BELIVILLE — A development site plan that has been approved and allowed to expire twice before was rubber-stamped a third time Tuesday night.
The town’s planning board signed off on a 13-acre, 160-unit apartment complex to be built directly behind town hall.
READ MORE: Despite lawsuit with developer, Belville moves ahead with riverfront plans, new apartments
The application was submitted for property owned by Urban Smart Growth, a developer based out of Los Angeles. It has a complicated relationship with the town.
Since 2007, USG has endured a legal battle over the company’s proposed $200 million downtown redevelopment project. To be located on 33 acres along River Road, it was slated to include more than 1 million square feet of residences and mixed-use properties, as well as a park.
It originally included the town’s Riverwalk Park, which Belville eventually took on solely and has invested more than $2 million into.
The languishing downtown project was built into the 2020 vision plan originally, but after almost no progress was made, the town told Urban Smart Growth it was in default in 2013.
Belville filed suit two years later, claiming USG was in breach of contract. Urban Smart Growth filed its own claim alleging the town was in breach of contract as well. A Brunswick County Superior Judge ruled in favor of the company because the town waived its right to arbitration. The decision was reaffirmed by the N.C. Court of Appeals and the state supreme court declined to review that decision.
Town Manager Athina Williams said the lawsuit has remained stayed since 2019 but declined to comment on specifics.
Though inactive, the suit could be reopened.
However, the town wants to see growth along its riverfront and worked with USG in 2021 on an updated 2030 vision plan, according to Williams. It includes bringing in a 120-room hotel, a community center, retail and office space, condominiums and connections to low-density housing areas. The document’s purpose is to “guide development” and “re-create a town center, tied to the waterfront.”
In late 2018 the town signed off on and demolished buildings as part of the end goal. USG still maintains a page dedicated to the downtown project on its website.
Mike White, Urban Smart Growth vice president of development, couldn’t speak to the company’s forward movement on the redevelopment but said working with the town on its updated vision plan shows the company’s dedication.
The new apartments — to be constructed at 245 River Road — are near the proposed downtown project though not part of the multimillion-dollar deal. First approved as a 114-unit complex in 2013, the plan expired after three years of no action.
The developer went back to the planning board for approval of a new plan in 2018. It also expired.
White said the reason for the delays on the apartment project have been economic, pointing to times of recession and the company looking elsewhere in its portfolio after the site plans were approved in 2013 and 2018.
“During that time, some of our focus shifted to other projects in other states,” White said. “We’re national developers. This is a very small piece of a very big pie.”
If the apartments come to fruition, it will be its first piece of construction in the town since USG and Belville’s relationship began 15 years ago.
Williams told the planning board the site has changed little other than the addition of more units, which was allowed to increase by 46 due to a text amendment approved by the town board of commissioners earlier this year.
White was invited to deliver comments to the board at Tuesday’s meeting as part of the public hearing. He didn’t have much to say other than the company has addressed all suggestions it received from officials and the technical review committee.
The 13 committee concerns ranged from providing the housing density calculation, to ensuring school buses can navigate the development, and having trees replaced at the rate specified in the town’s ordinances. The site plan includes a map for removal of more than 250 mostly pine and oak trees, and saving about 60 of the same type.
There were no public comments at Tuesday’s hearing. The only concern voiced by the planning board came from chair Scott Milligan, who asked that the town’s “heritage trees” be preserved.
The planning board agreed unanimously to move forward with the development, which is uncomplicated by zoning standards and is allowed by-right on the parcel. It does not need to go before the town’s board of commissioners for final approval.
There is no estimate on when the apartment complex’s construction will begin or be completed.
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