New Beginning Christian Church has owned land in Castle Hayne for more than a decade. Pastor Robert Campbell said he was called by God to start a church with the aim of serving the poor. So he started a development non-profit to do it, called East Carolina Community Development.
“I've always had a compassion for marginalized homeless people, underprivileged and overlooked," Campbell said. "And part of my call was to help to answer that need.”
The non-profit recently broke ground on a 68-unit affordable senior housing complex, right next to New Beginning Christian Church. That housing is for residents earning no more than 60% of the area median income, and is funded by a low-interest $1.5 million loan from New Hanover County — and by low-income housing tax credits.
Now that the first project is underway, Campbell wants to do it again- but with a project aimed at families. This project will be for 180 units, all two- or three-bedroom apartments, on a tract of land right between the church and Blue Clay Road. Campbell explained his reasoning to a room with over a dozen neighbors concerned about the development. "We recognize that in our county, there's a great need for affordable housing, in particular, if you're looking for an apartment. And talking to one of the commissioners, he said 13,000 units is needed.”
The project requires a rezoning, and Campbell has hired Cindee Wolf, a local land development consultant, to handle the process. The community meeting is a required part of the rezoning application process, and after explaining the plans, Wolf sparred with concerned neighbors.
"So what is the point of having zoning at a lower rate if you're just going to come in and change the zoning? Because you feel like it?" Asked one man.
"It's not because you feel like it," Wolf replied. "There are guiding documents like the comprehensive plan, like the issues with the housing deficit that we have in New Hanover County."
“I don't care about the housing deficit you have," the neighbor responded. "I didn't buy a house here because you have a zoning and he was called by somebody to help poor people. I bought a house in a place that was established. So I could have a view and live my life and a house in peace, seeing trees, having wildlife. And I don't care about the mission."
“But you don't own this particular piece of property,” Wolf retorted.
Wolf says the county’s desperate need for housing is part of the reason the comprehensive plan would allow this plot of land to be changed to a higher-density form of zoning. Currently, the land is zoned for medium density residential, and could be used for townhomes. The new plan would put about 17 units per acre on 11 acres of land.
The neighbors are worried about their privacy with nearby 3-story buildings. Their neighborhood, built less than eight years ago next to the church, is single-family. But those concerns will have to wait until the county planning board’s hearing, and the county commission rezoning hearing, both likely to come late this year or early next year.
Campbell said he doesn’t take the concerns personally.
"What we're going to build is not going to be obtrusive, it is not going to be done poorly," he said. "It's kind of like our church building. You know, you walk in and you don't expect to see this in this neighborhood. But it doesn't bring the neighborhood down. I think if anything, it helps to stabilize it.”
Even if the rezoning goes through, that doesn’t mean the project will break ground anytime soon. The senior housing next door took seven years to break ground after its own rezoning, largely because of the extensive process required to get a Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
Pastor Campbell is excited to break ground, though, and hopes he can keep doing these kinds of projects.
"I have been engaged in this kind of thing since I answered [the call from God], and said yes, as the man said, 'We don't care who you who called you,' I get it. But this has been a calling.”
