BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Earlier in the week, two development teams made their pitches to add upward of 800 housing units to Hickman Road near Calabash.
The Brunswick County Planning Board voted unanimously on each proposal, first tabling discussions regarding Paramounte Engineering’s plans to develop 205 townhomes in Trest Tract. The board then signed off on a 592-townhome development, Mossy Hill, planned by Norris and Tunstall Engineering.
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Mossy Hill is currently a farm, located near Coastal Club of the Carolinas, now under construction to bring 800 housing units to 300 acres, crossing the North and South Carolina border.
“We’re not exceeding the maximum density,” Tunstall assured. “What we’ve tried to do, even though it’s such a large piece of land, is more of a cluster-type development. We’re putting the density in a small area.”
Tunstall’s nearby development comprises 175 acres with an overall density of 3.38 dwelling units per acre. It will have a 30-foot opaque peripheral buffer with existing vegetation and landscaping added where needed.
The single-family neighborhood will be split between two zoning districts, with the front portion being medium residential and the rear designated rural residential, which is low-density. Approximately 40% of the development is located in the RR district, Tunstall told the board.
“There is also some of that OCS — open space conservation — in the back because there is a significant floodplain,” Marc Pages, Brunswick’s principal planner, said during staff’s presentation.
Part of the development is located in a 100-year flood zone, though those areas will be untouched by development. The majority of the land, 106 acres, will be open space — four times more than the county’s requirement of almost 28 acres.
“All that area will be set aside sort of as a nature preserve to be used by the citizens or the residents of the community,” Tunstall said.
Recreation space also exceeds Brunswick County’s requirement of 4 acres, with Tunstall dedicating 20.
The development could increase vehicular traffic by 3,349 daily trips in a 24-hour window. Pages said it’s “highly likely” a traffic impact analysis will need to be fulfilled.
The roads in the community will be private.
“There’s also connections to some of four previously approved townhome developments both to the east and west, so this will provide some internal vehicular connectivity in that area,” Pages said.
“It’s a unique situation,” Tunstall added. “Last time I came before you, you approved the project on the right and on the left. And with all this happening at one time, it really gives a lot of design flexibility for interconnectivity with utilities and traffic and all pedestrian access and all those things — which, as a designer, I don’t always have the ability to do that. So it’s refreshing.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation will have to sign off on driveway permits, prior to recording the lots. Each will be outfitted with space for two cars.
Water and sewer will be provided by Brunswick County. Tunstall said the development’s drainage is designed to sustain a 100-year storm, though the county only requires 25 years.
“We certainly want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” Tunstall said.
While the planning board had few questions for Tunstall on the development — which faced no pushback from area neighbors — Paramounte Engineering’s 200 townhomes, also proposed on Hickman Road, didn’t receive the same reaction.
Staff did not recommend the project to the planning board, whose decision to table the discussion was compounded by a handful of neighbors decrying its approval during the public hearing.
Parmounte plans to build 203 two-story townhomes, with garages and driveways, on 34 acres, for an overall density of 5.97 units per acre. Trest Tract is located near Brunswick Plantation and Crow Creek, with Cawcaw Canal running behind the property.
The property consists of high-risk flood areas; Pages reminded the board “development intensity should remain the lowest in the county” in these parcels.
The developer is proposing more than half of its units, 139, to be built in a floodplain, which makes up 83% of the property.
“That doesn’t mean that area is not buildable,” Paramounte representative Allison Engebretson told the board. “You just have to do it with the right regulations and in the right way in engineering properly.”
The build-out does not impact wetlands.
“If we were to develop under by-right conditions, we could do about 97 more homes,” Engebretson said.
However, the developers want to do a planned cluster development because they can utilize smaller setbacks.
After meeting with the technical review committee, a redesign was implemented to include townhomes closer to Hickman Road and farther away from the Cawcaw Canal. It also allowed for more open space on the site, which the county requires to be 8.9 acres. Paramounte is proposing 23 undeveloped acres — or 67% of the site plan.
Developers are seeking a conditional letter of map revision (CLOMR) for the flood zones, which must be signed off on by FEMA. It essentially states a development would meet the minimum National Flood Insurance Program standards.
As such, the developer has to add fill to the land to a height FEMA approves, 2 feet above the base flood elevation. The Paramount property is 31.3 feet.
“That means, of course, we’re in the 33-foot range for our fill that goes on the property in the areas where you apply for that CLOMR,” Engebretson said.
Planning board member Clifton Cheek asked if receiving CLOMR is likely to come through. Paramounte engineer Tim Clinkscales informed that getting the county to sign off was the hardest part. Now, it awaits FEMA’s consent.
There is also another barrier to the process: Paramounte has to undergo a national survey to show the ground was raised to elevation, then send the survey to FEMA, to receive a final letter of map revision (LOMR). This letter officially pulls the property out of a flood zone and revises its regulatory floodways or flood elevations.
Once received, then building permits can be issued.
“Any time you deal with the federal government, there’s going to be issues with getting anything, but we’ve never been turned down for one of these,” Clinkscales said.
The group has agreed to bring infrastructure up to date to meet a 100-year storm flood, though is only required to meet 25 years per county code. Paramounte proposes reducing water flow exiting the site approximately by 11.3 inches in a 24-hour storm and adding a pump station, easily accessible by public utilities.
“So that’s a 58% reduction, just for the 100-year event — and on 10-year and 25-year, the amount is even greater,” Clinkscales said.
The team has increased stormwater ponds from 3.5 to 5 acres to collect water runoff and added 6,000 cubic square feet of storage for water coming into the Cawcaw flood basin.
“When the canal backs up, there is more storage on that 35-acre piece of property than there is today, which is better for the neighbors and the whole flood basin,” Clinkscales said.
He added the added ponds would not fill in excess of a 200-year or even 500-year flood event.
“This is probably the most stormwater control in the county, based on the comments from the floodplain administrator and his staff,” Clinkscales added.
“The bottom line is, we’re changing the property to make it better for the community,” Mark Mathewson, a partner on the project, told the board. “Once the properties develop, and it sounds counterintuitive that you’re bringing fill into the site, but importantly, you’re removing more fill than you’re bringing in. Hence you’re having a net positive benefit.”
The developers met with nearby neighbors in the last few months to hear concerns, many of whom raised issues over current flooding problems, a lack of buffer and trees. Half the site has been clear-cut.
Robin Hess, a homeowner in the gated community of Crow Creek, said her property has flooded twice in 10 years.
“They removed a large section of trees,” she said, “and I’m quite sure that those trees absorbed a large amount of water. … They’re going to elevate this property, which is already elevated above the properties that exist currently. So that’s going to just create more problems for us. I’d like to know what recourse all of us have for that when that happens. I’d also like to know who is going to compensate us for the decrease in value to our homes. Neighbors are already starting to sell, trying to get out of dodge before this gets approved.”
Peter Polo urged commissioners to kill the development.
“There are no more lush grounds — it was a million-dollar view from my backyard,” he said, “and now it’s a clear-cut desert. No birds, no squirrels, no vegetation.”
Paramounte indicated it would widen the buffer from the standard 30 feet in height to 45 feet in some areas and will add evergreens, shrubs and understory trees.
“I do believe that the traffic and the flooding are going to be a major issue, as well as danger to our wildlife,” resident Heff said earlier.
A traffic analysis has been conducted and Paramounte would need to add a right turn lane into the development. The 200 townhomes are slated to add 1,191 daily trips in a 24-hour period.
Trest Tract will be gated and closed off from local traffic, but Paramounte is adding a second emergency road to serve nearby neighborhoods. Clinkscales said it will be open during major storms and hurricanes.
“Your emergency access road: 10 hours into the last major event would have been accessible only by airboat,” planning board member Christopher Wood said. “I know because I work in public safety, and that would be absolutely useless to us in recovering from an event. I mean, it would be wide enough for us to take an airboat through, but as far as driving a vehicle through it 10 hours in our last event, it would have been unacceptable.”
The development isn’t designed for a storm like Florence, Clinkscales responded. Hurricane Florence is considered a 1,000-year flood storm event, which brought in nearly 3 feet of rain.
“This would add to the safety of Crow Creek in events that are not Florence or Matthew,” Clinkscales said, “and also if there’s a wreck on Hickman Road, they would have a second way to get into these units that they would not have been able to before.”
One resident revealed his property already received 16 inches of water from heavy rains this year.
“Even if you do raise your development up, which makes you higher than what you are now, higher than the ditch, is that not gonna increase the amount of water flow around the entire development?” Jeff Kent asked.
Clinkscales confirmed all water generated on the development property will be conveyed into Trest Tract’s stormwater ponds.
“I guess I have to take your word for it,” Kent said.
Planning board member Cheek confirmed it’s illegal for developers to allow water runoff onto adjacent properties.
“If the project was approved, they have to get stormwater permits from the county and the state, and they won’t get approval from either of those entities if the stormwater does not go into the ponds,” he said.
A small creek — not the canal — behind Kent’s home floods constantly, he said, and the land owners don’t clear it, making matters worse. Clinkscales assured Paramounte would put a condition in to manage and clear the creek as need be.
The CLOMR process could take six or more months. Cheek clarified FEMA also has to consider citizen concerns.
“With CLOMR, you have to prove that you are not going to negatively impact folks downstream,” he said.
“In Brunswick Plantation, with water and knowing all the problems that they have in Crow Creek with water, and having been in public safety for so many years and dealing with these things, I just think we will be adding insult to injury until we get further into this,” Wood said.
The board voted unanimously to table the discussion while they await the decision on the CLOMR.
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