A company with ties to a Charlotte developer is asking Wilmington to rezone several residential lots on Airlie Road next to the old Galleria Shopping Center site, which, if linked, would more than double the size of the commercial site to larger than 20 acres while creating access to two roads.
The request, filed by corporate land owner SSG-1 LLC, covers several lots on Airlie Road just southeast of the entrance to Airlie Gardens, spanning from 201 to include 301, 315, 333 and 405 Airlie Road. Combined, the property is 11.43 acres, and is zoned R-15 for residential use only, Wilmington zoning officials said.
While SSG-1 LLC is listed as the owner of the Airlie Road properties, county records show it has the same post office box address as State Street Galleria, LLC, which is listed as the owner of the old Galleria site. The phone number on the rezoning request filing is listed with State Street Co., a construction and real estate development company based out of Charlotte. The company did not return a phone request for comment as of press time.
The company is asking the city to rezone the property to UMX, which allows for a mix of commercial property, generally on the ground floor, with residential units on higher levels. The rezoning request will be considered starting with a hearing on the proposal before the Wilmington Planning Commission on Wednesday, Jan. 4.
The lots abut the 7.5-acre Galleria site, but if combined with other properties in the vicinity, the site would span 24.21 acres, with street access on both Airlie Road and Wrightsville Avenue. The lots on Airlie Road don’t currently have houses and are mostly overgrown with trees and brush.
The city recently rezoned another property in the area to UMX to clear the way for a mixed-use development that is designed to accompany a mixed-use project at the site of the old Galleria, which was demolished in January 2015. On Nov. 1, the Wilmington City Council voted 5-1 to rezone the 5.4-acre lot at 7000 Wrightsville Ave. from a residential R-15 to the UMX. There’s currently a mobile home park on that lot.
The request comes after a recent fight between residents and a local business over an effort to commercially zone a lot on Airlie Road. While most neighbors of the Dockside Restaurant said they supported construction of a new parking lot across the street from the restaurant, they couldn’t support the zoning change that could come with it. Residents argued changes to the city’s zoning code could accommodate the project without risking commercial zoning on the street.
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Here we go again, fighting to save Airlie Road from commercial development. We worked hard quite awhile ago to have Airlie Road designated historic and scenic road, which does not allow further development, only single family residential. But greedy developers try to violate this designation. We have enough trouble now with traffic on Airlie which makes it dangerous for cyclists. We do not need more commercial traffic spilling out onto Airlie. You better believe we will attend the Jan 4 meeting before the planning commission to protest this further encroachment. (Anne Russell, author of Wilmington A Pictorial History)
I have always admired , even loved, the way locals here -now finding myself a member of by proxy 30 years, now legally owning a home here for over a decade as a family, have always been normally protectivecvof the beloved surrounding land , creating a strong sense of social
consciounessness regarding suppporting the no more high- density development of our island,; meanwhile along the “inland” side across from the more-at risk environmentally fragile Wrightsville Beach islands, where we respect local wildlife and estuaries, is a different story that is repulsive as developers put their own capitol gains over the importance of estuaries, safe water and already-over-burdedened wells and septic sites.
Everyone is aware of those who are destroying our beautiful beach entrance with high-rise structures they prefer to command “because they can”.
Tell me : what do you all think this precious God-given, special island will look like in fifty years, when a legacy supposedly left behind the deaths of such “leaders” in the community they even took from us ?
It’s wrong. We who have known this area , raised families here, and within islands so rare to be deserving of being treated with respect and attempted protection in all ways, through fund-raisers, sharing of knowledge about, will fight the ones who are pushing their boundaries created by a shared waterway -known as the Intra Coastal Waterway , as they encroach upon the islands, estuaries, ancient outer islands always shifting . It is a true hidden sin.
Thank you, Debbie, for your post. We who live in the Airlie locale are indeed involving ourselves in this recent effort at zoning change from residential. We have no problem with Galleria site, because though now devoid of trees, to our sorrow, it was already commercial. We have no problem with mobile home site. But we have big problem with greatly increasing Airlie Road residential and turning it into suburbia, rather than an historic and scenic road which it has been designated. Please join our effort.