Residents submit request to rezone Echo Farms

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) –  The City of Wilmington has received a request to rezone Echo Farms.

The application was submitted by Matt Nichols on behalf of the Echo Farms Residents Association, Inc., signed by Ed Higgins as President, Henry G. Winters and Iris L. Winters Revocable Living Trust, Samantha Nguyen, and Beth Ann Hillman.

The group seeks to rezone the golf course property from Multifamily Residential Medium Density to R-15, Residential. City officials say the difference in the zoning reduces the number of single-family units that can be built per acre.  You can build 17 single-family units in Multifamily Medium Density, versus only 3 single-family units in R-15.

Back in August, WWAY received emails that showed a developer proposed building 675 homes and apartments on the Echo Farms golf course. After that, many Echo Farms residents came together to protest the proposed development. They organized a ‘Save Echo Farms’ group and began holding meetings to discuss their options.

The city is currently reviewing the zoning request in an effort to determine any potential legal or financial impacts to the city. While there are several ways a property within the city can be rezoned, the city says a request that is not submitted by the property owner is unusual. Currently, the property in question is zoned multifamily “by right,” which means City Council would not be involved with a site plan review.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said, “The city wants to do everything we can to promote positive growth for our community. The Echo Farms property is an example of the struggles we face as our city continues to grow. The Echo Farms group requesting this rezoning clearly cares about our growing city and they are to be commended for that. At the same time, we must continue to look overall at the rights of individual property owners and also look at any precedent that could be made depending of what types of decisions the city could make – not only on the Echo Farms property – but other potential properties. There is a clear public process outlined in city code and state law that we will follow as we strive to do not only what is legal, but also equitable.”

While no official site plan has been submitted to the city, the developer is working with the NC Department of Transportation and staff on a traffic impact analysis.