The owners of the Dockside Marina and Restaurant are proposing a change to their parking lot that will bring out some neighbors to protest the expansion before the Wilmington City Council next month.
The plan would modify the gravel parking lot that Dockside operates at 1308 Airlie Road by using part of 1303 Airlie Road in a remodeled parking area that would also include building three new small “patio homes.”
The Wilmington Planning Commission approved the project on Feb. 2 by a 6-1 vote, with only the commission’s chair Deb Hayes voting against. The city’s planning staff recommended that the commission deny the project. The Wilmington City Council is scheduled to consider the zoning request on March 1.
The project would expand the current gravel parking lot into the neighboring lot by adding paving, lighting, demarcating parking spots and providing a defined route to guide traffic in and out of the lot. It would also add three small homes in the area behind the new parking on 1303 Airlie Road.
During the meeting, city planner Jeff Walton said the project would lead to further encroachment of commerce onto the west side of Airlie Road, where the city’s future land use plan restricts any further commercial development to help preserve the residential.
“It would threaten the liveability of properties in the immediate vicinity,” Walton said.
But attorney Matt Nichols, representing the Dockside owners, told the planning commission that the development was consistent with city standards, the future land use plan and the Wrightsville Sound small area plan.
Nichols said the project was needed to improve the parking access that already exists on Airlie Road and bring it up to 2016 standards. Nichols described the parking situation there as a “rodeo” that creates traffic, mess from the gravel and safety.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” Nichols said.
The area is currently zoned for residential use, in the R-15 category, but to modify the parking lot, it has to be conditionally zoned for commercial business before a permit can be issued, said Dockside owner Lionel Yow, who also owns the property at 1303 Airlie Road.
The Dockside parking lot at 1308 Airlie Road has been in use since before the city annexed the area in 1999, Yow said, and that the current zoning and land use rules prevents the owner from making reasonable upgrades to the property.
“We were annexed into the city,” Yow said. “The city owes us a fix.”
Some neighbors said they were concerned the project could reduce property values, as well as change the character of the neighborhood. Though other neighbors said they supported the project because of the improvements it would make to parking.
Neighbors said they worried that by bringing in the smaller patio homes onto the property, they would set a precedent that would bring increased population density to the area. They noted there were several lots in the area where patio homes could be added and that city council approval would open the gates for more density in the area.
“The dam can break,” said neighbor Haywood Newkirk. “I worry about the long-term effects of five sites within a quarter mile of this location. The North Carolina scenic byway that is Airlie Road is going to become a patio home community.”
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Unfortunately, the Planning Commission and the City Council have chosen repeatedly to ignore the Wrightsville Sound Plan, which solicited public input on the area, in favor of rubber stamping pretty much every development proposal presented to them. This won’t stop until Airlie Road is impacted, and other beautiful spots in the area have been compromised. There is no “best practices’ going on – it’s just willy nilly, pat on the back. We have a City Planner & staff, but I’m not sure they’ve ever heard their recommendations….