The Week in Review
...your Wilmington Connection
May 26, 2007
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Enjoy your free time.
The city has received much positive publicity lately. Modern Physician magazine named Wilmington as one of the best places to set up a medical practice. If you are starting a business, Forbes magazine says Wilmington is a great place to do just that. In addition, CNN Money listed Wilmington, NC as a top-ten city for the apprection of real estate in the next five years. Email me if you would like these articles or where you can find them.
The Region is ready for the Memorial Day Rush.
The influx - or onslaught, depending on your point of view - will put thousands of extra cars on the roads, bodies on the beaches and heads in hotel beds.
Local retailers, restaurants and lodges hope the throngs - and their money - will find them. Hampstead may get own zoning district
What's good for Pender County might not be good for Hampstead.
Members of the county planning board and the county board of commissioners took that point of view earlier this month when both agreed to look into placing an overlay zoning district over the Hampstead region.
"As the county grows, this is something we should look into for the county's high-growth areas," said Pender County Planning Director Joey Raczkowski. "This is a nationwide concept that has been done and worked in different areas of the country."
An overlay district is an additional zoning requirement that is placed on a geographic area but does not change the underlying zoning.
"The county currently has countywide development regulations in place, but they were written before Hampstead started experiencing rapid growth," Raczkowski said. "You can't control moderate and rural development with the same regulations as you do in an area that is experiencing rapid growth. An overlay district may be the answer."
Overlay districts are used to impose development restrictions, such as requirements regarding aesthetics, transportation and landscaping, on new residential and commercial development, Raczkowski said.
Members of the Greater Hampstead Home- owners Association, which represents 10 subdivisions in Hampstead, presented the idea of an overlay district to both boards after discussing the area's growth at recent meetings.
New Hanover to use local funds to dredge inlet
Opening what some officials fear is a Pandora's box, the New Hanover County commissioners Monday voted to use local funds to keep Carolina Beach Inlet navigable.
While local funds have been used to finance beach nourishment projects for decades, Monday's action was the first time county dollars were earmarked to maintain a waterway where the sand wasn't being pumped onto an adjacent beach.
Previously, the federal government has fully funded all dredging of inlets and the Intracoastal Waterway.
But officials, even while expressing concern about the precedent-setting nature of the vote, said they saw little choice.
Depths at the mouth of the inlet were down to nearly 4 feet earlier this month, and rescuers with the Federal Point Volunteer Fire Department already this year have had to respond to a dozen calls from boaters in trouble.
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