A delegation of local leaders met with federal officials in Washington, D.C., Tuesday afternoon to request a reversal of a recent census change that put Brunswick County in metro Myrtle Beach—and out of the Wilmington metro area.
Shortly after the meeting, Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Chairman Hal Kitchin reported that the meeting went well but that it did not provide an answer as to whether the decision would be reconsidered.
Kitchin said officials with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB), who met with the group in the office of U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, said they would provide a response in two to three weeks.
“I can tell you we didn’t get any answer out of them,” Kitchin said. “We did have a good meeting. They seemed to be listening to our concerns.
“They answered some of our questions, and I think some of what we shared with them has prompted—especially the OMB—to go back and huddle and try to answer some of the questions that we raised, so they can make some sort of decision on whether they’ll reconsider this.
“It was a good meeting. We made the best points we could,” Kitchin said. “Congressman McIntyre did a great job of trying to bring home to those folks how important it is for us to correct this problem, and we also had somebody from Senator (Kay) Hagan’s office there as well.
“So I think they know we’re fully engaged on this issue and we all recognize what an odd result has happened coming out of this most recent census, and that it doesn’t make any sense based on what we all see on the ground,” he said.
In February, the Census Bureau released the latest delineations of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the country—adjusted lines that are meant to reflect population growth since the 2010 Census. The numbers resulted in the Myrtle Beach MSA taking in the whole of Brunswick County, crossing state lines and removing the massive Brunswick from the three-county area that has defined metro Wilmington. (Previous story)
The change has local and state officials concerned, as it means the Wilmington MSA is now without Brunswick—one of the largest counties in the state in terms of land area, and the one visible across the river from Wilmington.
It also means the Myrtle Beach MSA, centered in South Carolina, now includes the entirety of a North Carolina county.
MSAs are used in “collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics,” according to the bureau’s website, meaning that Brunswick’s statistics—its population, especially—would add to the metropolitan area of Myrtle Beach, not Wilmington.
Resolutions opposing the change have come from Wilmington City Council and Brunswick and New Hanover County commissioners, as have statements from McIntyre and—most recently—Hagan, who reiterated the change would have negative impacts on economic development in southeastern North Carolina.
“The assertion that Brunswick County shares closer core and economic ties to Myrtle Beach than Wilmington is incorrect,” Hagan wrote in a letter to OMB Acting Director Jeffrey Zients, according to a release from Hagan’s office.
“It is my strong belief that Brunswick County has shared and continues to share workforce, cultural and industrial ties with the rest of the Wilmington MSA,” she wrote. “I urge OMB to reconsider the decision to move Brunswick County out of the Wilmington MSA.”
Whether the decision will in fact be reconsidered, Kitchin said Tuesday: “It’s an open question.”
“The Census promised us that they would give us a much more detailed explanation,” Kitchin said. “One of the key questions is how the Wilmington urbanized area was delineated versus how the Myrtle Beach urbanized area was delineated, and that’s a little bit different than the MSA question.”
Kitchin described the process as someone using a computer to draw a map to delineate metro Wilmington and metro Myrtle Beach. He said the group conveyed that they don’t understand how metro Myrtle Beach could include Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach and parts of Shallotte, “whereas the Wilmington urbanized area goes about as far as halfway into Brunswick Forest and then ends,” Kitchin said.
“In response to that, they promised us that they would give us much more detailed information about just how that line was drawn. And frankly, we intend to take a look at that and make sure that the human beings involved in the process didn’t make any mistakes.
“It’s a fairly complicated analysis that they go through to determine that,” he said, “but we’re going to double-check all that and make sure no mistakes were made with respect to this issue.”
Joining Kitchin in the trip to D.C. were chamber president Connie Majure-Rhett; president Scott Satterfield and director Billy King of Wilmington Business Development; New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet; Jim Bradshaw, director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission; and Tyler Newman, special assistant to the city manager for legislative affairs with the City of Wilmington.
Jonathan Spiers is a reporter for Port City Daily. He can be reached at (910) 772-6313 or [email protected]. On Twitter: @jrspiers
