SURF CITY — With sewer capacity at its limit and traffic issues not keeping up with growth, a coastal town’s planning board in Pender County recommended denial of a development that has come before the board twice in three months.
READ MORE: ‘This sets the precedent’: Surf City rejects 99-unit development
On Oct. 10, the vote was unanimous against Colonial Heights — which could have potentially brought 182 units to abut Applewood Trace and Edgecombe Estates developments. Proposed to be built on an 86-acre tract along the northern part of N.C. 210, Ryan Homes developers were requesting a rezoning from R-10 residential district to conditional R-5 residential district. The latter is a more intensive development zoning than R-10, due it having smaller lot sizes.
Not only did board members express concerns over the town’s lack of infrastructure, but the project’s density clashing with Surf City’s small-town vibe.
“As the town is growing, we have had many of these rezoning requests to increase the density and the town council has just recently drawn the line in the sand and denied those requests for rezoning,” Vice Chair Stephen Pasquantonio said.
He was speaking about a recent development rejected by council that would have brought 99 townhomes to JH Batts Road.
To date this year, five rezonings have come before the boards, with council denying three; two were withdrawn at a council meeting (planning board has only denied one). However, council and the planning board have approved three preliminary plats and five site plans this year.
Oct. 10’s meeting was the second time the planning board had been presented the Colonial Heights project. Engineering firm McKim and Creed, on behalf of Ryan Homes, had its land llanner Tara Murphy answering questions at August’s planning board meeting. Yet, she withdrew the project to change its zoning from straight R-5 to conditional R-5 to help assuage some anxieties.
Grumblings included traffic congestion already affecting the area, without much relief in sight. The developers said it would provide more connectivity to Highways 210 and 17. Both would be accessible through the adjacent Applewood Trace subdivision.
At August’s meeting, David Ward — an alternate that sits on the planning board as needed — pointed out North Carolina Department of Transportation planned expanding Highway 210 from two to four lanes, but it stalled due to lack of funding. While other roadway projects in the area are ongoing, they’re not necessarily helping with capacity as much as flow, he added.
“It’s going to be a parking lot over there,” Ward told the board members.
Also brought up in both August and October was sewer capacity; the town has a waitlist, in effect since 2020. Utilities Director David Price told the board that by mid-September, around 240,000 gallons would be available, with 200,000 already allocated. Thus, it leaves 40,000 free for future use.
According to Surf City Town Manager Kyle Breuer, he anticipates allocation by the end of this year.
“The town is actively working on a phase two subsurface irrigation project, a discharge permit (NPDES), and the Applewood Trace Utility Agreement project,” Breuer told Port City Daily.
Price explained to planning board members the town will have another 400,000 gallons coming online in three years. If the town’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System is approved, it will allow public utilities to have 2 million gallons come online in five years.
“I cannot speak to the number of gallons this project is requiring or where it would be on the waitlist,” Price told the planning board. “But if I had to guess, it would be three years at the earliest.”
Pasquantonio questioned the development capacity of going from R-10 to R-5. Essentially, it would permit the developer to double the amount of homes on the acreage. Under its current R-10 zoning, lots must be a minimum 10,000 square feet, which could make for less homes, dependent on site plans.
Murphy said Ryan Homes wants smaller lots, half the acreage, to bring 182 single-family homes — no duplexes or apartments — to the area.
“Regardless of what this project has going on,” Pasquantonio said, “we’re allowing double the houses under this zoning in that area going forward.”
Michael Groseclose, a regional land development manager for Ryan Homes, explained at August’s meeting the development would bring with it more affordability. It’s a topic he said he hears constantly in the area, especially with Marines commuting to base. The development site is located around 45 miles from Camp Lejeune.
“A 10,000-square-foot lot and up is going to be a larger, more expensive home. It’s probably going to reduce the affordability in this area,” he said. “So, yes, this density change, there will be more homes, but they’ll probably be more affordable homes available to families who live here or are growing out of their current situation and want to get out of an apartment.”
Pasquantonio made a motion to deny the zoning amendment in August after explaining capacity and density in Surf City doesn’t support the feasibility of the project. He also pointed to Applewood Trace having to decrease density at the board’s behest.
Before a vote was to be executed, McKim and Creed’s Murphy suggested pulling back the project and resubmitting with a conditional R-5 rezoning request instead. Thus, it would allow officials more insight into site plans and what the development goals are, as well as agree to conditions that could keep in line with the town’s vision.
Among conditions listed at the October meeting were minimum 6,000-square-foot lot sizes, to be built on a net density of roughly 60 acres, due to wetlands on the property. Multiple connections to the development, including through the Applewood Trace subdivision and Highway 210, as well as to multi-use paths were listed as well.
Three people spoke at the planning board meeting, including John Fahey in Hampstead. As a former principal and superintendent, he was most concerned about school capacity. Last January, Pender County’s schools district reported 90% capacity for its buildings with a total of 10,988 students. It’s in the process of building a new campus, to include an elementary school, for kindergarten through fifth grade, and a middle school, for sixth-through-eighth-grade.
Fahey, however, focused on the high school, saying it was over 1,000 student capacity.
“Just consider that when you make any decisions,” he said. “And since this is the group that typically makes recommendations to the city, I just appeal to you on behalf of the children.”
Daniel Levins was concerned about the historically Black Edgecombe community, who he said is already underrepresented. The community has been there for more than 150 years and has two key landmarks, located near Manhollow Church Road and Edgecome Drive — Manhollow Missionary Baptist Church and Sloop Point School, one of the only Rosenwald Schools statewide.
“What this proposal is going to do is push traffic, or at least accessibility out, through Manhollow,” Levins said. “It’s got a historic cemetery in the area that slaves have been buried in by their direct descendants. So between the two community developments, Applewood Trace and Sniff Davis, you’re going to have a conversion of traffic into a community that has no say.”
Jennifer Lane, new to the area, was also in opposition. She was clear it’s not because she doesn’t support growth but because the pressures on the town have yet been worked through to comfortably settle more people. Sewer capacity and flooding remained alarming.
“How does the town plan to compensate for the additional waste contribution by the new community?” she asked. “Will this also cause an increase in our current utility bill? Flooding is an important issue to our town, as many neighborhoods have flooding that occurs, though the developer would be responsible for the storm water drains in the new development. What are the impacts for the surrounding areas? Will this increase flooding in neighborhoods like Turtle Creek when Colonial Heights retention ponds reach capacity or overflow in the neighboring wetlands?”
Murphy said site plans included preservation of “ecologically sensitive areas.” She said there would be passive and open space for the residents of Colonial Heights and it would add connections to the proposed Greenway belt.
“It will also provide active and recreational and walking-slash-biking paths, not only for the residents of Colonial Heights but the Surf City residents and visitors in general,” Murphy added.
Despite the conditions, density remained the sticking point. Pasquantonio mentioned surrounding properties were R-10 and thought it would not be in alignment with the area’s development footprint to double the build-outs.
The board unanimously voted against the recommendation and the applicant has withdrawn the project, according to Breuer.
“It is anticipated that they will resubmit,” he said, unbeknownst what will change in the site plans.
Had Colonial Heights gone before city council as is and been denied, the developer would have to wait six months to reapply.
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