WILMINGTON — In the past several months the City of Wilmington has approved thousands of new apartments to be built throughout the city within the next few years. One of the biggest concerns from residents, as well as city planners, is the increased burden that will be placed on current infrastructure. But can city officials legally take any measures to slow the rapid growth and development of the city, and if so, should they?
For City Councilman Neil Anderson, the short answer is, no, government should not interfere with what can be built on private property.
“… free market, capitalism, and property rights, etc. are what should dictate what gets built and not government,” Anderson said.
Although it might seem like there are plenty of apartments in Wilmington, Anderson said the occupancy rate for apartments throughout the city is extremely high. For Anderson, this means Wilmington has not yet reached a saturation point for apartments, but he admits it is always a possibility.
“I am more inclined to leave the choice of whether to build or not up to seasoned pros that put huge amounts of capital in play and most have done so for years, even generations. These developers do their homework in terms of location, target market, demand, etc. in depth, prior to making any decision to build…and the banks/lenders are much more strict about confirming (developers are) capable of doing so. More simply put, the experts know a heck of a lot more about their business than I do,” Anderson said.
What’s driving the apartment boom?
Anderson attributes several factors to the so-called apartment boom taking place in Wilmington including costs, a change in demographics, and an influx of students at UNCW.
Anderson listed a number of reasons for the apartment boom including:
- Lenders requiring 20-percent down to buy a home…tough to save up that much money.
- Younger demographics do not share the same desire to own as older generations, but they like to live in a nice place, thus more luxury apartments.
- Young and old alike losing desire to have a yard to take care of…sprawl is correcting itself and people of all ages are moving back to the city and want less yard, thus more density is not just possible, but desirable (retirees).
- Smaller towns and rural areas are really struggling while a few urban centers like ILM are booming.
- UNCW is growing 500-1000 students a year of late…that’s a lot…they are about to do a major on-campus housing build that is long overdue.
- One long-range hope for me is that as more expensive/new/luxury apartments come online, many of the older complexes will have to reduce their rates to be viable, thus more affordable housing will become available.
Rezonings
It’s not all up to the free market to decide where apartments are built –, zoning regulations throughout the city regulate what can be built where. This is something City Council ultimately decides on.
Several of the largest developments in Wilmington have been permitted by rezonings that City Council ultimately approved. Projects like The Avenue, CenterPoint, and Arboretum West all required council’s approval of new zoning designations.
What’s next?
Anderson acknowledges that the economy will inevitably trend downwards again leading to a recession which he expects will curb some of the larger projects.
“A recession is inevitable in every economy, hopefully not of the depth and breadth of our last one, but we will experience one, 2020 maybe, who knows when exactly. That will cool things down and put many larger projects into low gear (meaning some planned to take 6-8 years will take longer). The infrastructure projects are approved and funded, they will continue through any recession. The timing of some major infrastructure projects will coincide nicely with major developments, but recession will allow city/state to catch up in other cases,” he said.
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