SOUTHPORT — Two-hundred-ninety-one single-family homes will be added to a development already under construction near Southport.
In a 4-1 vote from the Brunswick County Planning Board, the Southport Meadows neighborhood at full build-out will make up 536 units on 232 acres on River Road. Located in the county’s unincorporated area near N.C. Highway 133 and N.C. Highway 87, Southport Meadows was originally approved in 2022 for 118 townhomes and 127 single-family lots on 163 acres.
The Timmons Group, an engineering firm behind multi-family and residential housing, affordable housing and senior living centers statewide, added 70 more acres to build an additional 141 single family homes and 150 townhomes. The company is pairing up with national builders Pulte Homes, known for its work locally as seen in Wilmington’s Riverlights development.
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Southport resident Teresa Magrann, who lives 2 miles away on Ballast Road, prompted the planning board to consider the number of units already on the way in the area and the impact they will have overall, before signing off on the phase-four addition. She worried about traffic impacts from Southport Meadows, which will bring 2,342 vehicle trips per 24-hour weekday volume, as noted in the traffic impact analysis approved by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
“Southport is gridlocked now,” Magrann said, pointing to another development within a half-mile, Pointe Grand, bringing 362 multifamily units.
With both Southport Meadows and Pointe Grand, 900 units will be adding vehicles to surrounding roadways. Southport Meadows is required by NCDOT to extend three lanes southward at the N.C. 87 (River Road) intersection and lengthen turning lanes at varied areas of N.C. 87 and N.C. 133, as well as constructing two site accesses from N.C. 87.
Though allowed by-right, with county administrative oversight, Pointe Grand is currently being appealed by residents in Rivermist at Dutchman Village, due to concerns over stormwater plans and flooding on nearby properties. The appeal was revealed at Southport’s July 9 board of aldermen meeting via a letter sent by Rivermist resident Shirley Sullivan, read by the city clerk; Sullivan asked everyone to attend the July 13 Brunswick County Planning Board meeting to speak against Southport Meadows as well.
“Our infrastructure cannot handle all of this development,” Sue Lampman, also a Rivermist resident, told the planning board last week.
She read a line in Brunswick County’s unified development ordinance to make her point more salient: “to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of Brunswick County.”
Lampman didn’t think the county lived up to its UDO’s promise and, like Magrann did earlier in the meeting, pointed to the water conservation alert in place countywide for weeks now, due to water usage being at 90% capacity. Lampman took issue with the monetary fines residents face if they don’t follow water capacity restriction rules; under a stage three alert, automatic irrigation was disallowed but has been changed as of July 17 to become very limited, while usage for washing clothes or dishes is allowed only outside peak hours. Particularly, she found this unfair when compared to one exemption, which allows anyone with newly laid sod or seed to water their lawns. Lampman thought this benefited developers for yet occupied homes.
“Why are developers treated with such leniency while current residents are made to suffer?” Lampman asked, before refraining the UDO’s sentence of promoting welfare of residents, as she would do multiple times during the public hearing.
Also mentioned were sewer permits currently frozen in Brunswick County by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, due to Senate Bill 673. The 2023 state law requires the DEQ to count wastewater promised to future unbuilt homes as if they were already in the pipes.
The residents didn’t think services matched needed capacity to serve more incoming residents. Lampman used the recent Shallotte wildfire as an example, which burned almost 300 acres and required multiple regional fire departments at the scene to help Brunswick County and the North Carolina Forest Service. It also shuttered roads, threatening potential EMS or evacuation needs.
She brought up testimony from Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew, who spoke at the July 9 board of aldermen meeting. Drew told Southport elected officials the state mandates the county pump 3,000 gallons of water a minute to deal with a structure fire, regardless of a water conservation alert. So even if water supply volume isn’t efficient through hydrants, firefighters still need tankers and other supplies on site to meet demand.
Drew stressed overdevelopment, without matching investment in public safety needs, as problematic to a growing area.
“As neighborhoods become denser, traffic congestion increases, emergency access becomes more difficult, evacuations are more difficult, and fire and EMS response can even be delayed because of the traffic concerns that we have,” Drew told the Southport Board of Aldermen. “Higher density development also creates greater demands for firefighters, greater demands for equipment, to be utilized in the case of an emergency or a disaster.”
To the Brunswick County Planning Board, Lampman added to Magrann’s unit count beyond Southport Meadows and Pointe Grand. She noted Turtle Bay has 100 units, Waterway has an incoming 1,190 units, and Pelican Cove is around 300 units, all putting further pressure on Southport Fire Department.
“We must have a sweeping development moratorium immediately,” Lampman suggested. “The most basic of human needs is now rationed under threats of monetary fines. If Brunswick County cannot currently provide these basic needs to its residents, how can you in good conscience approve more growth, which will cripple the City of Southport and other areas of Brunswick County?”
There was little discussion among the planning board ahead of its vote, other than board member Howard Stocks asking whether there were wetlands on the site plan. Brunswick County Deputy Director Marc Pages confirmed none, as determined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“That is a rarity these days,” Pages added.
Chairman Clif Cheek verified the current zoning of commercial low density would allow 13.6 dwelling units per acre. Pages confirmed if a multifamily complex came in under CLD, it would be able to build upward of 1,000 residential units by-right, meaning the planning board wouldn’t need to approve.
The Southport Meadows expansion request is for a planned development and falls under at 4.02 dwelling units per acre. With all phases collectively considered, it’s even lower: 2.34 dwelling units per acre.
The majority of the planning board approved the expansion, with alternate Cecelia Herman dissenting. There were multiple conditions, inclusive of one tax parcel to be removed from the Voluntary Agricultural District since the project is being developed for residential purposes and no longer privy to farming needs.
Southport Meadows is also among some of the final approvals the Brunswick County Planning Board will execute since it had its authority stripped by the North Carolina General Assembly earlier this month, as reported by Port City Daily upon the passage of House Bill 1222. Statewide, Brunswick County was one of a handful of planning boards allowed to pass development projects and rezonings rather than recommending denial or approval for a board-of-commissioners vote.
The law was pushed by Brunswick Rep. Charlie Miller and Sen. Bill Rabon, and goes into effect for all applications that come in after July 2, which will then be considered by the commissioners; thereafter, the planning board votes to provide guidance only.
Brunswick County spokesperson Meagan Kascsak confirmed with Port City Daily last week all actions at the board’s July 13 meeting fall within the new guidelines.
“Items on the agenda followed the process as outlined in our current Unified Development Ordinance, with the planning board having authority for any decision(s) since their applications were submitted well before July 2, 2026,” she said.
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