WILMINGTON — Around a dozen or so neighbors surrounding a Market Street motel attended a community meeting this week to ask questions about a developer’s plans to bring affordable housing to the area.
READ MORE: CB Road apartments return for 4th time, now as townhome project with half the density
On 4.08 acres, Blue Ridge Atlantic Development wants to construct 120-unit affordable apartments consisting of two four-story buildings — allowed to be 96 feet maximum in height, though the developer hasn’t divulged how tall the buildings will be. The site currently houses the Azalea Inn and Suites at 2929 Market St.
“I believe the city needs more affordable housing options, but I do not believe they need to locate another one in our neighborhood,” Lisa James, whose Chestnut Street house directly abuts the project, said.
In order for plans to move forward, Blue Ridge will seek a rezoning through the city, with the goal to potentially submit their application by Friday, June 20, according to Amy Schaefer. With Lee Kaess law firm, Schaefer is representing Blue Ridge Atlantic, and said the group is seeking multi-family-17 (MD-17) conditional rezoning from the current office and institutional zoning.
MD-17 allows 69 units on the acreage, or about 17 units per acre. Since the property is going to be 100% affordable housing — meaning occupants pay no more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs, including utilities — the city allows a density bonus of 36 units per acre, which would come out to 147.
“We are financed through the low-income housing tax credit program, which is through the North Carolina Housing and Finance Agency, and they have an AMI level that they base their rents off of,” Sam Weldon, Blue Ridge vice president, explained during the meeting. “I think a four-person AMI for Wilmington is about $117,000.”
This project will suit those in the 30%, 50%, 60% and 80% area median income bracket, meaning rent will be anywhere from $600 to $1,700 a month. The apartment complex will include 48 one-bedroom, 40 two-bedroom, and 32 three-bedroom units, with elevator access in both buildings, a pool, 158 spaces of parking (double the base minimum for workforce housing, which is 60), six to be EV compatible, and 24 spaces for bike parking.
Blue Ridge Atlantic is behind the affordable 72-unit senior complex Canopy Pointe and the upcoming 184-unit affordable housing Avenue Flats on Kerr Avenue.
The project is located in the city’s urban mixed-use growth node, which allows for higher density. Yet, some residents questioned how it fits in with current single-family homes surrounding the site.
Guest attendee Edward Vernon noted: “It’s going to be considerably larger than anything in the neighborhood that exists. I drive by it everyday. It’s going to be a radically different experience.”
“It’s going to be an eye sore,” nearby resident Polly Tait chimed in.
Economics drove the decision to build a four-story apartment complex in that area — “land isn’t cheap,” Weldon explained. He further noted the project fits with the city’s future growth goals, not to mention the affordable component technically would allow for more density, but added Blue Ridge has been “sensitive” to what should be built there.
“But this is a very much-needed product in the city in an area being revitalized up and down the whole corridor,” Weldon said.
After press, James sent a letter to Blue Ridge listing about a half-dozen affordable apartment complexes within 4 miles of the development site, such as Creekwood South and Cypress Cove.
“Why is it necessary to place another affordable housing complex in our immediate neighborhood?” she asked. “Surely, there are alternate locations that do not already have numerous affordable housing options immediately available?”
At the meeting, James also was concerned about privacy, as the pool in the complex, if approved, will face her backyard. She added the buildings also tower over her parcel.
“So tenants are going to be looking onto my property,” James said.
The development team specifically designed that corner of the building near the pool as a breezeway, Weldon explained, noting units will face inward to the pool and outward onto 29th Street. None will overlook the single-family homes.
“But won’t there be a lot of people moving back and forth along the breezeway?” Vernon asked.
“Maybe,” Schaefer answered.
“Probably,” Vernon responded.
Weldon further explained there would be a 20-to-30-foot buffer of trees remaining between the development and homes. A “trees-save area” snakes around the back of the property to the 29th Street side as well, and the developer is planting trees throughout the parking lot and around the perimeter. The development has about 1 acre of open space.
James asked if a privacy fence would be included, but the team said it’s not currently in the site plan.
Caroline Sexton, who lives on 29th Street across from the complex, feared the increase in traffic the development would spur. She said at all times of the day congestion is already an issue, as cars zoom by, entering and exiting from nearby hotels, restaurants and the YMCA. Plus, there are no stop lights at her intersection.
“I can hardly turn left to get onto Market Street now and this will cause me never to be able to turn left to get to the river,” she said. “Turning left is a daily part of my life.”
A traffic-impact analysis — triggered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation when 100 vehicles are being added to the roads during morning and evening hours — is not required. However, Blue Ridge has hired traffic engineering consultant Don Bennett.
Bennett said the trip generation will bring roughly a total of 60 morning and 60 evening trips: “Approximately half of them will go east on Market and half will go west on Market Street,” Bennett said, noting the development brings in around one car every 2 minutes.
NCDOT would have to make a determination whether another traffic signal would be added to the area, he said.
Questions also arose regarding water runoff. Stormwater has not been fully designed at the site yet, Schaefer said, as engineers have to look at soils, how water flows and where it goes. If rezoning is approved, they flesh out the specifics to move through stormwater permitting.
But James said water already pools on the Azalea Inn lot and because water runs into her neighborhood on a downward slope, it has caused flooding issues in her backyard.
Matt Hourihan, a civil engineer with McKim and Creed, said they’re likely to do underground infiltration for stormwater. It would go beneath the parking lot.
Hourihan described the infiltration system as normally a 1-foot to 7-foot chamber, depending on what’s needed, that connects to pipes and goes under the soil.
“It’s an underground pond, essentially,” he said.
The system can normally handle up to a 50-year or 100-year storm event, he explained, and connects to the city’s stormwater system, which goes into Burnt Mill Creek. One resident worried the city’s stormwater system wasn’t effective in the area, as seen by pooling water around 29th and Market streets.
This led to Vernon asking how the development would increase impervious surface from what’s present at the Azalea Inn currently; the numbers weren’t readily available. The team only had the total impervious area as noted on the site plan as 111,000 square feet, with the building footprint taking up around 40,000, sidewalks at almost 14,000 and parking near 56,000. But Blue Ridge offered to find those numbers for Vernon.
Tait wanted to know if permeable concrete was being considered to help mitigate water flow; the team said possibly. It would require a closer look at the soils first.
Schaefer emphasized the project will meet all new stormwater requirements at the city; the Azalea Inn was built in 1963, according to New Hanover County property records.
Blue Ridge President Chris Eisenzimmer was in attendance as well.
“The last thing we want to do is be a bad neighbor,” he assured residents, others of whom asked for numbers about how the project would affect area schools and their property values.
Some of the people at Thursday’s meeting, hosted at Hotel Lela on Market Street, already had attended one community gathering regarding the site but in a different form. Royal Farms originally looked at the Azalea Inn as a place to build one of its many fuel stations proposed for the area but those plans fell through. Royal Farms didn’t respond Friday to PCD’s question asking why and where the stores would go.
Blue Ridge’s rezoning for the 120-unit apartments could be heard by the city’s planning commission in August and go to council by September or October, Schaefer said, which would then have the group move onto permitting if approved.
[Ed. note: This has been updated to clarify that 96-foot buildings is maximum height allowed under the density but not necessarily the project height.]
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
