WILMINGTON — A rezoning application is working through city planning to add more housing options along a congested corridor. It’s on a road that the North Carolina Department of Transportation planned an extension for, but the project, years in the making, lacks funding currently.
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Four properties on Covil Avenue, across from The Reserve and Covil Garden Condominiums, are being tapped for 73 townhomes on almost 6 acres of land. Currently, the properties consist of single-family homes and a closed and dilapidating former housing complex, Port South Village.
Cindee Wolf of Design Solutions is representing property owners including the Williams family and Eakes-PS LLC, as well as developer Flying Pan Ventures LLC, on a project dubbed “Covil Village.” The proposed 73 single-family units will be two-bedroom and two story with a 30-foot maximum building height, according to the application.
The land is zoned R-15 — moderate density dwelling limited to 3 units per acre — but the request is to make it MD-17 conditional; this is a high-density, multiple dwelling district that allows up to 17 units per acre. These properties would be allowed in this district to build 100 units, but the planned redevelopment is coming under by 27 units.
The district is also intended for a range of housing options within the urban area and promotes infill development on smaller sites, according to the city’s land development code. MD-17 is to be allowed in areas that have reachable amenities, including access to public transit, and commercial reach, such as shopping and dining. The application submitted by Wolf indicates this project falls in line with these needs.
“The recent Housing Needs Assessment for not only the City of Wilmington, but for all of New Hanover County, shows the projected gap for a full range of home prices and associated income levels of owner affordability,” the application details. “Rezoning this property for a higher density of residential development would be consistent with the concept of in-filling under-utilized land where existing urban services are available.”
Covil Avenue connects to the nearby corridor of Market Street, peppered with restaurants, retail, convenience stores and grocery options. It extends to Randall Parkway and Wrightsville Avenue before the street turns into Independence Boulevard near Hanover Center, offering more access to amenities. Bus stops are are in the vicinity, on Randall Parkway, Independence Boulevard and Market Street.
A community meeting was held regarding the project on March 20. Port City Daily reached out to multiple neighbors but only heard back from Polly Tait by press. Tait lives on Wayne Drive in the Forest Hills neighborhood and said she wasn’t attending the meeting to oppose the project but rather be there to support her Mercer Avenue neighbors; Wayne Drive is located one street from Mercer which is adjacent to Covil Avenue.
“The Mercer neighbors seemed agreeable to it,” she said. “They’re calling it ‘approachable housing,’ instead of ‘affordable’ or ‘workforce’ because those two things, they said, have stipulations and requirements on different areas and appeal to certain income levels … though they said their goal is to be affordable and create middle housing.”
Tait said traffic concerns were brought up as well.
Traffic is known to be congested along Covil Avenue, with vehicles often backed up between Randall Parkway and Market Street during peak hours. NCDOT volume maps show roughly 19,000 motorists travel along the two-lane avenue north of Randall Parkway daily.
“And that two-lane road is falling apart,” Tait said.
She brought up at the community meeting the state transportation department’s plans to build an extension of Independence Boulevard, with the goal to improve mobility for travelers going north and south in the region. Currently, there are only two routes to travel north and south in Wilmington: Third Street and College Road. The extension has been discussed for the area far back as 1972, but didn’t gain traction until the last decade.
Planned to be roughly 1.7 miles from south of Randall Parkway and extend to Martin Luther King Parkway, the route would impact Covil and Mercer avenues, including businesses and homes in the area. However, according to city spokesperson Lauren Edwards, the project is no longer funded in the NCDOT’s State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) strategic prioritization.
NCDOT spokesperson Andrew Barksdale said the project has almost doubled in price from $214 in 2022 to $424.6 million today; right-of-way acquisitions also increased from $88.7 million to $133.5 million.
Its status is now changed to preliminary engineering funding only, Barksdale said. This impacts the schedule timeline, which formerly listed right-of-way acquisitions to begin by fall 2026 and construction to break ground by 2031.
“Moving forward, there will no longer be any projected years for ROW or construction until this project becomes fully funded again in a future STIP cycle,” Barksdale said.
Currently, NCDOT is finalizing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the extension, with its approval expected by summer, followed by a public hearing later in the year.
There are two alternatives listed for the extension, which includes widening two lanes to four, for motorists traveling in both directions. The Covil Village properties would fall in the mapped area of the project.
“An alternative will be selected sometime during this upcoming winter,” Barksdale said.
Tait noted developers addressed NCDOT’s project in the community meeting, saying they were taking it into account; the application also documented as much:
“The developer explained the site layout allowed for future widening of the Covil Avenue right-of-way if lesser road improvements were an alternative option for mitigating traffic flow on that road.”
Tait thinks the addition of the townhomes will add to traffic problems: “It can be a bit of a cluster over there already.”
The project brings 32 morning peak trips and 39 peak evening trips, with 495 24-hour volumes, according to documents.
The application also clarifies R-15 would currently allow for up to 11 driveways to be built in the area, which could impede traffic flow by adding more points for cars to enter and exit onto Covil Avenue. The redevelopment project only accounts for two driveways.
The development will have 162 total vehicular parking spaces — above the minimum 146 required but below the maximum 183. There also will be 20 bike spaces, double the amount required at 10.
Open space requirements of the 5.91 acres the project will take up equals just more than 51,000 square feet; Covil Village is planning for 72,000 square feet of open space.
City spokesperson Edwards said the project is scheduled to go before the planning commission on May 7.
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