WILMINGTON — Next week the Wilmington Planning Commission will hear several requests, including a rezoning to allow a 192-unit apartment complex on Market Street.
The conditional district rezoning would turn roughly 10 acres of land from commercial services district to multi-family medium high-density. The property is currently mostly woodland, including about 5 acres of wetland forest, tucked behind strip malls on the south side of Market Street, between the Seaboard Coastline railroad and Westig Road.
According to the proposal from applicant David Spetrino, the apartment complex would include 144 studio units and 48 two-bedroom units, for a total of 240 bedrooms. The apartment buildings could be up to five stories, with ground-floor parking and residential space above.
The application notes that prospective residents are likely to be “environmentally conscious” and will view the natural spaces on the property as an amenity. The application calls for cleaning and preserving as much of a wetland as possible, as well as preserving as many trees as possible.
The application also calls for improving and renaming a portion of Westig Road as ‘Switchyard Road,’ turning it over to the city and working to connect it to Cinema Drive (and by extension, Kerr Avenue).
If approved by the Planning Commission, the project would then head to city council for final approval.
You can find the application here and additional agenda items here. The Wilmington Planning Commission meets next on Wednesday, August 5, at 6 p.m. in City Hall Chambers, 102 North 3rd Street (the meeting may be relocated to the Convention Center if attendance is expected to be high).
