NEW HANOVER COUNTY – The battle over the proposed Hilton Bluffs development continued at a UNCW town hall last week as the Save Sledge Forest group revealed they hired an attorney to explore legal options. This comes as the project’s initial phase has nearly tripled in size to 647 residential lots.
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As previously reported by Port City Daily, the Hilton Bluffs development, proposed in October of last year by Copper Builders, involves constructing more than 4,000 residential units on about 1,000 acres in Castle Hayne known as Sledge Forest. Sledge Forest consists of over 3,000 acres of wetlands, 500-year old trees, and rare and threatened species.
The proposal sparked community concern due to potential impacts on the environment, increased traffic and strain on infrastructure.
A two-hour Save Sledge Forest town hall took place in UNCW’s Lumina Theater on April 13, welcoming 125 members of the public, including campus students and faculty. Hosted by the Save Sledge Forest advocacy group, formed by concerned local residents to oppose the Hilton Bluffs development and protect the ecological integrity of the land, the meeting featured speakers including the group’s co-founder Kayne Darrell, UNCW geologist Roger Shew, and biologist Andy Wood.
All three speakers emphasized the importance of involving UNCW students in the Save Sledge Forest campaign and protecting the environment.
“We need to engage the younger generations at every opportunity, and the younger generations need to be aware that they are not immortal, and that change is difficult,” Wood stated. “We engage them with meaningful information that’s relevant and won’t be so harsh as to frighten them into a sense of dread, a sense of hopelessness.”
They also detailed the latest developments and concerns surrounding the proposed residential complex. According to an email to Save Sledge Forest advocates from NHC Sustainability Manager Madelyn Wampler, Copper Builders submitted a new application on March 17 for a 647-lot residential subdivision, superseding their previous proposal for 230 lots in phase one.
The revised application includes five neighborhood sections, the main amenity campus, model homes, and a sales center built across 295 acres of uplands off of Sledge Road. The amenity campus includes an indoor and outdoor pool, a fitness center, and a community clubhouse All housing units will have space for at least two vehicles.
The revised application is currently under review by the county and scheduled for discussion at the technical review committee’s May 7 meeting.
Port City Daily reached out to Copper Builders questioning why it chose to increase phase one residential lots but did not receive a response by press.
Darrell said the Save Sledge Forest group is also awaiting response from the New Hanover Planning Department about the changes, as well as previous concerns voiced by New Hanover County commissioners at their December meeting.
“We need to keep the pressure on our policy makers, even though, at this point, maybe they can’t officially do anything,” Darrell stated. “We need to let them know that we expect them to represent us and find a way.”
Darrell announced at the town hall that Save Sledge Forest also “retained a very competent attorney.” Darrell told Port City Daily the attorney is Susan Keelin, who specializes in land use and zoning, real estate transactions, and construction litigation.
Over the past month, Keelin has been reviewing all relevant documentation. Darrell said the group is looking into “potential legal challenges” they might pursue; Keelin is still assessing all their options.
“The fact that a development of this size has been able to bypass any kind of public input or any kind of decision making by our elected officials, is ludicrous,” Darrell explained. “Whether it’s being able to use unbuildable wetlands in your cap and your density calculation.”
The Hilton Bluffs development is proceeding “by-right” because the proposed 4,000 homes on the 1,000-acre site are reportedly permitted in the rural agricultural zoning district.
The RA district allows a maximum of one residential unit per acre. However, the TRC determined Copper Builders could calculate density using the property’s total acreage of 4,080 if they conserve about 3,072 acres of wetlands. About four units per acre would be allowed in the remaining 1,000 acres.
Copper Builders founder Wade Miller announced in March the firm had entered an agreement to sell 1,160 acres of the Sledge Forest wetlands to Asheville-based nonprofit Unique Places to Save. The nonprofit put in for a $10.2-million grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund to secure the acreage.
Site plans show all the The Hilton Bluffs residences will be clustered together in the uplands area, built directly adjacent to the nearby Wooden Shoe neighborhood. However, this neighborhood is located close to an inactive GE plant hazardous waste site. The GE facility has been in the Castle Hayne area since the late 1960s and has a history with nuclear fuel production. It has been identified as a source of past groundwater contamination, including uranium and vinyl chloride.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is currently conducting residential well-testing in the Wooden Shoe neighborhood to determine if there’s been any movement of contaminants across the GE property line into Wooden Shoe. Several wells within the Sledge Forest property have not been tested since 2016.
According to an April 17 update from DEQ hydrologist Sue Robbins, not all test results have been returned and not all residential wells have been sampled. However, preliminary findings have revealed trace levels of volatile organic compounds in three Wooden Shoe wells, though Robbins noted they do not currently exceed DEQ standards. Health risk evaluations are now underway for the residents whose wells showed these trace contaminants and the DEQ continues to evaluate the collected data.
Concerns over groundwater contamination of the site were highlighted by Shew at the town hall.
“There is an area in the northeastern or the northwestern part of the GE site where there is a little bit of contamination, and from previous reports, it looked like there might have been some minor contamination at the property line and going over in the sledge,” Shew said.
Miller wrote to PCD in March email regarding concerns raised by the community over potential contamination at Sledge Forest:
“We will continue to rely on our professional environmental consultants and on the determinations of the authorized regulators with regard to the level of investigation, monitoring that is appropriate to satisfy us that any portion of the land that we choose to build on is safe for residential homes. The residents nearby have been using the groundwater for decades. Many of those collaborating with Dr. Shew in this effort are among those residents. Thus far, our requests for information about their testing and confirmation of the apparently safe nature of the use that ground water have gone unanswered.”
Shew also emphasized the significant presence of hydric soils throughout the proposed 4,000-acre development site. He explained these soils, heavily saturated with water for prolonged periods, are a key indicator of wetlands. The presence of hydric soils creates more environmental challenges, Shew said at the town hall.
He explained that by putting houses in the upland area, where soils infiltrate better than the wetlands, water could run off roads, parking areas, and houses and end up in neighboring wetland areas: “So whatever is on those impervious surfaces is going to end up in the wetlands, and potentially could end up into the Northeast Cape Fear River as part of the stormwater.”
The Sledge Forest property has 500-year-old trees and rare and threatened species as well and is considered to be of national significance by the North Carolina Heritage Program. During his presentation, Wood emphasized plants and animals are affected by the development due to clear-cutting trees.
“When you light up trees in a landscape, you’re shining a spotlight into a bird nest, right into the world of a frog, or even the tree itself,” he emphasized. “Then there is the noise issue. When you hear the sound of the drone of traffic, especially these loud mufflers on cars, that’s noise pollution and it’s disturbing, not just to wildlife, but also to humans.”
Darrell said the Save Sledge Forest group is planning another event after their petition reaches 10,000 signatures; it’s currently at 9,403.
“If we can come together with one voice, one clear and powerful voice, we can save Sledge Forest and maybe just maybe, we can stop this runaway train of overdevelopment in the process,” Darrell expressed. “I am a firm believer in the power of the people.”
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