BRUNSWICK COUNTY — On Wednesday night, 23 community members gathered to review preliminary plans for a 91-acre subdivision beside the Shallotte River. While the session aimed to provide clarity and address concerns, some residents left frustrated that more details weren’t revealed.
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Brunswick County has a multi-tiered process of moving developments through planning. The community meeting is an optional first step, where a developer or engineer can present and gain feedback from residents on an early stage layout of the development.
After the community meeting, the developers hash out site details and requirements with the county’s technical review committee, before it moves on to the planning board, where a public hearing will be held.
In Brunswick County, the planning board approves development applications, without commissioners input. The only time commissioners are called upon is if the applicant appeals the planning board’s decision; then the elected officials weigh in and another public hearing will be held.
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The Parker Tract project was presented by Jody Bland, with Norris and Tunstall Consulting Engineers. Parker Manufacturing from Lumberton is behind the project. The company was formerly led by Calabash resident Ted Parker, a prominent mobile home tycoon renowned for his success in selling manufactured homes across southeastern North Carolina. Following his passing earlier this year, the business has been taken over by his family.
The Parker Tract is slated to feature 154 single-family homes on quarter-acre lots. Each lot will have its own septic system. The plans include a 3-acre pond with a walking trail around it, an amenity area, and eight stormwater ponds. Around 44% of the land will be designated as open space.
However, one resident wanted to learn more about house sizes, their values and buffer zones, among other items.
“I’m questioning why we had this community meeting without a plan,” Christie Marek, a resident and founder of the Brunswick County Conservation Partnership, told Norris and Tunstall Engineer Jody Bland on Wednesday. “You’re not telling us what kind of homes are going in or anything — there’s a lot of ‘maybes’ and ‘I don’t knows.’”
Another resident, Terry Alston, who lives along the Shallotte River, said she left the meeting feeling more confused.
“The actual developer should have been the one having that meeting,” Alston told Port City Daily Thursday.
However, it is normal for an engineer to give presentations on the development to the county and residents.
Another resident wondered if there would be another community meeting once more details are secure.
“This is a voluntary meeting,” Bland iterated.
County spokesperson Meagan Kascsak confirmed planning staff encourages developers to host voluntary community meetings sometime during the development process, though they’re not always mandated.
“Sometimes it is helpful to hold them earlier to give residents more time to learn about the proposed project,” Kascsak said. “And for staff to hear what comments or questions they have that might be addressed as the project moves through the site plan review process.”
The county requires community meetings only if developments request expansions or modifications to already approved plans, like an increase in density. In such cases, the meeting must occur at least 10 days before the planning board review.
Kascsak noted,regardless of the timing of the meeting for public feedback, it’s not an anomaly for some resident questions to remain unanswered — details on home prices and builder identities may “yet to be determined” and are not required for the site plan review process.
At the meeting, residents questioned Bland about various aspects of the construction process. They wanted to know if the homes would be stick-built or modular, what the layout of entrances and exits would be, how the open space would be used, how the development would alleviate potential flooding, and whether a traffic impact analysis (TIA) was required.
Bland explained detailed information on house designs, water systems, roadways, and traffic impacts was not yet available because the project is still in its early stages. He added specific plans for stormwater management, erosion control, and road connections with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) will be developed after the county’s technical review committee provides feedback.
Current plans are a “high-level view,” he added, but assured residents the project would adhere to state and county regulations.
“It’s just basically a concept plan to get land use approval,” Bland said. “There’s been no design as far as stormwater, water, and sewer — that all comes after the land use approval. So this is the first step in the subdivision process.”
However, Bland — along with the county’s principal planner, Marc Pages, and planner Philip Coates — did address some of the unease.
Resident Marek highlighted the environmental impacts that could come from the use of individual septic systems. She suggested these systems might increase the risk of flooding and potentially lead to runoff entering the Shallotte River.
Just in August, due to Tropical Storm Debby in some instances, 900,000 gallons of wastewater leaked into tributaries which connect to numerous rivers in Brunswick County.
“More wastewater going into that river,” Marek said. “People rely on fishing out of that river for food,” she told Port City Daily on Thursday.
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Another resident expressed concern about runoff and flooding on her property, adjacent to the proposed development. She noted having observed standing water in the pathway behind her home, a problem she believes has worsened since land-clearing for the development began at the end of last year.
She expressed concern the runoff, exacerbated by the lack of vegetation and trees, along with potential wind issues, could create significant problems.
“How is that going to affect the properties, including the ones y’all are talking about putting in there,” she said.
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Bland assured residents some areas would be re-vegetated, to address flooding worries. He explained the development would include several stormwater treatment ponds and adhere to 100-year storm event, which refers to a storm with a chance of occurring once in 100 years, representing a very rare and intense rainfall event
“Digging a hole in an already low area will create extra storage,” he said. “If it floods, there is some additional capacity to take up some of that.”
Pages backed up Bland, stating the development is charted to exceed the county’s ordinances regarding flooding; it currently lists that some developments must adhere to a 25-year storm event, which refers to a 24-hour storm with the intensity and rainfall expected to occur once every 25 years. Others must adhere to a 100-year event.
The county’s minimum, Pages pointed out, is still stronger than the state minimum which is a one-year.
“Our state doesn’t have the most aggressive stormwater standards out there,” Page said.
A resident who lives on Shell Point Road, right in front of the Parker Tract, said the pond on the property floods anytime it heavily rains.
“It flooded me out,” the resident said to Bland. Bland noted that his input will prompt his team to analyze the area and update the stormwater design.“Based on what you describe, my assumption is that those updates will be approved,” he said.
Pages addressed residents’ worries about the neighborhood entrances and their impact on traffic. Many were worried about emergency access and evacuation efficiency, given there are only two exits: one on Shell Point Road and the other on High Meadows Drive.
Alston pointed out one of the entrances is near the curved intersection of Shell Point and Fletcher Hewett roads. She said she worried drivers’ views would be obstructed when entering and exiting the neighborhood.
“And I worried about that too,” Pages told the residents; however, he said that DOT did not deem the area to be problematic.
Pages also told residents it is “up in the air” whether a TIA would be required, as the DOT has to weigh in.
Tree removal also dominated the end of the discussion, with resident Susan Kennedy commenting the site currently “looked like an Oklahoma tornado” had come through it, due to the piles of trees stacked up from recent clear-cutting.
Marek offered to provide services through the Brunswick County Conservation Project, a nonprofit focused on mitigating the impact of development, to remove the trees from the site rather than allowing the developers to burn them.
“I will be happy to take off some of that debris, rather than let them smell it for a month,” she said.
Pages agreed to pass the message along to the developers. He said the project will likely go before the planning board in October — later if a TIA is deemed necessary.
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