Business alliance, former USACE engineer enter different pleas for west bank development | Port City Daily

NEW HANOVER COUNTY — County commissioners were delivered both an engineering and business alliance perspective ahead of their August vote on west bank development guidelines, though the two are in opposition.

READ MORE: Flood of concerns: Planning board denies western bank amendments

On Monday, Brayton Willis, a retired engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, emailed commissioners a presentation in favor of “low-impact, park-like development” across the Cape Fear River from the current Riverwalk. He was weighing in on best uses for the west bank, as staff prepares to present commissioners with a draft amendment to the 2016 comprehensive plan, pitching low intensity and conservation place types.

County staff has proposed decreased density in the area due to increased flooding on land between the Cape Fear Memorial and Isabel Stellings Holmes bridges. For instance, the Battleship area of Eagles Island, affected by the zoning, experienced a 6,200% increase in flooding in the last 70-plus years. 

Alternately, the Business Alliance for a Sound Economy (BASE), a real-estate nonprofit advocacy group in southeastern North Carolina, submitted a letter — also posted on its site — to the county, which opened a portal for public opinion two weeks this summer. BASE favors more development and claims the most effective use of the land on the west bank is to “encourage” it from private developers. 

“At its core, it is a property rights issue,” Tyler Newman, BASE president and CEO, told Port City Daily Thursday. “The majority of the land on the western bank is already environmentally impaired, currently zoned for business and industrial uses, and perhaps most importantly, in private ownership.”

BASE emphasized brownfields properties, formerly industrial and potentially polluted areas, make up 50 acres combined on Battleship Road. The alliance states developers are best equipped to remediate the area and preserve its natural resources than government or conservation organizations, citing conservation has recently failed in preserving some of the land, including Eagle’s Island.

Per the alliance, the amendment — which disallows residential and office and institutional uses — would “discourage and prevent” a vision once desired by the county to have the western bank riverfront mirror that of its current Riverwalk. County commissioners have wanted the area cleaned up for years and moved away from industrial.

The letter leans into such desires, stating “anti-development” is not the way to incentivize environmental remediation. It also points out the amendment’s restriction on building heights — capped at the height of the Battleship — and reducing intensity will bring storage facilities and warehouses. 

“We can, and should, aspire for something better,” the letter states.

BASE claims developers are “best suited to work with landowners to combine parcels, consolidate ownership, engage technical experts, and facilitate improvement and preservation of natural resources in harmony with effective use of the land.”

But for developers to recoup hefty investment from engineering the frequently flooded land and cleaning it up, denser projects would need to be brought forth — such as residential or mixed-uses. The planning board asked staff to include in the amendment earlier this year, but when staff presented their recommendation July 11, those options were left off.

The planning board, missing two members, with Jeffrey Petroff recused from the vote, sided 2-1, to recommend commissioners deny the amendment, Cameron Moore and Colin Tarrant in favor of denial and Clark Hipp against. The majority agreed in part with BASE and thought staff’s restrictions encroached on property rights, despite largely agreeing with concerns over flooding threats to structures. 

Moore — former CEO and government affairs director of BASE, who also serves on the Wilmington Homebuilder’s Association with Newman — included in his motion to reject the amendment that commissioners obtain a full market analysis to learn tax values of the land and bring in a consultant to do a “true” master plan of the area.

This move pit the planning board against what the majority of 2,000 comments from the public advocated for: to have the land conserved. Public pushback prompted county staff to remove residential and office and institutional uses before pitching it to the planning board, along with changing the placetype from its highest intensity of riverfront mixed use to low-density riverfront for privately owned parcels and stipulate all public land be dedicated to conservation.

Former USACE engineer Willis is among the county’s constituents asking for restraint on west bank construction. 

“There’s no way to go out there and do development on that [land] without disturbing the natural floodplain and without putting people in harm and without spending public funds to build them out when it floods,” Willis said. “For us engineers, it’s common sense.” 

In Willis’ email to commissioners this week, he demonstrated that even with infrastructure designed to accommodate more flooding than normal, construction will be at a higher risk of damage. Elevated roads, which would be constructed to mitigate flood damage and preserve ingress and egress, would essentially be levees that block water from its natural progression into the floodplain. Half of Eagles Island is wetlands designated in a FEMA floodplain. 

Not only is altering the floodplain a violation of New Hanover County’s land code, Willis said the ex officio levee will reroute the river flow onto adjacent properties, making it span the floodplain more quickly and turning a 100-year flood event into a 500-year flood event. 

Willis is of the mindset that conserving the land and using some of it for a low-intensity park is the only route to limit the significant property and infrastructure damage — and public funds that will be used to repair it. 

Though developers would likely be strapped with the cost of extending utilities to their properties, should they be allowed to build higher density projects, those utilties still are maintained by proper authorities. In an area more prone to flooding, ratepayer dollars would be used for the more frequent and expensive upkeep of those utilities. Not only that, but disaster relief funds would be funneled to those properties, which are more susceptible to damage with placement on Eagles Island. 

Willis also pushed back on the business alliance’s claim that private development would be the best way to improve the land.

“That’s an insane statement,” he said. 

He noted property owners, whether government or nonprofit groups, could take advantage of several state and federally funded programs to clean up brownfields and restore wetlands and floodplains. 

Port City Daily asked Newman why conserving the island’s properties would not be a better solution than private development.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding that New Hanover County can seize it and magically turn it into a park,” Newman said. “Stripping private land rights in response to the personal preference of others is just bad government.” 

Willis noted there are several boons to property owners that want to conserve the land by donating to a land bank or nonprofit. He listed out several reasons in his email to commissioners, including: 

• Provides a charitable income tax deduction for the full fair market value of the donated land
• Avoids capital gains taxes on appreciated land
• Removes the property from the donor’s taxable estate
• Releases the donor from the expense and the responsibility of managing the donated land
• Lowers property and estate taxes, along with tax incentives, which can offset the loss in property value from donating a conservation parcel
• Offers fair market value that can be deducted from the donated remainder interest for income tax purposes 

Willis added the development of a small park would not require utility-based water and sewer is not necessary. He said bottled water can be delivered for park visitors while organic toilets — Willis cited those made by Clivus Multrum — are self-contained and environmentally sustainable. 

In the business alliance’s letter, it divulged the group’s recent trip to Savannah, Georgia, and used the city’s waterfront as a successful example of marrying private development with public stewardship. 

“They have a thriving and robust port and extensive historic district,” Newman iterated to PCD. “They have energized their core by facilitating similar wetland/brownfield redevelopment across from their historic riverfront downtown. In their case, they have invested in a growing convention center, hotel and golf course. They are also expanding port operations across the river.”

Willis countered there are many cities up and down the East Coast discouraging more development in floodplains and spending large sums to protect property already there. 

In a city comparable to Wilmington, Charleston, South Carolina, needs around $1 billion in drainage infrastructure to bail out residents struggling to keep above water. In 2019, the city bought out and demolished 32 townhomes to restore a floodplain and improve flooding in surrounding areas and local conservation groups are working with the city to make those actions more accessible. 

The City of Boston has developed a comprehensive climate-ready initiative with strategies to protect structures and mitigate flooding and higher sea levels along its shoreline. 

PCD asked Newman if, in light of these actions and others across the nation, how he would refute the claim that developing the west bank would be a step in the wrong direction. 

“In the big picture, people are continuing to come to our community,” Newman said. “We can be best positioned to accommodate that demand by continuing to focus on jobs, infrastructure and housing across the economic spectrum. Being efficient with the limited land that we have requires environmental sensitivity while embracing mixes of uses and height and density — especially in areas adjacent to the center of the region.” 

Tips or comments? Email journalist brenna@localdailymedia.com.

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