New Wrightsville Beach officials to stay course on development

Nov. 30--Wrightsville Beach's election of a new mayor and two new aldermen apparently won't alter the town's stance on commercial development -- yes, it wants it, but it will maintain its high bar for any proposals that come along.

The town elected a new mayor, Bill Blair, who ran unopposed. It also chose two new aldermen -- Lisa Weeks and Hank Miller III.

Mayor-elect Blair acknowledged that the town can sometimes micro-manage development proposals, but said it is necessary because there are so few spaces left -- especially for commercial projects.

"I don't know that anything is going to change," incumbent Alderwoman Elizabeth King said of how projects are vetted.

"Nobody has any predetermined ideas or decisions," she said. "Our board has been very fair."

Weeks is a hospital acute-care representative who previously served on the board from 2007 to 2011.

During Weeks' previous stint on the board, "I thought we were pretty business-friendly. I don't want to further rezone any business to residential," she said.

A bad rap

Miller is president of M&N Equipment Rentals and senior vice president of Cape Fear Commercial. Prior to winning a board seat in November, he served on Wrightsville Beach's planning board and has connections to key commercial real estate sites in the town.

"Sometimes Wrightsville Beach gets a bad rap" on its rules and regulations, Miller said.

"It's hard to say, 'Yes, I'm going to be more developer-friendly,' because it depends on the plan.

"I know I'm in the commercial real estate business but it's what (the citizens) want, not what I want."

Flexibility may be the key, however, in dealing with a more pressing real estate problem -- the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which threatens to play havoc with existing and future structures.

Provisions of the federal law could require many buildings to be raised to avoid onerous flood insurance premiums.

"With Biggert-Waters we're going to have to work with both our businesses and residences in bringing their existing buildings up to code," Weeks said.

"That might take some openness on the height restrictions.

"We're going to have to work with businesses and residential. I hope we can be a little more flexible with those types of situations."

"We've got to be open-minded and listen," Miller said.

The feel of a town

The island wants commercial development, both for the revenue it would generate but also because it's part of what makes a community viable, Blair said.

"I want to keep Wrightsville Beach a town and not just a bedroom community of Wilmington," Weeks said.

But there are few spots left for such development.

The town has extended permits for a proposed mixed-use development on the former Middle of the Island restaurant property. Miller's commercial real estate firm has the site's listing.

"There is still a large desire for something in mixed-use development to go over there," Blair said.

Weeks said that mixed-use development "hasn't had a fair shake yet" in the town because the original plans for the MOI property fell through as the economy tanked.

A more recent project, however, hit a brick wall.

Plans to put in a Joe's Crab Shack restaurant at Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier were turned down by the town's Board of Aldermen, with parking problems cited as a major reason.

The mainland

Though property for commercial development is scarce on the island, the town has a big potential revenue producer on the mainland -- the site of the shuttered Galleria shopping center, now owned by State Street Companies.

The shopping center's previous owner, Equity One Inc., had asked the town to de-annex the mainland property so that State Street could revamp it into a mixed-use development with both residential and retail facilities.

But the board unanimously rejected the proposal.

In fact, a town ordinance bars residential development on the mainland.

The town will remain resistant to Galleria development unless presented with a suitable plan, Blair said.

"I don't think that Wrightsville Beach is a big fan of having a lot of people off the beach," he said.

"The concern is additional pressure on our school population," Weeks said.

"At this point I would prefer to work with the developer on what's currently permitted, when he bought the property knowing what the guidelines were," she said.

No proposals for the site have been submitted to the town, Miller said.

Wayne Faulkner: 343-2329

On Twitter: @bizniznews

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