NEW HANOVER COUNTY — New Hanover County Planning Board met last week to review three rezoning requests and a special use permit request.
One rezoning and SUP request are part of the same proposed project: building a lawn care business and on-site contracting services along Piner Road.
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The other two requests involve two separate plans, less than two miles apart, to build a furniture showroom and boat dealership on Market Street.
Each request gained approval from the planning board with no dissenting votes. The projects will move on to commissioners before being finalized.
Check out a run-down of the three projects underway:
Boat dealership
Battleship Marine & Cycles put forth a rezoning request that would impact 2.3 acres of land on Market Street, between the Middle Sound and Porters Neck areas. The company plans to build a dealership, with retail space for boats, motorcycles and ATVs. The land, owned by WBP, LLC, is currently undeveloped and sits between a storage facility and veterinary hospital.
A staff report compiled before the meeting said the applicant located two trees that would require a variance from the board of adjustment before they could be removed, and the report also said the applicant would only seek to remove one tree; the other, a large live oak, will be incorporated into the building’s architecture, according to the design plan. The request unanimously passed.
Outdoor furniture company
Just a three minute drive south of the proposed boat dealership, owners of another piece of wooded land are seeking a rezoning request that would allow for the creation of a furniture store and a separate building for “offices or retail shops.” The business, Porch Concepts, will cater to outdoor furniture sales. The plot of land subject to the rezoning request is 2.22 acres, and now undeveloped, is a buffer between the high traffic corridor of Market St. and a collection of residential homes further behind the road.
The application states “the proposed project is an acceptable transition between the busy highway corridor and the more established single-family housing beside and behind it.” While the site is currently zoned for residential use, the applicants argued in their proposed plan, “Single-family residences are much less attractive along busy traffic corridors.” The request was unanimously passed.
Lawn care service next to Myrtle Grove Middle School
A lawn care franchise purchased property directly next to Myrtle Grove Middle School on Piner Road, and is asking for the property to be rezoned to allow the company to place landscape contracting offices on the site. The company would largely make use of the buildings already on the site. Freedom Lawns, the applicant company, was represented at the planning board by Cindee Wolf, who additionally represented the outdoor furniture heard at the same meeting.
Other applicants previously tried and failed to secure rezonings for this plot of land; a request to construct a Dollar General next to the middle school was shot down last year. The request was unanimously passed, and Wolf also secured a special use permit for the owners, to allow them to use the existing building on the property as a dwelling.
The three properties, armed with approvals from the county planning board, will present their applications to the board of commissioners at a later date.
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