Wrightsville Avenue mixed-use development approved by Wilmington Planning Commission

By Hannah Leyva
Contributing Writer
A proposed mixed-use development on Wrightsville Avenue and Jones Road called Trolley Station was recently approved by Wilmington’s Planning Commission and will next go before city council.
The three-story building would feature a total of 9,800 sq. ft. of retail, office, and residential space on the 1.03-acre plot of land located at 6789 Wrightsville Ave adjacent to the residential neighborhood MacCumber Terrace. The triangular piece of currently unused land is also across the street from the ABC store and the empty field that was once the Galleria shopping center.
The planning commission approved it by a 6 – 1 vote with several conditions, including a 20-foot buffer and a maximum height of 35-feet on the building. The proposal will next be presented to Wilmington City Council for approval.
During the public comment portion of the presentation, MacCumber Terrace residents Terry and Carole Sheffield, whose property sits directly behind the potential project, raised concerns about the proposed 45-foot height of the building and the change from a 20-foot buffer to a 10-foot one.
“We’re just looking for a common sense approach from the commission,” Terry Sheffield said. “We’re not opposed to the project whatsoever. We would just like to ask the commission to really take a hard look at it and think what it would be like to have a 45-foot building 50 feet outside your bedroom window.”
The Sheffields’ next-door neighbor, Greg Jones, had similar concerns.
“This is a fenced-in area, so I feel like we should have a little bit of right of privacy instead of having three one-bedroom apartments looking literally in our backyard, because they will literally be looking in our backyard,” Jones said.
Jones and Andrea Green, a representative of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church on Jones Road, also brought up drainage issues, citing already existing flooding problems.
Cindee Wolf, who represents both the property owner and developer, said the 10-foot fence buffer was an “alternative buffer” to the 20-foot vegetation buffer that was recommended by city staff.