HAMPSTEAD — Wilmington homebuilder Logan Homes will develop 308 single-family lots on coastal land stretching from U.S. 17 to the Intracoastal Waterway in Hampstead.
Logan Homes Vice President PJ Kelly said the Salters Haven subdivision will include more than nine homes on the waterway and 11 lots along an existing channel that will connect to a 75-slip marina. Each of these lots along the channel will have its own boat lift, according to Kelly.
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An additional 13 lots will surround the marina, which includes a kayak launch and 6-foot-wide boardwalk surrounding the marina and connecting to the neighborhood’s sidewalks. Designs also show a pool and clubhouse directly west of the marina with an outdoor kitchen, fire pit, and parking spaces for cars and golf carts.
Factory Road runs along the length of the 68-acre property on its northeastern side, where Kelly said a large landscaping berm will block visibility of the community from the road.
According to Kyle Breuer, Pender County Planning Director, the process of approving the project’s preliminary plat and master development plan is ongoing. Initial plans were submitted to the county in August 2018 and revised in January, February, and April 2019.
Breuer said April’s plans, which show only 119 lots, are the most recent plans submitted to the county. But a traffic impact analysis (TIA) was based on the buildout of 320 single-family homes, according to Breuer, and received an approved scope from the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) in early July.
“A TIA has been scoped only to this point, which includes agreeance on the use of the property as well as intersections that will have to be studied to determine potential improvements as warranted or shown by the traffic engineer,” Breuer said.
Logan Homes hopes to deliver the homesites by Fall 2020 and will sell lots individually, according to Kelly. He expects Logan Homes to build out many of the lots itself, and said there will be two phases of construction working from the waterway inland. Crews are currently developing land near the waterway where the marina and clubhouse will be located.
He said the subdivision will be modeled off a prior Logan Homes project, Helms Port, situated on the waterway just south of Wilmington and west of Masonboro Island.
“We’re very excited about it,” Kelly said. “We had great success with Helms Port. This is in a different location, but I feel like it’s going to do well.”
Kelly expects Salters Haven to attract both local homebuyers and people from states like Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut.
Environmental and zoning details
According to the project’s master development plan, the subdivision will sit on five designated wetland areas. Three large retention ponds are included in the April designs to minimize stormwater runoff into the adjacent waterway.
Breuer said April’s plans reference low impact design features such as rain gardens and swales, infiltration basins and trenches, the preservation of specimen trees on site, and limiting runoff volume to less than or equal to the volume prior to development.
He said the intent is for the subdivision to use Pender County Utilities for its water needs.
The proposed design indicates roughly a half-acre of impacts on the wetlands, which was discussed in a multi-agency meeting at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) in July 2018. The plan also states the property is in a ‘Flood Zone X,’ a FEMA designation for moderate-to-low risk of flooding.
The property is designated a Residential Performance zoning district. County planners are currently redrawing Pender County’s land use ordinance, including a new Coastal Residential district that would apply to residential developments within a half-mile of the Intracoastal Waterway and nearby tidal creeks.
The new land-use classification would incentivize environmental preservation through stormwater controls, low-impact development, the clustering of residential development, habitat connectivity, and the creation of permanent open space.
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com or (970) 413-3815
