WILMINGTON — The Wilmington City Council took its first of two votes on its 2025-2026 budget Tuesday night, though one council member dissented based on one-tenth of a cent.
READ MORE: Wilmington council grapples with revenue deficit, capital projects in budget meeting
Highlights of the city’s budget proposal include $8.6 million for increases to salaries, including for first responders, $30.5 million for capital improvements and $2.3 for affordable housing. Plus, added back into the budget after popular demand is the Wilmington Police Department’s Mounted Horse Unit.
This year, city departments were tasked with trimming $1.1 million from the budget, and one of the items tagged by the WPD was the mounted unit. However, Councilmember Luke Waddell campaigned for the city to keep funding it.
However, Waddell said he still couldn’t vote for the proposed budget because of the property tax rate not being revenue neutral. The 2025-2026 tax rate is one-tenth of a cent more than a net-neutral rate of 28.15 cents because of city policy to round up to the quarter.
“Trying to keep it as close to net neutral as possible, that was really important to me,” Waddell said. “I think it was probably really important to everybody up here who understands how tight everything is for folks, and while it is a negligible amount, that increase does still equate to a tax increase.”
The budget proposal’s tax rate is set at 28.25 cents per $100 of value, down roughly 14 cents from last year’s 42.25 cents.
In this year’s property revaluation, New Hanover County values came in 67% higher on average, allowing municipalities to bring in the same amount of revenue with a lower tax rate.
Despite the decrease in the rate, property owners can still expect to see an increase to their tax bills, even with a revenue neutral rate of 28.15 cents. At 28.25 cents per $100, it would equal $28 more annually for a property valued at $364,408, the area’s median home value.
Revenue neutral rates generally don’t account for any rising or added costs a municipality experienced during this fiscal year. For example, New Hanover County commissioners are currently grappling with a 33.9-cent rate, as compared to a 29.2 revenue neutral rate. Adopting a revenue neutral rate would require the county to cut around $40 million in expenses accrued over the last year and new additions to the county, such as staffing and supplies for its two new libraries.
However, the city made the decision to trim some of its departments in order to reach close to revenue neutral. The budget, totalling $305 million, is only a 2.5% increase over last year’s approved amount.
The additional one-tenth of cent represents $350,000 in the city’s coffers — roughly enough to cover the mounted horse unit.
Council agreed to not nix the mounted unit at its budget session Friday; Chief Donny Williams spoke highly of the program’s public relations boon for the WPD. He said it was hard to quantify the impact, as people come up to talk to the mounted officers and greet the horses anytime they’re deployed. During one visit, he said he couldn’t get in a word with an officer for the amount of people coming up to the horse to pet it and ask for pictures.
If retained, the city will be one of the few remaining municipalities to use mounted units; former city manager Tony Caudle, who retired on May 30, clarified the City of Raleigh does have a mounted unit, though many cities have chosen to get rid of them.
The mounted horse unit is among the adjustments presented to council Tuesday along with $10,000 for the Downtown Business Alliance and $40,000 for Voyage of Wilmington, a youth enrichment organization.
The Downtown Business Alliance was not previously allocated funding, but Councilmember Salette Andrews, a board member on the alliance, advocated for DBA’s budget inclusion. Voyage’s recommended funding was $36,447.
The increases — totalling a little more than $400,000 — will be funded through various methods: pulling from the sundry miscellaneous reserve and fund balance, along with the ABC Board’s fund balance.
The entire budget is accessible online; city council plans to vote on final approval on June 17.
Development
City council unanimously approved two developments Tuesday night as well to bring 144 more multi-family units to city limits.
After the city annexed the property in April, 11.23 acres at 818, 902, 904, 910, 912, 914 and 1000 N. Kerr Avenue has now been zoned MD-10(CD), medium-density multiple-dwelling residential district with a conditional district.
Attorney Matt Nichols, representing developer Canvas Residential Partners, came before the city on Tuesday. He explained the property will be turned into 13 townhome buildings for a total of 79 units, a mix of three and four bedrooms.
The development will be accessed via a private drive from Marjoram Way; Azalea Landing Drive will also be extended to connect to Marjoram Way as part of the project.
As for traffic, the 79 units are expected to generate 35 trips during morning peak hours, 43 at night, and average 552 weekday two-way trips.
The townhomes will be a for-sale product that aims to provide “missing middle” housing, meaning housing in between high-density apartments and low-density single-family. Mayor Pro Tem Clifford Barnett said he liked that aspect of the development.
“I see a lot of things, but I don’t see affordability,” Councilmember Kevin Spears said.
Nichols responded the development is not formal “affordable housing,” but would bring additional revenue to the city, which it could use to advance affordable housing goals. Spears said he appreciated that answer.
One person spoke during the public hearing: Drake Joyce, HOA vice president of the neighboring condominium development, Cornerstone. He said his community was 100% in support of the townhome project.
“We think it would enhance the situation, and the situation is we got several neighbors that live in tents, and we would like to see the land cleared and building, which would be to our safety,” he said.
The intersection of N. Kerr Avenue and MLK Jr. Parkway has long been a popular resting place for unhoused individuals. Two major clearings have occurred in the past two years, though the area remains a draw because of its wooded area.
The townhome development passed unanimously; then council was handed another.
Four properties on Covil Avenue, across from The Reserve and Covil Garden Condominiums, are being tapped for 65 townhomes on 5.44 acres of land. It is currently zoned R-15, moderate-density single-dwelling district; the request was for it be rezoned to MD-17(CD), high-density multiple-dwelling residential district with a conditional district to accommodate 65 two-bedroom townhomes.
Currently, the properties consist of single-family homes and a closed and dilapidating former assisted living complex, Port South Village.
“You’re going to make a lot of people mad about this; a lot of people want to get their hands on that facility,” Spears said, referring to nonprofits that have explored taking over the property.
Councilmember Charlie Rivenbark said he remembers a plan being submitted to upfit the property, but it fell through.
“This is what the doctor ordered,” Rivenbark said.
Cindee Wolf of Design Solutions and attorney Sam Franck is representing property owners including the Williams family and Eakes-PS LLC, as well as developer Flying Pan Ventures LLC, on the project dubbed “Covil Village.”
The team originally proposed 73 townhomes, though the total decreased to 65 before it was presented to the Wilmington Planning Commission, who approved it unanimously. Though MD-17 allows the property to accommodate up to 100 units, the density now is 11.9 units per acre as compared to the maximum 17.
Access is provided to the site from two access drives off Covil Avenue, and traffic turned out to be a main concern for council Tuesday. The project brings 32 morning peak trips and 39 peak evening trips, with 495 24-hour volumes.
Traffic is known to be congested along Covil Avenue, with vehicles often backed up between Randall Parkway and Market Street during peak hours. North Carolina Department of Transportation volume maps show roughly 19,000 motorists travel along the two-lane avenue north of Randall Parkway daily.
City staff pointed out NCDOT’s plans to build an extension of Independence Boulevard has not been funded in the agency’s transportation plan. According to NCDOT, the project has almost doubled in price from $214 in 2022 to $424.6 million today; right-of-way acquisitions also increased from $88.7 million to $133.5 million.
Waddell said maybe the additional development would incentivize NCDOT to put the extension back in the plan. He also responded to Councilmember David Joyner’s question on the buildings being so far set back from the street, when the city land code favors buildings fronting major corridors. Waddell said he liked the site plan the way it was, both aesthetically and as a way to preserve trees.
“For any other developers or planners who are listening, personally, I like it,” Waddell said. “It’s something I’d like to see, have provisions added to it in our planning process.”
Franck explained the development was designed that way, to keep as many trees in the right-of-way as possible.
“We can’t universally apply one of those policies to every tract of land,” Franck said. “There are circumstances that are going to be different for every property. This is a big example — to eliminate that fantastic treescape in the name of checking the box…would be a shame.”
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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