WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — According to one recent study, Wilmington is one of the most popular US cities to move to. In order to keep up with the growth, the city is overhauling its land development code for the first time in more than 40 years.
The collection of laws is meant to accommodate growth, offering less traffic, more greenspace, and a more walkable city.
“I call it the DNA of our city,” said Planning Development Director, Glenn Harbeck. “Just like, if you think about, we all have DNA that makes us look like humans. Well, this land development code determines how we will look as a city. How we will function as a city.”
The city has planned for this since 2013, speaking with more than 4,000 residents about what they’d like to see. They’ve planned and rewritten a series of potential laws that would help the city build smarter, not farther.
“We don’t really have a lot of room in Wilmington to grow out,” explained Christine Hughes, a senior planner. “So we really need to look at where we have room to maybe infill parking lots we’re not using anymore. The example that comes to my mind is the old Kmart on college road.”
One big topic the land development code will address: traffic.
Instead of paving their way out of congestion, the city plans to get creative. Using the code, they plan to interconnect commercial parking lots, like the Starbucks and mall lots on Oleander and Independence. Hughes says they’d also like to make retail, restaurants, and grocery stores more accessible to foot traffic.
“But I can’t do that if the grocery store is very far away,” Hughes said, “and I can’t do that if there’s no safe place to ride my bicycle, and I can’t do that if traffic is so fast, I’m afraid to get out there with the cars.”
The code could reduce city sprawl with mixed zoning, rezoning the city to build housing, green space, and other services close together.
“I can equate it to a pizza,” said Harbeck. “You can either have a pizza where you’ve got all the pepperoni over here, and all the mushrooms there, and the green peppers here, or you can mix it up, whereby you’re closer to things.”
The City of Wilmington is still accepting public input until their meeting, which will potentially be scheduled in June or July.
