest of the land from being cleared of trees.
High density was one of the qualms expressed from No High Density Southport, a local community group concerned with the rezoning plans.
CATCH UP: Southport group against Project Indigo to discuss community survey results
“Those people out there that are anti-development and they want R-20 zoning really don’t understand what that encourages on the land. And that encourages clear-cutting,” Paul said.
The developers plan to maintain as much natural growth as possible and avoid clear-cutting to preserve trees on each housing property.
“So this way you have old growth on every parcel of land and that’s a great win,” Mayor Rich Alt said.
Environmental impacts have also been brought up by critics, many concerned that stormwater runoff and flooding could increase with the added impervious surface. Others have suggested the roads and sewer systems could not keep pace with a population increase.
“There’s always the guy who came yesterday and says no more,” Alt said. “That’s a very small population.”
The project is currently listed as a $515-million build-out expected to be more like $700-million, according to Alt. It could increase the city’s population by nearly 40% and also it would bring in more tax revenue.
“For Southport, it’s a big deal,” he said.
A development agreement is being worked out between the city and BHIL and East West currently, according to Alt. It’s to be signed in coming weeks and puts the developer and the city on agreeable terms, with specific goals and conditions to completing the project.
“The development agreement will help put structure to that and speed that along,” Alt said.
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