WILMINGTON — Wilmington residents stormed out of the Wednesday night meeting of the Planning Commission after the board granted a continuance until November for the proposed development off Military Cutoff Road known as The Avenue.
No one from CIP Construction, one of the applicants, was in attendance at the meeting.
After the continuance was granted, residents spoke out in protest of the decision — and the fact the public was not notified about the continuance before they attended the meeting.
Although public comment on the topic was not allowed since the board granted the extension, residents still made their voices heard.
Chairman Deb Hays told residents in attendance she was not able to discuss the issue and asked them not address the commission out of order. The residents did not oblige her.
Restless attendees demanded answers to why they were not given notice of the change, and stormed out of the room. Hays simply responded that the decision was not official until the commission made the motion to approve it, and that she could not legally discuss the topic because of the continuance.
The company released a statement Wednesday morning stating, “We are hopeful that the city, with additional time to consider the project and the incredible economic impact it will have on the area, will realize the benefits of our project, and we will have a positive resolution when our case is heard later this year.”
The city’s planning and development staff released its findings last week stating that the proposed development was simply in the wrong location considering the amount of traffic on Military Cutoff Road already.
The development would include more than 500 luxury apartments, a supermarket, a 237-room hotel, over 100,000 square-foot retail center, a nearly 150,000 square-foot “general office” space, and a 27,900 square foot “high-turnover sit-down restaurant,” according to documents acquired from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
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According to co-applicant Susi Hamilton, the findings of the city regarding the increased traffic are not in sync with the findings of NCDOT. Those findings, according to Hamilton, state that the project’s impact on the abutting traffic would not be an issue.
Hamilton, the former state representative and current secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, is a realtor who said she became involved in the proposed project two years ago due to her experience in commercial real estate.
Wednesday afternoon, the DOT Communications Officer Brian Rick addressed the DOT’s findings, in comparison to the city’s report.
“Zoning and building permits are a city and county function and do not fall within DOT’s purview. That being said, the City’s analysis is a broad study of the corridor as a whole, based on existing traffic volumes and the theoretical capacity. It does not account for proposed roadway improvements,” Rick said.
The DOT uses a traffic impact analysis, which only looks at specific intersections and movements.
“The approved Traffic Impact Analysis is a detailed look at the existing traffic and development traffic in the area, which studies specific intersections, approaches, and movements. The roadway improvements identified in the approval of the Traffic Impact Analysis adequately mitigates the development’s traffic,” Rick said.
The planning commission will not address the topic again until Nov. 1, 2017.
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