WILMINGTON — A four-story apartment complex planned for Market and 29 streets is one-step closer to serving the area’s workforce housing sector.
READ MORE: 120 affordable apartments: Local developer seeks rezoning at Market and 30 streets
The Wilmington Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend to city council the project’s rezoning — from office and institutional to MD-17, high density conditional district. Commissioner Ron Woodruff was the lone vote against it.
Currently, the property at 2929 Market St. houses Azalea Inn and Suites, but Blue Ridge Atlantic Development plans to build two apartment buildings, a pool, playground area, recreational area, with preserved tree canopy, business center, exercise facility and multi-purpose room on 4 acres. Each apartment building will have two elevators.
There will be 48 one-bedroom units, 40 two-bedrooms, and 32 three-bedrooms, with a range of affordability types. Rent will be anywhere from $500 to $1,700 with 23 units dedicated to workers within the 30% area median income, 30 for those that meet 50% AMI, 29 for those with 60% AMI, and 38 with 80% AMI.
“This isn’t just 10% workforce housing, this is a truly affordable project that will be affordable for a period of 30 years at these rates,” Attorney Amy Shaefer of Lee Kaess, representing the developer, told commissioners.
Blue Ridge has done upward of 50 projects like this in multiple states, according to Sam Wheldon, director of development. This includes the recently approved 184-unit Avenue Flats coming to Kerr Avenue.
Some planning members were ambivalent in support. Ron Woodruff pointed to the size of the complex and problems with pulling in and out of the property along the highly trafficked Market Street corridor.
“I think workforce is great — we need it, we’re desperate, the whole nine yards,” he said. “But to label something workforce housing in my mind isn’t the end-all, be-all. There are so many other factors and this one, I personally believe, this is too big and too many units and not in consideration of Market Street, which is hellacious to try and get across.”
He referred to the Carolinian Inn project that the commission rejected in 2022 due to its scope and traffic impact along Market Street.
“Looking as far as the eye can see, there is nothing more than one story,” Woodruff said, noting Carolinian Inn was also proposed to be a four-story, 148-unit complex.
Associate planner Patrick O’Mahoney said there are projects coming down the pipe that will be larger and four stories in the area, as it fits in with the city’s comprehensive plan and growth goals. Blue Ridge’s project is located in the city’s urban mixed-use growth node, allowing higher density.
The development team held a community meeting in June for residents regarding its design. Many spoke out about the project’s density located too close to single-family homes along Chestnut Street and 29 and 30 streets. Nearby resident Lisa James worried renters would look onto her property, as the pool and buildings abutted her property line and home.
Since the meeting, the developer redesigned plans so the pool area will be in the center of the two buildings to help shield noise and light pollution. The developer also moved the buildings closer to Market Street and increased the buffer zone, with 100 feet existing between the buildings and residences.
Schaefer made it clear that the current O&I zoning in place also could usher in a multi-family residential project, but it would need a commercial component. This could potentially still bring 36 units per acre, allowed by-right. Blue Ridge didn’t want to pursue commercial spaces, however, noting sometimes they end up empty, as seen in other local projects.
Their plan proposes 29 units per acre, allowed in the MD-17 conditional district, due to it being all workforce housing. Woodruff asked if they considered doing just MD-17, which is 17 units per acre without the workforce element, but Wheldon countered it wouldn’t be enough units to justify the cost of land, which is diminishing countywide.
“We need the additional 15, 20 units to make the price work,” he said, adding the goal is to bring in families, not seniors or student housing.
Weldon said the team could technically build 150 units if the zoning passes but they’re being sensitive to the area residents.
Traffic and public safety was the biggest concern for some commission members and the public. Resident Nancy Howard and James Cannon said the area is already rife with congestion, particularly when the nearby YMCA has people coming and going during morning and afternoon hours. They said turning left onto Market Street in the area already is dangerous and the project would only add to the issue.
“It’s backed up all the way to Covil Avenue now,” Cannon said. “Good luck for an ambulance getting through at 5 o’clock.”
Howard worried about the danger of families and young children attempting to cross Market Street to reach amenities, such as area restaurants, the YMCA or bus stop.
“We’re setting these kids up to get crushed,” she said, noting fatalities have happened in the area already with pedestrians.
At the end of July, a 39-year-old woman was fatally struck by a vehicle at Forest Hills Drive and Market Street, located less than a mile away.
Schaefer said the team can explore with the North Carolina Department of Transportation the possibility of adding a crosswalk, hawk light or signage to the area, but no concrete plans are set. She added they’re looking to improve a nearby WAVE Transit bus station stop, located across Market Street, even reviewing the possibility to bring it onto the development site.
“You almost need a skyway on Market to get folks over there,” commissioner Ace Cofer said, noting pedestrian access doesn’t come with an easy fix and would pose a problem no matter what development was brought forth there.
Traffic was a hangup for Chair Jack Pollock who asked if the team could do a right turn-only ingress and egress to thwart left turns. The NCDOT will determine what safe access is allowed via the driveway permit, according to Schaefer.
Don Bennett, an engineer with Davenport that Blue Ridge hired, added the state transportation department agency does have a long-term plan with U-4902. The goal is to install medians and U-turns all along Market Street in the future.
Early traffic numbers indicate the MD-17 zoning would prompt a total of 60 morning and 72 evening trips, essentially less than O&I currently could bring. Pollock said it didn’t make sense to go from a 48-unit motel to 120 apartments without more vehicular traffic. Because the project won’t draw 100 trips during daytime and nighttime hours, it doesn’t require a full traffic impact analysis, which provides more granular information.
By comparison, the team showed an O&I project, such as a 70,000-square-foot medical office, could bring in 175 daytime and 282 nighttime trips.
“Traffic on Market Street is much better than Military Cutoff or Oleander,” commissioner Livian Jones countered during the meeting. “The traffic count for this is better than what it could be zoned.”
Favoring the apartment complex was Wilmington Chamber of Commerce CEO Natalie English, who has been attending area planning meetings to advocate for more affordable housing. She was speaking on behalf of businesses that express the need to keep workers in the county.
“It means teachers, it means public safety, it means administrative support, recent graduates from high school or college — that’s what we’re talking about,” English said. “I had one business owner who recently told me she lost two employees because the commute is too long for them.”
Cape Fear Housing Coalition Vice Chair Suzanne Rogers also advocated for the rezoning. The coalition represents 150 partners in the medical field, nonprofit agencies, developers, lenders and other advocates for affordable housing.
“Neighbors are too often priced out of the city they work, raise children in and build a life,” she said. “Building 120 new apartments directly addresses a critical gap in our affordable housing stock.”
Logan Secord, who also spoke in favor, addressed the Workforce Housing Committee that was discussed at city council this week. He noted almost 3,400 affordable units in the 30% to 80% AMI bracket are needed in the next five years.
“We are desperately short in workforce housing,” he said. “And we won’t get there at 10%.”
With more green space being demanded by the community, Secord pointed to 97% of land already developed, and thought redevelopment use of the property made the most sense.
Commissioner Jones agreed, calling the project “such an improvement” over the current motel. She also thought the commission should have approved the Carolinian Inn redevelopment years ago, noting the motel was known to attract riff-raff.
“But politics prevented it with Wayne Drive residents showing up,” Jones said.
Some residents retained a lawyer to fight back against the complex, noting it did not fit in with the neighborhood, would pose traffic problems and overburden stormwater issues already in place. Pollock, who voted against it at the time, said it was more than the group of homeowners compelling the board; other challenges weighed in.
Stormwater was also addressed for Blue Ridge’s plan, as Howard said a normal rainfall already overflows her neighborhood. However, the team said its stormwater plan will be an upgrade from what’s currently on site at the Azalea Inn, which was built in 1969. Matt Hourihan, a civil engineer with McKim and Creed, explained the team is planning to install underground stormwater ponds, essentially, to capture runoff, which will follow emphasized the plan must pass all state and city regulations.
Commissioner John Lennon asked if the development team had any evidence from its other projects that nearby property values might diminish or crime rates would go up. Both concerns were brought up at the June community meeting.
“We have not experienced this,” Weldon said.
Due to the project being funded by the help of low-income tax housing credits, Schaefer said strict monitoring practices are in place. This includes background checks, annual tracking of income levels for those who live in the apartments, and upkeeping the facility to prevent dilapidation.
Pollock continued to struggle with Market Street being the right location for a four-story complex, though he “reluctantly” voted for it, due to the team’s affordability scale.
Cofer said the workforce housing component neutralized other issues he had, too, particularly with the height.
“Wilmington has been a two-story town,” he said. “Are we growing into a four-story city? The project on the corner of Independence and Oleander: the answer is yes. The corner of Oleander and Greenville Loop: the answer is yes.”
Lennon agreed. He explained during his drive to the meeting from Brunswick County he saw a bevy of cars south of Brunswick Forest to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, all traveling west.
“That’s what this type of project is meant to alleviate,” Lennon said. “Respectfully, to everyone who says, great project, bad location, why so dense, the traffic — well, what’s the answer? The state of North Carolina doesn’t have a trillion dollars to make all of our roads eight lanes. … Commissioner Cofer, you nailed it: The affordable component of this takes away any of the mystery for me.”
The rezoning will move before the council to vote on during its Sept. 9 meeting.
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