WHQR reporter Kelly Kenoyer invited Leland Councilmember Bill McHugh to the studio to discuss housing in fast-growing Brunswick County. Below is an excerpt of their conversation.
Kelly Kenoyer: I'm here with Bill McHugh, who's a member of the town council in Leland. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Bill McHugh: Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.
KK: So Brunswick County is one of the fastest growing counties in the entire state. So where are we seeing the majority of that growth going right now?
BM: Really the growth is throughout the entire county. About 30% of it takes place in the town of Leland, we are the largest municipality by far within the county. But I mean, if you drive down 17, you see nothing but signs for new developments, signs for commercial or residential property for sale. I actually drove to Charleston this weekend and saw that all the way down 17 through Horry County into South Carolina. So as much as we're seeing it locally. It's a regional phenomenon.
KK: Is there a part of Leland that's growing particularly fast?
BM: Really, the majority of the growth we're seeing is residential.
KK: Primarily single family homes, you mean.
BM: Generally speaking, yes. However, in recent times, we have seen a big shift towards townhome construction. I think part of that is trying to fill a niche of more affordable housing. You know, the prices have just skyrocketed over the past couple of years, and these are sort of filling that need for entry level homes that we're seeing. And frankly, they're, they're more profitable for the developers because you can fit, you know, two homes on a single lot. You're sharing walls, you're sharing infrastructure. It's something that is becoming more and more popular.
KK: It sounds like there's been a little bit of an evolution in how Leland has grown. So can you tell me what leland's growth strategy has been in the past and how that's changing looking towards the future?
BM: Yeah. So really, it started kind of with what I'll refer to as the big three neighborhoods, Waterford, Magnolia Greens, and Brunswick Forest. So back in the early 2000s, [the] Brunswick Forest community was approved for about 10,000 homes. There's currently around 6,000 built already.
So, you know, it's been about 18 years of construction to get to that 6,000 but that sort of started this major residential growth in the area. You know, once Leland started establishing, uh, their own police department, establishing a very high quality Fire Department, Leland is the only fully professional non-volunteer fire department in Brunswick County, aside from Sunny Point, which is run by the federal government. So that that kind of helps push that growth along. People want to be part of that community, and that's why we've seen so much in recent years.
KK: You know, you mentioned that there are concerns around growth, and we do often hear from residents that all of this growth is straining infrastructure. Do you see that happening? And what can towns and counties do about it?
BM: Sure, so infrastructure is always a major concern. And you know, when I look at infrastructure, I'm not just looking at roads and, you know, sewer and water, because in those areas in Leland, for the most part, we're in good shape. We know we have H2GO, which has a lot of capacity left to build. The majority of the DOT-controlled roads like US-17, for example, are still well below capacity. But we are running into issues like US-133. That corridor is so packed right now, and it's well over its capacity, and we're looking at potentially 10, 20, years before truly meaningful action is taken on a large scale on that corridor. So that's something that we try to take into account when things come to us. Leland purchased the last undeveloped Tract on there as an attempt to preserve it and prevent high density housing from being built there. So that's sort of how we're addressing infrastructure that is covered on a state level.
KK: And just to be clear, the reason that it's going to take 15 or 20 years for this to be changed is because NCDOT has very limited funding, and they are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to development, so they aren't going to address growth that leads to more traffic until after it's a problem.
BM: Absolutely, you know, when you build a road before you build a neighborhood, they call it a bridge to nowhere. And that's just, that's just not how it works. Now, the problem in North Carolina is, you know, at least in my opinion, NCDOT seems to be chronically underfunded for the needs, particularly in a state that's growing so rapidly. But you know, from a local level, what we do is we make a big focus on interconnectivity.
So in our development ordinances, we require that all roads and neighborhoods that are public roads be connected to other public roads, basically allowing you to go end to end, to major connector roads through your own neighborhood without having to get on one of these and that helps peel some of that traffic off of the major roads.
KK: I've been talking with Bill McHugh, who's a member of the town council in Leland. Thank you so much for joining us.
BM: Thank you so much for having me.
