Sunday, February 9, 2025

300-unit Bayshore development back with different approach, neighbors still unhappy

A previously spurned multi-family housing project in the 8100 block of Market Street will go before New Hanover County commissioners next month, regarding 242 townhomes and 62 apartments, with 1,800 square feet of commercial space. (Courtesy NHC)

NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A previously spurned multi-family housing project in the 8100 block of Market Street will go before New Hanover County commissioners next month. Its pit-stop before the planning board Thursday indicated nearby property owners were not going to back down on their concerns. 

READ MORE: City council contradicts staff with 253-unit approval, Landfall-adjacent townhomes also cleared

Bayshore Townhomes, LLC,on behalf of property owner Bee Safe Porters Neck, LLC — managed by Ronald Carlock out of Greensboro — has applied for two special use permits. The goal is to build 62 apartments in the B-2 business district and 242 townhomes in the R-15 residential district. 

The proposals, part of one development, are not allowed by-right in those zoning districts; the owner applied for a rezoning of the site in 2023, but withdrew it due to unfavorability. 

Since then, attorney Gary Shipman, representing the applicant claims the development team has changed many components of the design to align with community feedback. First, the project’s overall density decreased by 44 units to the current 304; 86 units were removed from the townhome portion, thus allocating more units toward Market Street and less near surrounding homes. 

A commercial component was also added — some of the 62 apartment units will be located above 1,800 square feet of commercial space in a mixed-use complex fronting Market Street. 

The development team also reported a reduction in impervious surface, an increase in open space around the townhomes, and improvement to current drainage on the property. 

Working on the project, Paramount Engineering’s Allison Engebretson pointed out the special use permit process requirements are more restrictive compared to the typical rezoning. 

“We feel that all of this allows you more information to thoroughly review the project, and gives it a validity and appropriateness evaluation point so it puts additional information in the public view,” Engebretson said. 

The planning board, nor staff, provide recommendations on special use permits; only commissioners will have a say on the proposal. But staff still present the proposal to the planning board to facilitate discussion, offer suggestions on the presentation and public input.

Shipman had a more antagonistic perspective when it came to the public’s feedback, insinuating their desire to remain in a single-family bubble was out of touch and didn’t align with the county’s 2021 update to the comprehensive plan. It states a variety of housing options are warranted.

“If they wanted more single-family than multi-family, they could have said it,” Shipman said. “That’s not what they said at all.”

Seven people spoke against the proposal and their concerns revolved mainly around traffic and congested schools, especially the already over-capacity Porters Neck Elementary. One speaker compared the site design to a gerrymandered Congressional district. 

“This is the type of development that drives people crazy,” resident William Northrop said. “It’s cobbled together. It doesn’t make any sense, which is why we’re here.”

As for overcrowding schools, Shipman essentially placed the responsibility on the county commissioners to build larger educational facilities. He noted Porters Neck Elementary has been above capacity for several years without significant action to remedy it, such as redistricting the area.

Shipman also was clear the school impacts from the project are not substantial: 18 students for Porters Neck Elementary, nine students for an area middle school (Trask, Noble or Holly Shelter) and 16 for Laney High School.

The developers are using the traffic impact analysis completed for the previous rezoning request, to the chagrin of neighbors. The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has signed off on its validity.

The traffic impact analysis shows the site is expected to generate around 124 morning and 174 evening peak hour trips — an increase of 71 morning trips and decrease in 45 evening trips compared to current zoning. The developers are also planning to extend the right-only turn lane to the ABC store on Market Street, to allow drivers to bypass those entering the development. 

Still, residents weren’t trusting of the results.

“The townhomes, 250, and they’re showing only 100-and-something trips,” resident Kevin Foley questioned. “Realistically, like on our street alone, almost every house has two cars. So you got townhomes, you can have two cars. So a lot of the information, to me, is not realistic.” 

Almost all speakers said they were not opposed to development but would prefer the property to be built-out under R-15 standards.

“This project does not prioritize suitable housing density, environmental sustaining, safe traffic flow or education capacity,” Marsh Oaks Homeowner’s Association President Courtney Corriher said, adding that the HOA has also obtained legal representation. 

Special use permits are decided by quasi-judicial hearings, which have strict guidelines for who can speak and what they can speak about, and how the permit decision can be made. Those speaking at the commissioner’s meeting must first demonstrate they have “standing” to do so, meaning they can show demonstrable negative impacts that will most likely occur to them if a permit was granted. 

“I want to thank every member of the public that has engaged in their right to participate in a public forum, but with a reminder that when we are in a quasi-judicial proceeding, most of the people [the planning board] heard from tonight will not be allowed to give an opinion because they’re not traffic engineers, they’re not stormwater engineers — we have those,” Shipman said. 

Members of the planning commission encouraged affected neighbors to seek out experts to counter narratives that will be provided by the applicant’s set of experts and come with data to express their projected hardship. In addition, they urged the applicant’s team to home in on how the development will bolster the Porters Neck growth node, improve transportation, affect real estate values and stormwater improvements. 

The project is slated to go before the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 3.

[Ed. note: The article was updated after press to correctly denote Courtney Corriher’s last name as well as the date the project is expected to before commissioners. PCD regrets the error.]


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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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