BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Two Brunswick County property owners are looking to rezone dozens of rural acres for commercial use.
Home-building prospects have been abundant recently in Brunswick, where each monthly meeting of the planning board, the body that rules on incoming development applications, has been filled with as many as six major projects.
Most large residential projects to come though the pipeline are planned developments, a type of application that requires a fleshed-out site plan and details on impact to the community.
The two development applications announced for the Sept. 13 planning board meeting are straight rezoning requests; they’ll be judged on the strength of the two properties to support commercial uses. Both properties are currently zoned residential.
The applicants don’t have to show potential site plans for straight rezoning requests; the planning board considers the ask by thinking about how all permitted uses would hold up there. In the case of more restrictive applications like for planned developments, site plans are required as part of the process.
There are likely to be larger development requests heard at the September meeting, too. Straight rezoning requests are often submitted by land-owning residents looking to take action on their property, while the heftier planned development applications are usually submitted by attorneys or firms backed by a deep-pocketed landowner.
One tract on the September agenda, approximately 32 acres, is located north of Southport, at the corner of River Road S.E. (N.C. 87) and Dosher Cut-Off. It borders the 2,750-acre Duke Energy nuclear power plant site.
The landowner, SDS Wilmington LLC, is currently zoned for multifamily residential use on the land. The rezoning request would have the land use changed to commercial low density.
Commercial low density is a zoning district “intended primarily to be used in outlying areas, adjacent to major thoroughfares, with yards and other provisions for reducing conflicts with adjacent residential uses,” according to Brunswick County code.
Properties in these districts also have “substantial setbacks to reduce marginal friction on adjacent major thoroughfares. Commercial uses in this district will serve the needs of residential neighborhoods for auto-dependent commercial facilities; and serve the needs of highway oriented tourist business.”
The second property up for a rezoning request is located at 94 Green Swamp Rd (N.C. 211) near Supply. It’s more rural, comprising three adjacent parcels totaling about 50 acres. Highway 17 is just to the south, and a 270-acre Brunswick County sewer plan facility is directly north. The owners, George and Joseph Galloway, have a registered address in Calabash, according to property records.
These two rezoning requests and other land use matters are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at the Brunswick County Government Center on Sept. 13.
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