By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – The New Hanover County Planning Board is scheduled to vote tonight on whether it will adopt a uniform zoning plan for the west side of the Cape Fear River.
Height has been a major concern with the proposed zoning. The City of Wilmington has passed a version with a 20-story height limit. Historic Wilmington Foundation supports a 50-foot height limit. And a draft produced out of planning board workshops calls for a 100-foot height limit for directly across from historic downtown Wilmington.
And that's where developers are looking to build the City View project, which would include condos, retail and office space.
Project developer John Evans says he'll take a pass on the Riverfront Mixed Use zoning if it falls around the 50-foot height limit range.
Revert to the original B-2 zoning, which is not nearly as flexible and won't produce as desirable an outcome, and does not require us to do all of these good things which the public will benefit from.
The New Hanover County planning board draft calls for a maximum height of around 240 feet for land farther north up the river.