Ben Schachtman: Welcome back, Kelly.
Kelly Kenoyer: Thanks Ben.
BS: So: New year, new city council!
KK: That’s right! And they kicked it off with a few pretty interesting developments. It certainly is clear that the new makeup of council is a lot more progressive, and policies are likely to shift in the city accordingly.
BS: Yeah, let’s start with housing and homelessness, since that’s one of your favorite beats.
KK: Yeah! So first of all, the WHAC is back. This was the Workforce Housing Advisory Committee that fell apart when the county dropped participation. And now it’s back, entirely under the city, with a new name.
BS: What’s the new name?
KK: It’s WHAAC. But they added an A: Now it’s the Wilmington Housing Affordability Advisory Committee. It’s entirely under the city, and it’s less middling in its focus.
BS: Right. There’s been a lot of hay made about workforce housing versus affordable housing, the former being a more moderate term aimed at people like nurses and firefighters, the latter focusing on people with more dire housing needs who might not ever afford the regular housing market. So the name itself is a bit more progressive, right?
KK: Yes, exactly. And when the discussion came up around this, a few interesting things cropped up. First, Kevin Spears made a point that more individuals with lived experience should be on this committee, so they added two positions to the makeup for people with lived experience struggling to afford housing, for a total of three. And Mayor Bill Saffo also said he doesn’t want to let the county off the hook on managing this problem — he said most available land for development is in the county, so they need to be part of this conversation, particularly if the board makeup shifts down the line.
BS: I will note, Republican County Commissioner Dane Scalise pushed back on this, saying the county wasn’t going to just subsidize more housing — writing on Facebook, quote, “I respectfully agree to disagree, Mr. Mayor. I’m not going to let 98% of the county be developed.” That's a reference to 98% of Wilmington being developed — and that seems to be part and parcel with the county’s new comprehensive plan, which is due out soon, and that puts less emphasis on more housing.
KK: Also on housing, and I covered this a bit this week already — the city is moving forward on helping the homeless more. This came out of former councilmember Luke Waddell’s push to implement a camping ban. David Joyner softened it and it got passed with bipartisan support under the previous council incarnation. Along with that passage, Saffo promised to move forward on a city homeless shelter.
BS: So there was an update on that?
KK: Yeah. Basically, the city is looking for a partner on the project and wants to do a no-barrier shelter for 30-40 people. That might require an agency outside of Wilmington to step in. They’re also looking at possible sites but haven’t really picked one yet.
BS: Interesting, I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on that one. Anything else interesting come up?
KK: So our colleague Aaleah McConnell covered this the other day, but the city voted to oppose NCDOT’s Independence Boulevard expansion. This has been floating around since the 1970s and the current iteration of it would impact a lot of houses and businesses in the primarily Black eastside neighborhood for the benefit of commuters from the southern section of the county. That racial component was an explicit reason for pushing against it, and that went through unanimously on council. They do want to consider alternatives, but it was clear that Spears and others didn’t consider carving through a black neighborhood to be a worthwhile sacrifice.
BS: So, NCDOT tells us that their funding metrics don’t consider local resolutions, like this one, but they will work with regional transportation officials to determine next steps — in other words, the resolution won’t directly kill the project, but it could indirectly influence it. In any case, the city is definitely taking a more progressive approach to the issue than they have in past years.
KK: Yeah, they were explicit about that, even in a time when DEI has become a bogeyman. Pretty different from what you’re seeing at the state and national level, politically. And finally, and this is pretty exciting: They’re working with NCDOT to remove a travel lane on 16th right by the cargo district.
BS: I love that area, but it does seem like a potential pedestrian deathtrap right now, so it seems like a good idea.
KK: Absolutely. An NCDOT representative came and presented on it, and it seems like this will reduce travel speeds where there are a lot of pedestrians, create more badly needed on-street parking near the cargo district, and generally make a highly popular pedestrian district more pedestrian-friendly.
BS: So what are they doing exactly?
KK: Right near the cargo district, they’re cutting 16th to two travel lanes, creating raised concrete curb extensions at the intersections, and marking pedestrian crossings on 16th and on 17th. It’ll widen back to 3 travel lanes south of Queen, though. I’ll note that new member Cassidy Santaguida was the most vocally excited about this – she’s told me that Vision Zero, the goal of stopping all traffic-related deaths — is a high priority for her now that she’s on council.
BS: Very interesting. Well thanks for covering this, Kelly!
KK: No problem.
