NEW HANOVER COUNTY — National developers are seeking county approval for a multi-family project on Carolina Beach Road, after members of the planning board heavily criticized the proposal and voted to recommend its denial at a hearing in December.
Thompson Thrift Development, an Indianapolis-based firm, is pursuing a rezoning request on 20 acres in the Monkey Junction area. If approved, the company could build 300 housing units across 15 buildings on the now-vacant parcel.
READ MORE: 300-unit apartment project proposed on barren Carolina Beach Road tract
The current zoning of the site allows the construction of a big box store or similar business uses. The project’s backers say the proposed apartments would be less burdensome to Carolina Beach Road traffic conditions compared to a large business complex. But that claim met pushback from planning member Donna Girardot in December.
Girardot argued a business complex would attract cars already on the road, but that this proposal, in turn, would introduce 300 new apartments worth of vehicles onto the Carolina Beach Road corridor, leading to more congestion.
Hundreds of approved units nearby are still in the pipeline to be built, according to planning staff, and an improvement project for the Carolina Beach Road-College Road intersection, managed by the N.C. Department of Transportation, has two years until it goes out for bid.
“The elephant in the room is the traffic,” Girardot said at the planning board meeting, before the board voted 5-2 against Thompson Thrift’s rezoning request. “I really wish you all would consider a mixed-use project.”
Planning board hearings are the first arena in which the public and private sectors hash out land use requests like this one, but the board’s vote to deny the project is not a binding decision. The board of commissioners delivers the final yes or no, and Thompson Thrift is asking commissioners to rule on the request at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Paul Boney, an architect on the planning board, levied criticisms of the site plans back in December, calling the design too crammed and overly prone to traffic conflicts.
“I’m not going to penalize you for being the last one out. I’m just telling you that in this town you can do better than this,” Boney said at the planning board hearing. “And you should do better than this if you want to do another project.”
Jesse Houghtalen, a regional vice president for Thompson Thrift, told the planning board the company was drawn to the southern sub-market in Wilmington due to a high occupancy rate and growth in population and jobs. The company has been in business since 1986, he said, and has developed more than 55 communities in 20 states, mostly focusing on “Class-A,” multi-family projects, Houghtalen said.
“This is exactly the type of infill development the county tells us it would like to see,” the company’s attorney, Sam Franck of Ward and Smith, previously told the planning board.
Despite concerns from the board, county planning staff had recommended the application’s approval, citing the benefit of diversifying housing options in an area mostly comprising single-family homes and businesses.
The developers edited parts of their application following criticisms from the planning board: The two driveways into the development, off Carolina Beach Road, were reworked to improve traffic flow. Planning staff once again are recommending approval under the revised plans.
“I know you’ve done 14,000 units. I’m impressed by that, it’s a big number, but I’m not impressed with this,” Boney told developers in December. “And if all your 14,000 units look like this, well, I know you’re doing a great job and you’re making a lot of money, but we have to consider also what this thing is going to do to the community for the next 50 years.”
The board of commissioners will meet at the historic courthouse downtown on Monday, Feb. 7, at 4 p.m. Readers can scope out the full agenda here.
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