A large turnout of neighbors of Dockside Marina and Restaurant went home from the Wilmington City Council disappointed on Tuesday night, but not because they lost a vote on their concerns about a new parking lot planned for across the restaurant.
Many were upset because the council didn’t address the issue at all, as the public hearing drew a crowd of as many as 100 opponents of the parking proposal. At the request of Dockside, the council voted 6-0 to grant a continuance until May 3 on the public hearing that would change the zoning of the restaurant’s parking lot to make upgrades that would include adding patio housing to the parking lot that neighbors fear is too dense.
“I think the neighborhood resolve will only be further hardened,” said Haywood Newkirk, a neighbor who said he was upset that the developers didn’t bring forward their plan at the hearing. “They weren’t happy about what’s going on, only then to be told that there was a continuance.”
Members of the city council raised question about the continuance. Council member Neil Anderson asked if the developers were asking for a delay in the public hearing in order to make changes to the plan and quell opposition.
“Are they working with you on something new and different?” said Anderson, making note of the crowd at the hearing. “I would assume they’re not going to bring back the same plan.”
Wilmington city planner Ron Satterfield said the developers haven’t met with city planning staff to discuss any changes to the plan, but that he assumed they would if granted the continuance.
The proposal by the restaurant would expand the gravel lot now used for parking into the neighboring lot, while adding paving, markings and design upgrades that the developers said would increase the safety and improve traffic in the area around Airlie Road. The proposal also puts three small patio homes on the lot, which goes against the land use plan density requirements and would set a precedent for more development in the Wrightsville Sound area.
Council member Kevin O’Grady asked Satterfield to invite representatives from the surrounding neighborhood to any meetings, given they know the area.
“I think there’s room to have the goals reached to avoid further development in the area while gaining the benefits of an improved parking lot,” O’Grady said. “The two have to sit down at the table, I’m not sure that’s happened yet.”
So far, Newkirk said he isn’t aware of any new attempts by developers to meet with neighbors on the project, but added that the city council has showed an interest in the issue and that most neighbors recently had the opportunity to meet with every one of the council members. He said developers have met with neighbors in the past.
“I’m very impressed by the city council and their efforts to meet with all of the people in the neighborhood,” he said. “The neighbors were ecstatic about their response.”
What wasn’t impressive, Newkirk said, was the city’s rules on allowing a developer to delay a hearing. He said that after the neighborhood mobilized to arrive at the hearing, many in coordinated red shirts, the developers shouldn’t be allowed to simply ask for a delay.
“The burden should be on them, not on the neighbors, since they’re the ones asking for a zoning change,” Newkirk said.
The parking lot at 1308 Airlie Road is zoned residential R-15, zoning it inherited when it was annexed into the city in 1999. The project would expand parking into the neighboring 1303 Airlie Road property, currently owned by Dockside proprietor Lionel Yow, and require a change to a commercial business zoning, sparking protest from many residents who don’t want any commercial zoning on the non-waterfront side of Airlie Road, which is almost exclusively residential.
Email [email protected]
