CAROLINA BEACH — After a hotel management firm held its first public meeting last week to bring Embassy Suites to the area, residents are continuing to speak out against the move. A petition has been filed on Change.org compelling town leaders to enforce its height restrictions.
READ MORE: Proposed 177-room hotel on CB draws ire from residents, land trade with town proposed
The petition primarily targets the hotel’s request to exceed 40 feet above the current town restriction of 50 feet, though that number can increase with conditional zoning approval.
“Allowing this exception could set a dangerous precedent, potentially inviting more oversized developments that would further erode our town’s unique identity,” the petition indicates.
To date the petition has received upward of 290 signatures, with residents expressing a multitude of concerns, from traffic to diminishing CB’s quaint vibe to the hotel blocking beachfront views.
Harmony Hospitality wants to build its 90-foot hotel, with 177 rooms, on the SeaWitch Cafe and Tiki Bar land, as well as surrounding parcels. The development is slated to take up roughly 50,000 square feet.
The Virginia-based hotel management firm presented plans to more than 100 people last week. One day after the public meeting, the petition, titled “Enforce Height Restrictions for New Developments in Carolina Beach,” was published by Alexander Torres. Port City Daily reached out to Torres but did not hear back by press.
“My concern with any petition is, how many of those folks are actual residents of Carolina Beach?” council member Jay Healy said to PCD after Tuesday’s council meeting. “My guess is it’s probably about 25%.”
Since the petition went live, Carolina Beach town council member Mike Hoffer has shared a chart mapping out various footprints of condominiums and hotels on the island. According to his research, the Embassy Suites would be the 10th tallest building on the beach. He delineated on the chart “some of these are educated guesses.”
Hoffer told PCD he researched the properties and asked town staff members about some measurements.
“I was pretty darn close on all of them,” he said.
Four buildings are noted as 130 feet in height, three approved in the 1980s — Harbor Oaks condominium, Atlantic Towers condo and hotel and Pelican Watch condo.
The most recent was allowed in 2003, the Marriott Courtyard, 130 feet by Hoffer’s calculations.
Planning director Jeremy Hardison said it’s actually 135 feet, while Harbor Oaks and Paradise Towers are the next tallest at roughly 120 feet.
While Embassy Suites would not be the most towering hotel in the area, it would provide the largest footprint. By comparison, the Marriott takes up 19,000 square feet, so the Embassy would be roughly two-and-half-times bigger.
The hotel will remain zoned in the central business district, though a conditional zoning amendment is being requested to increase the height. It was allowed for both Marriott and the Hampston Inn, each also located in the CBD.
“The height limit in CBD is 50 feet if you’re building a project that falls into the ‘by right’ category — that is, projects that are specifically allowed by the zoning ordinance,” Hoffer said.
Anything more than 50 feet requires town council approval and there is no maximum height specified under the conditional zoning ordinance. This was brought up by Mayor Lynn Barbee at Tuesday’s council meeting as well.
“I have been lectured for a week by the internet on height restrictions in the central business district,” he said, then asking Hardison if any exist in the district, specifically under Harmony’s desired zoning.
“There is not,” Hardison responded.
Conditional zoning allows parties to remain involved in the process in order to decide what’s best for the town. Hoffer did not state whether he supports Embassy Suites coming to the island but added residential feedback is important.
“I always consider the public’s feelings on everything I vote on, so, yes, I’ll consider the petition,” he told PCD.
Healy added he always votes in the best interest of the town, as did council member Deb LeCompte.
“It’s our job to listen to everybody,” LeCompte said. “We decide once he have the input.”
The petition urges the Town of Carolina Beach to enforce its current height restrictions to align with “community values.” It adds citizens care about the beach town’s “unique character” and the development of Embassy Suites will “disrupt the aesthetic harmony and historical integrity of [the] beloved town.”
“We believe that upholding these restrictions is not just about maintaining aesthetics; it’s about preserving the economic vitality and cultural heritage of Carolina Beach,” the petition explained.
According to Harmony Hospitality, the proposed hotel will bring in $2.6 million in property taxes, not to mention increased tourism dollars. Still, some petitioners haven’t been swayed.
Liza Shaw wrote the beach is rife with hotels already: “We don’t need this one blocking the beautiful ocean views.”
According to petitioner Betsy Callahan, traffic is a concern.
“It’s time we think of quality of life for those who live and work here, not just tourists and revenues. This place is becoming unrecognizable,” she wrote.
The hotel would be located in the 200 block of Carolina Beach Ave., at 223, 225, and 227, parcels owned by Harmony. As well, the company is under contract for 234-237 and 239 Carolina Beach Ave.
At the council meeting Tuesday, resident Kate Dolan also spoke regarding the issue.
“They discussed that a traffic feasibility study is underway,” she said. “I would suggest that it is really not feasible to consider the impact on traffic until the Proximity project is open and see what effect that is going to have on traffic in the town.”
Proximity, a 200-unit apartment complex and commercial space under construction, will be located less than a mile away on North Lake Boulevard.
Internal emails indicate Harmony associates began inquiries into the traffic impact analysis required to move forward. According to Hardison, Don Bennett of Davenport engineering firm, representing Harmony, sent the town a Trip Generation Technical Memorandum, dated Feb. 19. It utilized Institute of Transportation Engineers’ 11th Edition Trip Generation Manual to project weekday daily, AM peak hour, and PM peak hour traffic.
“But in talking with the town and WMPO, we said, ‘No, we think that this does warrant one,’” Hardison confirmed with PCD. He stated the company has to do a full traffic impact study. “We would want to see one before we even took it to any kind of public meeting — we would need those answers.”
An email from Scott James, a planning engineer with the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, was sent to Bennett, stating a waiver will not be granted on the traffic study.
“Our concerns with site access and future congestion due to peak arrival(s) would be best addressed by a formal study,” James wrote on Feb. 22
PCD asked James when the last TIA was completed for the area, but did not hear back by press.
Parties agreed upon data collection during Friday peak hours, between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. WMPO engineering associate Jamar Johnson also agreed with the time frames.
“Most tourists will arrive Friday afternoon and evening and leave between 11am and 12pm based on the checkout time of the hotel,” he wrote in an email.
A few days later Johnson expressed concern it could take up to six months to perform the full scope of work, according to a Feb. 27 exchange.
“Our question was at what point are we required to have the report?” Johnson asked Hardison. “Could [we] get through the approval of the conditional rezoning subject to obtaining an approved traffic report?”
Hardison was clear the public meetings can continue but the TIA would need to be turned over when the application is submitted to the town.
“The purpose of the study is to determine what traffic improvements are going to be identified and to evaluate the proposed accesses and loading areas,” Hardison responded. “These evaluations could change the design of the project and the decision makers would need to know this information prior to making any decision. Staff would need the approved recommendations from the study prior to the project going to the Technical Review Committee.”
Carolina Beach’s TRC is the first stop in the approval process, with fire, police, planning, utilities and stormwater departments weighing in on what will be needed to move it through. Hosting a public information meeting and providing a list of attendees and their concerns are to be submitted with the application.
If approved, it then moves to the planning and zoning board, with another public hearing held. The committee will recommend to council whether to approve or deny Embassy Suites’ conditional zoning. Another public hearing will be held during the final step before council.
“I’m not going to approve it or deny it until I get all the facts,” Healy said. “And I basically have the same amount of facts the public has, right now — the exact same amount.”
As of press, no conditional zoning application, site plan or formal request has been submitted to the town for review.
[Additional research on the piece was done by Peter Castagno.]
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