Developer withdraws petition for apartment complex in New Hanover County

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A developer’s plan to create a new multi-family development at 6634 Carolina Beach Road was discussed during Monday’s New Hanover County Commissioners meeting.

The 6-building, 64-unit complex would have been built on 4.65 acres of land, next to Lord’s Creek neighborhood.

Some residents who live there spoke out against the development.

Many said they had no issue with something being built there, but voiced concerns about the increase in traffic the development would create along that stretch of Carolina Beach Road.

Thomas Toby said he was against the proposal due to how many high-density complexes have been built in the Monkey Junction area.

“Communities need growth, communities that don’t grow die,” Toby said. “But we have had so much high density. We’ve had a lot of stuff that has been rezoned and turned into high-density. And every time that is done, now single family homes can’t be built there. And single-family homes are what provide our individual citizens the opportunity to build wealth for themselves.”

This plan had come before the commissioners before, back in May of 2023 and was rejected 3 to 2.

At that time, Commissioner Dane Scalise supported the development, but on Monday night, he took issue with the fact that the developer had not modified plans for the proposal.

“It’s been a little over a year and I think that we would be making a mistake to encourage applicants to listen to the board say no and not come back with even a little bit of a change,” Scalise said. “To present exactly the same plan after you were told no was a mistake. My vote is no.”

Before commissioners could vote on the development, the applicant withdrew their petition.