PENDER COUNTY — One of the largest apartment management firms in the country failed in its effort to expand a residential complex in Pender County after educators voiced school overcapacity concerns and residents criticized the firm’s stormwater management practices.
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The Pender County Planning Board unanimously rejected Wilmington-based Equitas Law Partners LLP’s request to add 84 to the 174-unit Hawthorne at Hampstead development at its Tuesday meeting. Member Brett Keeler raised a motion to deny the request due to conflicts with the Pender 2.0 Comprehensive Land Use Plan’s infrastructure coordination and focused growth objectives.
Equitas represented Greensboro-based Hawthorne Residential Partners, which originally intended to bring 300 units to the area but faced pushback due to concerns of strained infrastructure and school capacity. The Pender County Board of Adjustments approved a scaled-down version of the project in 2021 that remains under construction.
Equitas and Hawthorne sought a conditional zoning map amendment to put the approved development and its proposed 84-unit addition under a unified zoning district.
The 39.5-acre site is located east of Highway 17 between Deerfield Drive and Hughes Road in Topsail. The roadway is over-capacity according to 2023 North Carolina Department of Transportation data; it has an average of 49,862 daily trips with a planned capacity of 37,232.
Staff recommended denial of the request after determining there is inadequate infrastructure to support increased residential development in the area. Pender County Schools submitted a comment estimating the project would add 25.2 students to over-capacity schools; Topsail Annandale Elementary has a current enrollment of 574 with a capacity of 506; Topsail Middle School has an enrollment of 843 with a capacity of 745; and Topsail High School has an enrollment of 1926 with a capacity of 1,400.
“Everyday I’m out on the roads picking up school kids, the schools now are overcrowded,” Pender County school bus driver James Long said at the meeting. “They’re jam-packed.”
Pender County teacher Deborah Clark argued the site’s location would exacerbate traffic congestion in the area. A traffic impact analysis estimates the approved portion of the project will generate 9,050 trips. The proposed 84-unit expansion would add 394 trips for a total of 9,444.
“[Buses] come to school late,” she said. “They get kids home after five because they’re fighting this traffic. I think they need to be happy with the number of apartments they have and quit being greedy.”
Creekview resident Doug Holstein spoke on behalf of the Deerfield Community Association. He gave three reasons for requesting denial of the proposal, including flooding, traffic, and school capacity impacts.
“Hampstead is going to be a better place if this doesn’t get approved,” he said.
Around a dozen residents mirrored Holstein’s comments. James Curtis Schrecengost, a civil engineer and owner of Topsail based-James C Builders LLC, said he would fire any employee who designed a project with Hawthorne’s stormwater issues.
“I want to use five key words to start the conversation,” he said. “Disrespect, disregard, trespass, construction defects, and design errors. That kind of summarizes what everyone here has been saying to you.”
Civil engineer Hans Benford reiterated previous concerns and questioned if Hawthorne had implemented previous tree removal mitigation agreements.
“Development is inevitable,” Washington Acres resident Randy Kelly said. “But you don’t have to let everybody use every loophole they can to keep adding on after you let them have it the first time.”
Hughes Road resident Ron Whittaker shared pictures of recent flooding at his property with planning board members. He attributed it to previous development at Hawthorne and requested developers increase the size of the retention property.
“We’ve been through Florence,” Whittaker said. “We’ve been through a dozen heavy thunder storms and hurricanes. The ditch has always survived. It didn’t survive this rain after they cleared off 50 acres over here. The water flow from hurricanes was mitigated because we had the woods and the grass over there.”
The National Multifamily Housing Coalition ranked Hawthorne as the 32nd largest apartment manager in the country in 2024. Hawthorne manages over 150 multifamily communities for third-party clients, including New York-based real estate investment firm Midway Investors LLC. Hawthorne and Midway collaboratively manage a portfolio of local properties including:
- Hawthorne at Oleander
- Hawthorne at the Bend
- Hawthorne at Indy West
- Hawthorne at Smith Creek
- Hawthorne at the Station
- Hawthorne at New Centre
- Hawthorne Commons
- Hawthorne at Leland
- Hawthorne at Waterside
- The Villas at Murrayville
Hawthorne uses real estate software firm RealPage’s property management tools. The Department of Justice, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson, and attorneys general of nine other states are engaged in a national antitrust lawsuit against RealPage for artificially driving up housing prices and sharing confidential information used in its rent pricing algorithm.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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