NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Developers are moving forward with a rezoning request in northern New Hanover County after gaining support from the county Planning Board earlier this month.
The request, which was initially tabled back in October by the Planning Board (at the behest of the developer), has grown in size from 5.28-acres to 6.58-acres.
“In response to concerns expressed during the October Planning Board meeting, the applicant has expanded the area proposed to be rezoned to include 1.30 acres of land that will allow for an additional roadway connection at the current terminus of Murrayville Road. This access allows for traffic to enter or exit the subject property to the north in addition to the existing Springwater Drive in the Hanover Reserve subdivision,” according to the staff report.
The project is part of a larger development, Hanover Reserve, which was approved in 2015 for several hundred units.
“The subdivision obtained preliminary plan approval in 2015 for 377 units. To date, 192 single-family lots have been platted within the subdivision, most of which now contain occupied single-family homes. The R-15 and R-5 districts are both residential zoning districts. While the R-5 district (8 du/ac) permits more base density than the R-15 district (2.5 du/ac), it prohibits mobile homes and typical multi-family development, like apartments, allowing a maximum of 4 units within any residential structure,” according to the county’s staff report from the initial rezoning request.
If the rezoning is approved by the County Commissioners, there will be requirements in place to maintain buffers to the adjacent neighborhoods.
“If townhomes are developed, a minimum 20-foot buffer is required around the northwestern property line of the project because the proposed development is adjacent to single-family dwellings within the Quailwoods subdivision. This required buffer will aid in screening the subject property from property owners to the west along Murrayville Road. In addition, the townhome units will be restricted to a maximum height of 35 feet, which is the same standard applied in the R-15 district. Compliance with these provisions will be reviewed by the Technical Review Committee during the subdivision review process,” according to county documents.
Transportation and the future
As previously stated, the project is part of a larger development — but the scale of potential projects is even larger than most people see.
The majority of the area owned by the developer is not exactly accessible at the time, it is also undeveloped. But a transportation impact analysis for the Hanover Reserve development consists of 135-acres.
The current single-family phase is shown in the map outlined in blue; red shows the proposed rezoning, and orange shows the remaining property plans.
Future development will be reliant on the completion of the Military Cutoff Extension and the extension of Murrayville Road to connect the two corridors.
The applicant completed a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) which was approved by NCDOT and the WMPO in 2017. The TIA analyzed the entire 135-acre Hanover Reserve project area with 330 single-family dwellings at full build-out. The TIA requires Murrayville Road to be extended to the future Military Cutoff extension, and signal timing to be modified at the intersections of Torchwood Boulevard at Market Street and Gordon Road at White Road,” according to the staff report.
It would seem that adding townhomes and rezoning part of the property to R-5 would increase the density of the development, but according to the NCDOT, it would not — at least, not yet.
“NCDOT has indicated that because the proposed rezoning, and the potential to develop townhomes on the subject site would not increase the overall intensity analyzed in the TIA of the entire project area, an update to the analysis would not be necessary at this time. However, if the applicant moves forward with commercial and higher density housing within the remaining portion of the area analyzed in the TIA, a revised TIA would be required,” according to the report.
While single-family homes generally twice as many trips than townhomes, the denser townhome development would add an additional 10 morning ‘peak hour’ trips and 6 evening peak trips.
“Typically, single-family dwellings generate approximately one trip in the peak hours, while townhomes generate approximately 0.5 trips in the peak hours. A by-right residential development on the site under the current zoning would allow 16 dwelling units, which would generate about 12 trips in the AM peak hours and 16 trips in the PM peak hours. Under the proposed R-5 zoning, up to 53 townhomes could be constructed on the site, which would generate about 22 trips in both the AM and PM peak hours. The expected net difference in traffic would be an increase of 10 AM peak trips and 6 PM peak trips,” according to county staff.
The New Hanover County Commissioners will hear the request and hold a public hearing for it on Monday, Jan. 6 at 4 p.m. at the New Hanover County Courthouse, 24 North Third St., Room 301.
