The meeting was hosted voluntarily by Charlotte-based developer Copper Builders. It was led by locally-based consultant Sam Franck, who addressed a hostile capacity crowd, with at least 50 more people waiting outside for the opportunity to come in.
Well over a dozen residents aired their concerns during the meeting, ranging from traffic on Castle Hayne Road and neighboring streets to overcrowded schools and concerns about the cost of adding new utilities. Each speaker was met with raucous applause from the audience.
But environmental issues took the main spotlight: speakers were concerned about old-growth trees being cut down on the wetland property. Franck had a ready response to that issue. "No aspect of this development contemplates putting homes where old-growth trees exist today,” he said. "all of the home sites that we've proposed are on the upland timbered property, not on the natural, fantastic old-growth forest sections of the land."
Currently, available development plans only cover 3/4 of the total acreage of the land, which is located on an undeveloped northern section of New Hanover County near Sledge Road. But opponents say it's unreasonable to count the unbuildable wetlands in calculations related to the site's density.
The property is zoned as rural agricultural, which allows for one unit per acre. Under that zoning, another development style called performance residential zoning is permitted, which may allow the developers to compress all 4,000 units onto 1,000 acres of the land, leaving the 3,000 acres of wetland largely untouched, except for a proposed horse ranch and golf course. Some of that land is already protected by federal, state, and county regulations, according to New Hanover County. Opponents say that, because the untouched land can't be built on, it shouldn't count into this equation.
Possible environmental contamination by the neighboring GE plant was a tougher issue, particularly because there’s limited public information about it. Decades ago, the plant leached toxins like vinyl chloride and uranium into nearby groundwater.
Kayne Darrell is a neighbor to the site and has been a vocal opponent to this development. She said there's new data about the contamination from the GE site.
"There's a new plume that was just discovered in May of 2024, close to the front entrance of GE right along the edge of Sledge Road. But again, it only just been discovered in May, they started doing the test wells in September, they're still digging those test wells. So we have no idea what exactly those contaminants are, how far they've spread, and if those levels are safe for," she said.
Franck responded, "If you've got additional data that you think that we don't have, or our Environmental Consultants don't have, please send it. We're grateful for it. We want to understand those facts. This is the right time for us to understand those facts. If there's contamination anywhere on this subject property, not only do we want to know how bad it is and how long it's been there, but we also want to know how far it goes into the site, as you might imagine, those are critical details for us to understand."
Darrell responded, "We do need that 100% guarantee that these toxins are not going anywhere before you do anything else or think about moving one step forward.”
She received a massive round of applause from the audience.
The owner of Copper Builders, Wade Miller, said they are investigating the issue with the help of multiple consultants. "There's actually benefits, to some degree, to developers that find contaminants on sites, because we can enter into credits and grants and all kinds of different other programs. So there, there are opportunities here to potentially clean if there is anything to clean it and to make the site better," he said.
An attorney named Jessica Parks spoke up at the meeting and said the development would be a large liability risk.
"I think there will be enough entities that can come together with the funding to make this very beneficial cost wise for the developer that could replace all of this without those future litigation risk and liability for the development," she suggested.
The idea of conservation on the site of Sledge Forest has come up frequently in county commission meetings and on social media. Franck responded to Parks and suggested the developers were open to the idea.
"To the extent that you're involved with or represent groups that you think might be interested in talking to us about acquisition of a conservation over part or all of the land. Please call me. I'd like to have that conversation," he said.
In response to the claims about contamination from GE, the developers could only say they had no interest in exacerbating environmental issues, and that they may even have the opportunity to clean up the site if it’s feasible. Franck mentioned environmental consultants. They promised to follow all relevant laws and regulations to protect neighbors and the environment — although the attending crowd did not seem to believe that would protect them.
New Hanover County is in the midst of its technical review committee process with this proposal, and the developers repeatedly stated that available site plans are subject to change and are merely ideas. The development is very early along in the process, and it is years away from selling a home.
Franck ended the meeting with a statement on transparency.
"With regard to transparency and communication, we continue to be interested to hear what you have to say. I realize that the vast majority of people in this room have said, simply don't build we don't want to see you develop this site," he said, triggering a massive round of applause from the audience.
"I understand that that's your perspective," he continued. "That opinion and that input doesn't leave us a whole lot of options in terms of what to do with it. I also heard some very specific suggestions. I heard some very specific suggestions about concerns about density, concerns about financial impact, concerns about environmental impact, and what might be done to reduce the environmental impact, those are things that we're going to take back as a group and evaluate further and take into account as we move forward on development. Regardless of all of this, we welcome any further comments that you might have."
Those interested in contacting the developer can email hiltonbluffs@copperbuilders.com.
The developers also shared a letter with the crowd that had previously been sent to New Hanover County commissioners, which is included at the end of this article. Alongside the letter, County Manager Christ Coudriet passed along the following comments to the commissioners.
"Commissioners, we have received a copy of the letter that came to you from the attorney and applicant associated with the proposed development at and near Sledge forest, or Sledge family timberland as described herein.
As staff, we feel the overview provided by the developer is directionally accurate. I did want to clarify the statement made at the end of the letter regarding the county's willingness to take ownership of a portion of the land for a county park.
As you may recall, staff previously briefed the board on initial discussions with the developer and conservation groups concerning the property. We conveyed to the developer that there was an interest in preserving as much of the property as possible and encouraged them to engage with conservation groups as well.
In subsequent conversations, the developer indicated a willingness to sell about 35 acres of the western portion of the site for a public park. County staff shared that proposal with the board, and – from an administrative standpoint – we had a reluctance to commit to ownership and maintenance at that time.
If a conservation group were to purchase a small portion of the property and deed it to the county, it would create the expectation to develop it as a passive park within the neighborhood, with continued maintenance, cost, and liability considerations. There are also considerations in terms of the type of infrastructure that would be required if the land were opened for public use and any potential environmental impacts. In addition, while the land remained undeveloped, it would place a significant burden on the county to monitor and prevent misuse, illegal dumping, squatting, etc.
I share all that to unpack the statement “that the County is reluctant to own or maintain a park at this location” a bit more.
Regards,
Chris C.
The included letter from Copper Builders is below.
Letter to Commissioners 2-3-25 by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
