New Hanover County’s western bank policies need to facilitate the cleanup of the brownfields and environmental degradation across from a vibrant city center while also providing for infrastructure investment, economic growth, and resilient development that complements downtown Wilmington.

The Western Bank of New Hanover County, the properties located along the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear Rivers across from downtown Wilmington, is important due to its history as an economic and cultural center.  Over twenty years ago, community leaders established a new vision for the area—transforming long-time industrial uses into a vibrant reflection of the urban development pattern across the river.  In recent years, new efforts to develop these properties for more intensive and urban uses and new information on changing environmental conditions, including increased sunny day flooding, has led to community discussions and New Hanover County staff to initiate a reassessment of that vision.

An amendment to the 2016 Comprehensive Plan to update the vision for the Western Bank to clarify existing and anticipated environmental challenges was fast-tracked in fall 2023 due to the amount of information gathered over the prior three years through public input and staff research. Based on the concepts presented to the Board of Commissioners in fall 2023 and incorporating feedback provided by the Planning Board at their March 7, 2024 meeting, New Hanover County staff has prepared a Public Comment Draft Amendment of the Western Bank amendment to the 2016 Comprehensive Plan for public review and comment.

You can read more here, but the comments submitted on behalf of BASE are below.

Please consider these comments in response to the staff recommendations regarding Land Use Plan changes impacting the western bank of the Cape Fear River.

 Currently, a large portion of the western bank of the Cape Fear River in New Hanover County is comprised of environmentally impaired areas, brownfields, and increasing amounts of invasive species. Recent private efforts to “save” this area have been unfunded and unsuccessful.  It is clear that appropriate and desirable improvement to the environmental condition of this land cannot be achieved via acquisition by a government body or conservation organization.

The most effective way to address the environmentally damaged property on the western bank of the River is to encourage private development that will, consistent with current regulations and the established brownfields agreements, facilitate improvement and preservation of natural resources in harmony with effective use of the land.

 The inherent policy suggestions implied in staff’s proposed revisions to the land use plan would discourage or prevent such a solution.

 Furthermore, these suggested policy changes are inconsistent with the desired vision for the western bank of the River.

 During a recent Wilmington Chamber of Commerce InterCity Visit to Savannah, we saw how a similar community has embraced its waterfront by providing access and public spaces while activating private investment. This has led to substantial business growth on both sides of its river across from downtown.

 New Hanover County’s vision for the western bank is similar to that of Savannah—suggesting that we transform the western bank’s long-time industrial uses into a vibrant reflection of the urban development pattern across the river. Unfortunately, New Hanover County staff is now proposing changes which will move us in the opposite direction.

 If changes are to be made to the County’s western bank strategy, they need to fully engage with the financial realities of the situation. Truly, a private developer is best suited to work with landowners to combine parcels, consolidate ownership, engage technical experts, and professionally remediate the brownfields and overgrown former industrial sites on the western bank of the Cape Fear River.

 New Hanover County’s policies need to facilitate the cleanup of the brownfields and environmental degradation across from a vibrant city center while also providing for infrastructure investment, economic growth, and resilient development that complements downtown Wilmington. Our area continues to benefit from business growth, and needs the housing opportunities to support our existing and future population.

 Instead of facilitating investment, the current western bank policy draft suggests arbitrary measures like capping potential building height at “the height of the battleship” and reducing potential intensity by envisioning a warehouse or storage facility across from vibrant downtown Wilmington. We can, and should, aspire for something better.

 Anti-development policy is the wrong way to incentivize environmental cleanup and environmentally responsible growth. It will take substantial private investment to undertake the technical analysis and environmental remediation necessary to fix the long-neglected problems along the western bank. New Hanover County needs public policy that will facilitate cleanup and investment, not make it more unlikely.

 We encourage further dialogue and discussion regarding this important topic.