NEW HANOVER COUNTY — On Monday night New Hanover County Commissioners denied two large and controversial development requests on opposites sides of the county. Both of the developments have faced strong resistance from neighbors due to the nature of the requests.
The first request was from Tribute Companies for property located near the intersection of Lendire Road and Market Street, which would have granted a special use permit to developers to construct a mixed-use development on the property, which would have covered about 15-acres.
The project has been in the works for around a year and in October of 2019 County Commissioners reached an impasse when they first heard the request. A motion to deny the application did not garner enough votes but neither did a motion to approve the request, leaving the project in a type of development limbo. Eventually, developers agreed to a 90-day tabling of the project which was then further extended on March 8, 2020, when another continuance was requested.
Related: Contentious Ogden mixed-use development heading back to New Hanover County commissioners
Developers were hoping to gain the special use permit in order to build residential on the currently commercially-zoned property, but concerns over traffic as well as flooding issues were continuously brought up by neighbors.
Ultimately, stormwater concerns was the nail in the coffin for the request.
“Commissioners denied a special use permit for Tribute Properties to build a 15.6-acre mixed-use development in the 200 Block of Lendire Road in Ogden, citing concerns about the timeline of stormwater facilities and drainage efficiencies on the property,” according to New Hanover County’s Twitter.
Tarin Woods II
A second request that saw a similar amount of backlash from neighbors was for the extension of the Tarin Woods subdivision located near the Tregrembo Animal Park. The request would have allowed nearly 600 townhomes to be constructed in the currently R-15 zoned property.
Related: Tarin Woods development faces strong resistance from neighbors, vote scheduled for Monday
Residents in surrounding neighborhoods were so adamantly against the request they started their own website to organize their collective thoughts and push back against the request — it seems to have paid off.
The main argument was that the development was far too dense for the area that consists of mainly single-family residences.
“The Hoosier Daddy LLC company has converted a vast swath of wooded lands into single-family residences called Tarin Woods and Tarin Woods II. Now, instead of completing the plan for Tarin Woods II, the developer wants to increase profits by building high-density housing on 75 acres of it. Our community has been adamantly opposed to changing the R-15 zoning since it was first requested in 2018. The developer has persistently refused to listen to our objections, bulldozing through the Planning Board much as he bulldozed through our open spaces,” according to the neighbor’s petition which was sent to the county.
