NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Two developments are moving on to the New Hanover County commissioners after getting the planning board’s favorable recommendation last week, stormwater design becoming a major merit of both.
READ MORE: Townhomes to replace apartments, density decreased in CB Road development
The New Hanover County Planning Board approved of the 36-unit Medici Townhome development in a 6-1 vote and a Sheetz convenience store with 12 townhomes unanimously. Both development teams have attested to improving drainage conditions as part of the projects, not just for their respective sites but also surrounding properties.
“My hope is that will demonstrate to the neighbors that this project, while it does create impervious surface, is going above and beyond to try to improve drainage all along that neighborhood,” Nick Loretta, civil engineer for the Sheetz project, said at the Aug. 7 meeting.
Golden Ventures I LLC is requesting the rezoning of 5.18 acres at 7715 Market St. and 7718, 7740 Alexander Road from R-15, low-density residential. The request is for a portion of the land to be put under B-2, regional business and the other portion under R-5, residential moderate high density. Because the rezoning request is conditional, staff and planning board members are allowed to propose conditions before the project is granted the go-ahead.
The site plan for Sheetz will include 12 gas pumps and a conjoined fast-food dining option (to be determined), fronting Market Street while the 12 townhomes would be located at the back of the property.
Corrie Lee, the attorney representing the developer, reported the convenience store is currently set at 6,100 square feet, while the restaurant would be around 2,000 square feet.
As for the townhomes, Lee said the owner is open to posting them for sale or rent. Also not decided is the height, though Lee said they are working under the assumption they would be two stories. The height limit is 35 feet in the R-5 district.
The development was continued from the planning board’s July 10 meeting due to concerns about utility access. The plan was to service the site via private septic and wells, as originally intended in the R-15 district though the area has been built out with public infrastructure since that determination. Shortly before the July 10 meeting, the developer discovered the availability of underground public utility access and the team fleshed out the details for the August meeting.
Loretta explained the site currently has a drainage ditch running under Market Street that already collects a large portion of water and debris from the north side of Alexander Road, where the Sheetz would go, and the surrounding area.
“Even in the existing conditions that I’ve now analyzed, the pipe is undersized already, and there’s somebody going to have to deal with it, whether it’s this project or the one that’s coming across the street when they’re trying to discharge their stormwater through our site,” Loretta said.
The solution proposed essentially collects the drainage from nearby properties into a larger pipe that will then move the water offsite instead of routing it to a drainage ditch.
Lee also addressed another concern: traffic. A traffic impact analysis was completed in June and shows 10 morning peak and 13 evening peak trips though Lee said the majority will be made up of “passerby” traffic stopping to fuel up their vehicles.
“So 75% are not people seeking it out, but rather individuals who are already in their commute,” she said.
Other conditions include:
- Drive-thru speakers at the fast-food restaurant have to be oriented away from any residences
- Existing trees should be preserved that do not impact required improvements
- A 10-foot-wide public bicycle and pedestrian easement, along with a path between units
- Relocation of the drive-thrus on the site would constitute a major deviation and require approval through the conditional rezoning process
The development team also had Brian Downs, Sheetz’s entitlement manager, make the case for good stewardship. He lauded Sheetz as an aesthetically preferred option in the convenience store world.
“It’s a true brick construction, standing seam metal roof, large exposed windows, stone brick on all four sides and those elements are not just carried from the building, but they’re also carried to the canopy, to the dumpster for an increased esthetic that you typically do not see in our industry,” he said.
Downs pointed out Sheetz is still family-owned despite its goal of expanding to 1,000 stores by 2028. This location would be the fourth in the tri-county region, though Downs said the company has its sites on several pieces of land for potential others.
“We’re happy to come out and say who we are early, which is why we’re putting our name on this project now rather than just sitting behind,” Downs said.
Planning board member Clark Hipp said he appreciated Sheetz’s approach to the development: “I believe it’s a good example of how development can take place.”
No member of the public spoke out against the development, though Wilmington Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Natalie English did share support for bringing in a responsible employer along with needed housing.
Medici Townhomes
This is the fourth time the development team behind Medici Townhomes, formerly the Palm Grove Apartments, submitted for a rezoning on the 4.56-acre site at 6634 Carolina Beach Road.
Originally, the property owners wanted to build 78 one- and two-bedroom units, to be housed in a four-story building, pitched to be 50-feet tall. They also had plans for 10% of the units to go to workforce housing.
However, the iteration that went before the planning board last week essentially cut the density of the development in half, down to 36 units. The site plan shows quadraplexes, though staff included a condition that would allow for flexibility for triplexes and duplexes as well.
“That single-family lot template that has dominated the suburbs in the past, and certainly the busy areas along these major road corridors, are no longer attractive or even appropriate for lower density single family development,” land development consultant Cindee Wolf, who represented the applicant, said.
Not every planning board member was on board with the compromises. Kevin Hine didn’t think the applicants, Giovanni Ippolito and Tanya Vlancancich, were being respectful to surrounding neighbors.
“There’s better development by going with what’s appropriate and what I mean by that is, the units that back up to Lords Creek — they’re just too close,” Hine said.
The site does meet the minimum setback requirement of 20 feet.
“Every home in our community is built in someone’s backyard,” Wolf said. “New Hanover County is certainly not stagnant. This property was zoned for low density residential in 1969 when zoning was first adopted — conditions change.”
A handful of nearby residents also spoke against the project, noting concerns about stormwater runoff and traffic.
“We’re not against thoughtful growth, but we worked incredibly hard to become homeowners here in New Hanover County,” Glenartthur Drive resident Kyle Plesma said.
He worried about stormwater control on the west side of the development, where his property resides and already experiences flooding sometimes, he said.
Wolf said all runoff was required to be directed to the onsite stormwater pond, a requirement that would be ensured in the technical review process to come. Not only would the development not cause more runoff onto nearby properties, Hine said it would most likely improve the situation, despite his dislike of the development.
“People say, ‘Look, more development is going to cause more flooding on my property,’ and the engineered solutions tend to be the opposite — it actually improves the drainage,” Hine said. “I got to tell you, I’m sitting here, I’m not getting warm and fuzzy that the people in Lord’s Creek are being protected.”
The planning members, aside from Hine, all remarked on the developers’ response to feedback.
“I do feel like a lot of [the stated] concerns are kind of being from the past that I’m hearing have been addressed,” Kaitlyn Rhonehouse said.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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