The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners approved a comprehensive new future land use plan Monday that updates the county’s process for reviewing and permitting development proposals for the first time since the 1970s.
“Plan NHC: Charting a New Course,” which won the votes of all five commissioners, was the product of three years of work and at least 57 public meetings. However, there was division on the commission later over issues related to water resource and wetlands maps.
“This is a good plan that updates a 1970s ordinance, addresses the issues of density and gives planning staff more flexibility,” commissioner Woody White said.
Chris O’Keefe, county development services supervisor, told the board the plan would improve the quality of decision making at the staff level, steer growth and development in unincorporated areas and promote economic development. The plan includes the creation of a unified development ordinance that would rewrite county zoning ordinance to include all of the county regulations related to development. Currently, the county relies on state-mandated Coastal Area Management Act maps and plans to govern development.
“Vacant developable land has become scarce,” O’Keefe said of the challenges to development in New Hanover County.
Overall, the plan won the support of both environmental advocates and business development interests, with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Wilmington Regional Area Realtors and Business Alliance for a Sound Economy (BASE) all speaking in support of the plan.
While the plan had diverse support, there was still an underlying disagreement over whether to include maps in the plan that designate aquifer sensitivity and potential wetlands area maps. The planning staff’s draft didn’t include the maps, which first sparked disagreement in December 2015 when the board considered the fourth section of the plan.
While the N.C. Coastal Federation spoke in favor of the plan, Karen Dunn, clean communities coordinator, said the maps should be included. She said the other 19 counties in North Carolina under CAMA rules include separate wetlands maps in their land use plans. One county resident also spoke in opposition to the plan, voicing concerns that the plan didn’t adequately address water resources.
“With this wetland information readily available, why would New Hanover County choose not to include this information in the comprehensive land use plan?” Dunn asked. “The aquifer sensitivity map is critical to elevate the importance of safeguarding of our water resources that are vital to health and to our economy.”
Countering, Tyler Newman of BASE said the maps would cause confusion over the rules, regulations and processes that developers would have to follow.
“It’s an ambitious plan. It’s critical to the continued prosperity of New Hanover County,” Newman said. “Wetlands are delineated on the ground by environmental professionals and checked by the Army Corps of Engineers. A model map isn’t necessary. We saw how complicated the aquifers are; there are a lot of people with straws in the drink.”
While the maps weren’t included in the plan, the staff included in the report recommendations for a regional drinking water study. Commissioner Rob Zapple proposed a motion that would prioritize staff to study county water resources, leading to a potential request for a qualifications process that would fund a third-party study.
There were some questions about the timing and the scope of Zapple’s motion, with county manager Chris Coudriet telling the board he couldn’t provide a timeline for when the staff could have initial recommendations.
The motion passed 3-2, with White and commissioner Skip Watkins voting against the motion. White argued that the staff recommendation significantly addressed the controversy over the water resource maps and that the request for a qualification process could be costly and confusing.
White said the county staff should work with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority to compile the existing studies on the county’s groundwater supply before hiring outside consultants. The U.S. Geological Survey is also working on a groundwater study for the region.
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