LELAND — A request to adjust a 5,000-acre development master land use plan left councilors with more questions than answers and ultimately prevented them from taking action Thursday.
READ MORE: Leland planning board recommends Brunswick Forest land use amendment to help build 1,000 more units
At the Leland Town Council meeting, the five-member board, including the mayor, took up a land use amendment to Brunswick Forest’s master plan. Despite the planning board and staff recommending approval for a 111.9-acre parcel to become residential instead of staying commercial as originally intended, council tabled the item for further investigation. Officials have to sign off on master land use plan changes per town ordinance.
Forestar Real Estate Group, one of the largest single-family community developers in the country, is acquiring the parcel from Funston Land & Timber LLC to build upward of 1,000 units in Brunswick Forest and requested the land use amendment.
The Brunswick Forest master land use plan, devised more than 15 years ago, includes roughly 12,642 homes to be built in the neighborhood at completion. As of May, almost half — 5,993 homes — were constructed or approved, according to Leland’s planning manager, Ashli Barefoot. To convert the proposed parcel to residential would not increase overall density and Brunswick Forest would be within approved unit allowance, Barefoot informed.
She told the councilors the property discussed is located deep in a corner of Brunswick Forest and is not connected to nearby major thoroughfares. It’s adjacent to Mallory Creek Plantation and North Carolina Highway 133 (River Road).
Barefoot said, if residential land use is allowed, it would be considered moderate development.
“We determine where commercial is most appropriate,” Barefoot said. “So through our analysis, what we’ve determined is, because this is internal — and doesn’t have direct front end to Highway 133 — we do believe that residential would be a better option in this area.”
The problem: In recent months, Leland officials have expressed concern with not having enough commercial property in the region and even changed an ordinance in April to address it. The goal is to promote job and economic growth and maximize commercially zoned areas, as seen along Village Road and U.S. 17 — the latter where Brunswick Forest is located.
Three of the seven-member planning board recommended approval for the Brunswick Forest land use amendment; member Alan Kerry requested to recuse himself due to business associations with the development and others were absent. However, in the spring, the planning board denied another developer’s request to convert commercial property to build 120 townhomes in the Mallory Creek neighborhood, located along Highway 133. This was a sticking point Thursday for council member Veronica Carter.
“I think we need to be consistent,” she said. “If we’re telling one property owner and one developer, ‘Hey, you can’t do what you want to do because we need commercial,’ then we turn around next month, ‘Well, you know…’”
“And I realize every parcel is different,” she added.
One person, Jeff Martin, spoke against the move during public comment. He thought the acreage should remain commercial, as its location can create more accessibility to services needed for residents, with a potential connection to River Road. He pointed to a map indicating as much in the 2045 Leland Plan, which also addresses using other modes of transportation, such as bikes, besides vehicles for interconnectivity among neighborhoods.
“Although we don’t know how it will be developed if it is kept commercial, it could serve the needs of many residents who live in the general area, reducing the need to travel on [U.S.] 17 and on Highway 133, which is a concern of many residents as we progress with more and more population,” Martin said.
The population in Leland has ballooned to 28,591 in 2022 from 13,527 in 2010; Brunswick Forest first broke ground in 2007.
“Town officials have previously expressed that commercial areas located near residential areas would actually reduce traffic counts instead of increasing them, since residents would have access to services without getting on those main roads,” Martin contended.
He also reminded council their vote is being watched, particularly by other residents who claim the officials cater to developers and homebuilders, such as Brunswick Forest’s Funston Company, Lord Baltimore Capital, Funston Land and Timber, Atlantic Homes, Bell Custom Homes, Legacy Homes by Bill Clark, and Trusst Builder Group.
“Those are not my words, but the words are out there,” he said.
Part of the 111 acres in question is on wetlands and in floodplain areas, though the goal is to ensure residential uses are constructed on high ground. According to documents presented by engineer McKim and Creed, the developer will preserve environmental areas with walking and hiking paths.
“There is a sizable collection of wetlands,” Carter said. “So how much of that is usable — actual good property, if you will?”
Barefoot said she didn’t have an answer but staff would work through such details at a more granular level once the plan reaches the technical review committee.
Carter also addressed the approval of the master plan years ago, thinking that the council back then likely considered commercial land as a needed amenity to sign off on it. She questioned what’s changed now; more so, she asked if the developer would be willing to take land elsewhere in Brunswick Forest and convert it to commercial.
“We’re certainly happy to ask them that and bring this back to you at some point,” Barfoot said, adding planned unit development has flexibility, which is promising and can shift as the market changes.
“And one of the things we’ve had is an increase in the number of people here and the need for commercial,” Carter said. “So I’m not sure I want to just give up the commercial without getting something back in return.”
Of Leland’s 17,408 acres, 5% — or around 872 acres — is zoned for commercial, office, and industrial purposes, as reported by Port City Daily earlier in the year; 105 of the 872 acres with commercial zoning are considered underutilized or occupied by homes.
Council member Bill McHugh sided with Carter. He also had questions, including if the developer planned to connect the area to nearby roadways.
“That does a lot to defeat the argument that this commercial property may be wedged into a corner,” McHugh said. “It may be wedged into a corner today, and we may be able to make the argument that right at this moment residential may be the best use, but this just looks like a future that’s waiting to happen.”
McHugh conceded, while Leland doesn’t count commercial zones in a planned unit development as part of its total 5% calculation, he still was hesitant to let the 111-acre parcel go for more homes. McHugh liked Carter’s idea of a land swap in the master plan and questioned whether it could be pursued.
“I just think that this is short sighted, to sell it as a bad area for commercial,” McHugh said. “I mean, maybe it is right now, but we’re in the business of the next 100 years, not the next 100 days or 100 months.”
The staff asked Kurt Sandness, division president of Forestar, to approach the dais. He confirmed his company only deals in residential builds and couldn’t answer about commercial viability or for the land owner, Funston and Timber, on whether commercial property would be included elsewhere in Brunswick Forest to make up for the 111-acre potential loss to more residences. Sandness was clear Forestar was only looking to acquire the property for build-out.
“We would be probably better off to table the discussion,” he suggested, in order for council to speak with the right parties regarding Brunswick Forest’s master plan.
Carter interjected that even if agreed upon for residential use, Forestar would have to look at the addition of roadways for ingress and egress, specifically when it comes to evacuation plans and public safety.
“They would have to meet all of our connectivity requirements,” Barefoot confirmed.
Council member Richard Holloman expressed apprehension about construction trucks carrying loads of materials that bear greater weight on the roadways in those neighborhoods. He said it’s a long drive from the planned development in Brunswick Forest to off N.C. 133 where contracting crews retrieve dirt for construction projects.
“I’m behind those big trucks every day, two and three times, and they’re destroying our asphalt,” Holloman said. “Also, our number one item in our budget was what…”
“Roads,” the mayor said.
Mayor Pro Tem Bob Campbell noted traffic overall is problematic already and growing the 111-acre corner into a commercial property didn’t fare well in his mind at first notice; he thought it would be tucked too far away for consumers to reach anyway. However, he agreed it would be less trafficky with the commercial element.
Still, Campbell wasn’t opposed to reclassifying it residential, but he did want to further evaluate the commercial portion being located elsewhere in the master plan.
“Well, I’ve really struggled with this,” Mayor Brenda Bozeman said, before pointing to the rezoning request denied for a Mallory Creek commercial project to become residential in the spring. “I’m not ready to vote on it.”
Carter agreed if she voted Thursday, it would not have a positive outcome.
Council tabled the discussion to see if their questions can be answered and will readdress the request at its Oct. 17 meeting.
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