Gateway Project rezoning approved

The proposed Gateway Project along Wilmington’s riverfront has been a controversial topic. It is a residential and business development that would change the face of Wilmington as you drive across the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

After two hours of discussion at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, council members voted unanimously to approve rezoning the nearly ten acres of land at the base of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge for the mixed use and residential plan.

The project’s developer, Ron Pickett, said, “What’s exciting is that it was unanimous because it’s great to have the full support of the city as you move forward.”

During the meeting, council member Laura Padgett said, “Reality is people want to move here and developers want to come here and our best bet is to have the best kind of planning that we can have.”

Not everyone at Tuesday’s meeting was excited about the vote. Several opponents spoke up, including downtown resident Norman Robinson. “We still have concerns about the mass and appearance of the building and we have to trust that the architect is going to deal with that in a favorable way and we still have some concerns about traffic,” he said.

Pickett said, “It’s very gratifying when everybody, especially for a controversial project, can come together finally and say let’s move forward and make the best out of this.”