
SOUTHPORT — A Brunswick County town is in the final stages of finalizing a draft comprehensive plan to outline the community’s goals for growth and development. Officials and residents noted Southport’s ability to implement its vision is limited after losing authority of its extraterritorial jurisdiction to the county last year.
READ MORE: Project Indigo back with new name, potentially less units, approved by county
Southport Planning Director Maureen Meeham told planning board members staff is in the process of reviewing comments and finalizing Southport’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan at Thursday’s meeting. She said staff anticipates the draft plan will be ready for presentation at next month’s aldermen meeting.
If Southport aldermen approve the draft, it will be sent to the Division of Coastal Management to ensure compliance with Coastal Area Management Act regulations.
Meeham noted it coincides with the ongoing revision process of the Brunswick County Unified Development Ordinance.
Comprehensive land use plans guide municipal planning goals but are usually not considered legally binding documents. Alternatively, the unified development ordinances codify regulation for a broad range of developmental activities.
Meeham emphasized the importance of collaboration between the city and county on the new UDO, especially after the loss of the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction last September. While Southport’s new comprehensive plan will guide planning goals for roughly 2,400 acres in the town’s incorporated territory, the former-ETJ area — approximately 1,900 acres — bordering the incorporated town is now under county management.
Southport representatives broadly opposed the change.
“Allowing intense non-residential and residential development just outside of the corporate limits and within the pockets of town that are not annexed has the potential to deteriorate the character of the city,” City Manager Stuart Turille said during an August planning board meeting.
Truille argued the county’s higher-density, less traditional zoning districts do not align with Southport’s districts. He recommended creation of an overlay district along the North Howe Street corridor to require building and landscaping of similar design for the entrance of the city. The city manager also raised the possibility of including low-density districts in the county’s new UDO as a means of bridging the gap and provide a smooth transition on the outskirts of the city.
County officials similarly expressed frustration regarding difficulties harmonizing discordant development regulations between the city and county at an October commissioner meeting.
“Why does it take so long to put something like that in place,” Thompson said. “[So] that we could become more synced with what Southport had in place?”
An ETJ is an area surrounding a municipality’s incorporated limits that is regulated by a town’s zoning and building regulations. The Brunswick County Planning Board approved rezoning the majority of land previously in Southport’s ETJ to a mixture of commercial, industrial, residential, and commercial districts in August.
The vast majority of public comments opposed the rezoning; Bald Head Island Limited CEO Charles Paul said he did not object to the county’s proposal, according to August meeting minutes.
Bald Head Island Limited and Colorado-based real estate firm East West Partners sought to develop Project Indigo, a 1,500-unit mixed-use development across 346 acres of largely undeveloped and forested land, in 2022. The planning board rejected the proposal amid community pushback and the developer withdrew their application.
After Southport’s ETJ was eliminated, the Brunswick Planning Board voted 6-1 to approve a revised 1,100 unit version of the proposal, now called Waterway, on 326 acres.
Southport-based realtor Francesca Slaughter started a citizen group — No High Density Southport — and a petition that gained 1,684 signatures opposed to removing the town’s extra-territorial jurisdiction earlier this year. She told Port City Daily she was concerned removing the ETJ would harm the town’s character, tourism industry, and environment.
“We helped get people elected in the town that wanted to protect Southport and develop it responsibly,” Slaughter said. “Change is inevitable, but for them to just yank the ETJ and remove those protections after citizens worked so hard was a real kick in the gut.”
Commissioners sent a letter to Sen. Rabon, Rep. Miller, and Rep. Iler requesting the inclusion of Brunswick County in S.B. 675, a bill that would have removed ETJs for certain counties with populations under 25,000.
Southport sent a separate letter to local state representatives opposing the commissioners’ request. After a joint meeting of county and city officials, commissioners sent a follow-up letter asking lawmakers to consider the negative ramifications of removing Southport’s ETJ before including it in the bill.
Rep. Charlie Miller filed a bill to remove Southport’s ETJ on May 7, the day before commissioners sent their first ETJ letter. Miller’s proposal was implemented into a separate bill, H.B. 911, which became law on June 28. It included a 60 day transition period for the county to officially rezone Southport’s ETJ to its jurisdiction from July 1 to September 1.
PCD reached out to Miller to ask about the ETJ legislation but did not receive a response by press. He told the State Port Pilot in June he took action after hearing complaints regarding tree removal fines from residents in Smithville Woods, a neighborhood previously under Southport’s authority.
Miller argued property owners in Southport’s former ETJ were unfairly subject to the city’s development regulations and penalties despite being unable to vote in municipal elections. He added he was confident the county would manage the former ETJ area in a similar manner to the city.
A core focus of Brunswick’s revised UDO is stronger tree protection regulations to prevent larger-scale clear-cutting; commissioners approved a resolution in April to request general assembly approval of the county’s proposed tree ordinance. PCD asked Miller if he would seek to gain legislative approval of the request but did not receive a response by press.
“I’ve heard both planning board members and county commissioners say their hands are tied,” Slaughter said. “And there’s nothing that they can do, that the flood gates have opened. But there actually is a lot they can do. Unfortunately, if you look at their campaign contributions, it’s clear why they have in large part just continued business as usual.”
Sen. Rabon, Rep. Miller and several Brunswick County commissioners’ campaigns received significant donations from several large former ETJ property owners, following the bill’s finalization, according to third-quarter campaign finance reports.
Miller received over $40,000 from over a dozen prominent local development and real estate professionals on the same date, September 24. His campaign’s reported expenditures for Sept. 24 include a $600 event space fee for Earp Farms in Winnabow.
Bald Head Island Limited CEO Charles Paul and East West Partners Roger Perry — behind the Waterway project — donated $2,000 each. Bill Clark Homes president Edward Clark — manager of LHH Holdings LLC, which owns a vacant 34.35 acre, former-ETJ parcel rezoned to high density site built residential — also donated $2,000 to Miller. Other Sep. 24 donations included:
- $6,000 from Brunswick Forest developer Jeff Earp
- $4,000 from Kent Homes
- $4,000 from Logan Homes
- $4,000 from Sanco Builders and Dominion Land president Nathan Sanders
- $2,500 from Honeycutt Construction Services president David Honeycutt
- $2,000 from Smithville Woods resident Davis Herring Jr.
- $1,000 from Anthony Saffo
- $1,000 from Cameron Management broker-in-charge Hill Rogers
The Waterway business partners donated $1,000 each to Sen. Bill Rabon’s 2024 campaign. Paul donated $1,000 to Commissioner Pat Sykes, and $500 each to Chair Mike Forte and Commissioner Frank Williams’ campaigns. Perry gave $1,000 each to Sykes and Forte. Bald Head Island Limited board chair Michael Kent Mitchell also donated $1,000 to Miller’s campaign and $500 each to Williams, Forte, and Sykes in October.
Tips or comments? Email peter@portcitydaily.com
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.