BELVILLE — Projects were discussed this week in Belville to help provide connectivity and increase amenities for its residents.
On Thursday, July 28, the Belville Board of Commissioners — with Commissioner Morgan Mehler absent — discussed the new municipal complex, while unanimously approving the negotiation of two contracts that will formalize walking trails in the area.
One contract was for the design and construction of a portion of the Gullah Geechee Heritage Trail, now in the works for roughly six years. The other trail will provide a pathway between Belville’s Riverwalk Park and surrounding facilities like Belville Elementary School.
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The trails are needed to connect the town’s existing and future amenities to create a hub for residents and staff while the downtown remains undeveloped. To build the municipal complex, the town purchased nearly 5 acres for $1.2 million in November 2025.
“We talked about buying the land a long time ago, but when I became mayor, I said: ‘Let’s buy it,’” Mayor Chuck Bost told Port City Daily last year. “I’m trying to move things forward. I don’t like things sitting.”
Bost has frequently expressed concern about the disjointed nature of Belville’s facilities and the lack of certain services, like a post office. By creating amenities side-by-side and connecting them to the school and park — the latter of which makes up the heart of the town and its tourism attraction — he thinks the projects help foster a united community and improve public safety.
“There are constant concerns we have about walking space, talking about the community being more communal,” Bost told Port City Daily last year.
The trails will connect to a third project coming down the pike: a municipal complex to temporarily house Belville Town Hall, currently located in a space in Waterford Village Shoppes Center, not large enough to host government meetings. Commissioners, instead, hold their meetings in the former town hall on River Road, now a North Carolina Highway Patrol building. The town sold the building in 2025 because the River Road location was too small as well and the Highway Patrol needed the space to meet a growing need in Brunswick County.
“This is my pet project, mainly because I’m slightly annoyed and tired of working out of a closet,” Bost told commissioners Tuesday.
Eventually, leaders hope for town hall to move to the downtown district, though that’s being held up by litigation with Urban Smart Growth. The company was supposed to develop its downtown and secured a contract for 20 years to do so, but has yet to complete the job.
While the trails are federally funded — to cost over $2 million cumulatively — the municipal complex will be a larger project, whose price tag has yet to be established.
“We’ve not budgeted for this,” Staradumsky told commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting.
The 4.79-acreage off Chappell Loop Road is slated to include a post office, DMV, two town hall buildings, fire department and a Veterans of Foreign Wars building. According to Staradumsky, just building the shell of town hall would cost $92,000 but when accounting for upfitting and connecting the building to utilities, it could be upward of $1 million. The estimates came from Cape Fear Engineering, with whom the town contracted to do preliminary plans; Tuesday was the first time the mayor and commissioners viewed them. Port City Daily asked the town how much it spent to devise blueprints but did not hear back by press.
The town still needs to hire an engineering firm for the project overall, but it’s unclear when that will happen because funding is the focus currently. Town Manager Athina Williams brought up the possibility of taking out a construction loan to afford the project, since the town doesn’t currently have any debt.
Belville’s population is less than 2,500 people and the town is 1.7 square miles. Its property tax base brings in $654,000, while the sales tax brings in $1.1 million, both accounting for a majority of its budget. The 2026-2027 fiscal year budget is about $2.5 million.
However, Bost brought up at Tuesday’s meeting he was working on finding financial partners for the complex. In particular, the federal government will pay to construct a new post office, while the state will move the DMV. Bost also discussed splitting the cost of the Veterans of Foreign Wars building with the organization.
According to the town’s conversations with Cape Fear Engineering, the complex can be built out in phases, which aligned with Bost’s timeline for the project — at least two years for construction. He said moving the DMV to the complex would also take at least two years, based on his conversations with Gov. Josh Stein.
The town will now need to shore up funding to hire an engineering firm to survey the property.
Riverwalk connection and Gullah Geechee trails
Two trails have been in the works for years in the town limits. Both pathway projects are federally funded but will need North Carolina Department of Transportation approval.
The Gullah Geechee Heritage Trail is an educational attraction planned to be about 14 miles long, spanning Brunswick County. It will connect Navassa’s Phoenix Park to the Brunswick Nature Park and include signage detailing the history of the Gullah Geechee people. Descendents of slaves brought from West and Central Africa, the Gullah Geechee are well-known for rice farming and indigo dying in the coastal Carolinas. Neighboring Navassa has deep roots with the Gullah Geechee, as many of its residents are descendants.
The Gullah Geechee Trail will connect to the Riverwalk extension, which will be about 14 miles upon completion. The project will total $900,000 and is 80% funded by the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Locally Administered Projects Program. Belville has budgeted for 20% of the total cost, which would roughly be $180,000; Port City Daily reached out to the town confirm costs but was redirected to a consultant who did not respond by press.
The Gullah Geechee Heritage Trail also fills in a gap in the walking trail connecting to Riverwalk Park, which would make the path continuous and safer to pass through.
In June, requests for letters of interest were posted for engineering firms to design the trails. Town staff received three bids for both the Gullah Geechee and Riverwalk extension projects; Bolton & Menk, Kimley-Horn and Gannett Fleming Transystems applied. They chose Gannett Fleming Transystems for the Gullah Geechee Heritage Trail.
Smart Moves consultant for Belville, Adrienne Harrington — hired to aid the town with its transportation projects — said Gannett Fleming Transystems “have deep deep roots in highway trails, working with those federal grants.” The company recently completed traffic studies for the three-bridge replacement project in Wrightsville Beach.
The project will close a 0.2-mile gap in the existing trail, though the land to be worked on consists of wetlands. The engineering firm’s team will need to survey the area to delineate what is protected and how to construct the walkway over it.
According to the letter of interest, the firm has professional wetland scientists to review regional soil survey maps, topographical maps, aerial photography and utilize methods from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources to make an environmental analysis.
Because it is a part of the Heritage Trail, signage will include educational markers and related postings.
The town chose Bolton & Menk for its Riverwalk pathway project. The Wilmington engineering firm has done, among other projects, the master plan to complete Wilmington’s Riverwalk.
Belville’s Riverwalk extension would connect Riverwalk Park to Belville Elementary School and include a new intersection with traffic signals, a new park entrance and parking lot expansion. According to Harrington, the project will cost $1.5 million and is 80% funded by WMPO’s Locally Administered Projects Program.
In the letter of interest submitted to Belville, the firm proposed the path between the school and park to be multi-use and 10 feet wide, with buffers. It also will connect to a shared-use path under construction on N.C. Highway 133, and the land will need to be cleared before being developed.
In pre-engineering stages, the next step is for the town to get the proposal by Bolton & Menk approved by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Thereafter, commissioners can officially approve the contract and work can begin on the trail.
The firm’s timeline would have the town opening a bid for construction companies by summer 2027, which aligns with staff’s goal for surveying to begin on the site by the new year.
Commissioners still have to vote on contract approvals, slated to take place Aug. 25.
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