Planning board recommends rezoning at 6312 Castlehane Road for nursery and contractor office with conditions

Wilmington New Hanover County Feb. 5, 2025 The New Hanover County Planning Board voted to recommend approval of a rezoning request for 1.97 acres at 6312 Castlehane Road to a conditional Commercial Services (CS) district, allowing a landscape contractor office, retail and wholesale nursery and a live-work caretaker unit under several conditions intended to limit impacts on nearby residences.

The proposal, filed as Z25-01 by Design Solutions on behalf of property owner Ricardo Santiago, would rezone the parcel from R-15 residential to CS with conditions that include removal of the existing circular driveway, preservation of a 35-foot buffer behind the existing buildings, a 20-foot Type A buffer on remaining property lines, limits on exterior lighting, restricted hours of operation and a prohibition on storing or staging heavy contractor equipment on-site. The boardmember who moved the recommendation read the conditions into the record before the vote.

Staff presented the request and recommended approval with five conditions, concluding that the proposed uses align with the Comprehensive Plancommunity mixed-use place type and that the site is a low traffic generator located near other commercial uses. Planning staff said the CS district was requested chiefly to allow the live-work caretaker unit by right; otherwise that use would require a special-use permit in many commercial districts.

Applicant Cindy Wolf said the existing house and detached accessory building on the property would be adaptively reused for office and caretaker housing and that no new buildings were proposed. Wolf said her client removed equipment after a 2024 zoning complaint and is willing to keep heavy equipment at a differently zoned site, and proposed limiting hours and keeping operations and display areas away from the rear setback. "The equipment for the landscape contracting will continue to be kept off-site at my client's alternative property," Wolf told the board.

Two neighbors who live behind the site spoke in opposition, describing earlier noise from backup alarms and large equipment running early in the morning. Resident Steven Setzer said the sound of backup alarms had been disruptive and expressed concern about property values. Resident William Croom said he had filed a complaint and described periodic use of a large excavator behind the house in 2024. "When you have a 17,000-pound excavator running behind your house a week after your mother passes, the whole entire weekend, it puts a bad taste in your mouth," Croom said.

Board members spent substantial time weighing the benefits of a conditional rezoningwhich allows site-specific conditionsagainst the fact that a wholesale nursery is permitted by right under current zoning. Several board members said conditional zoning gives the county the ability to limit hours, location of operations, lighting and equipment in ways a straight rezoning to B-2 would not.

After deliberation, Planning Board member Moore moved to recommend approval, finding the rezoning consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and public interest, and enumerated the conditions. The motion included the following conditions read into the record and attached to the recommendation: (1) permitted uses limited to wholesale nursery, retail nursery, landscape contractor office and a live-work caretaker unit; (2) removal and abandonment of the existing circular driveway with replacement driveways to be permitted by NCDOT; (3) the entire 35-foot setback behind the existing buildings to be considered a buffer yard where no activity shall occur and a 20-foot Type A transitional buffer along remaining common property boundaries preserving existing vegetation with supplemental plantings as needed for year-one opacity standards; (4) exterior lighting arranged or shielded to prevent upward illumination and spillover to adjacent property or roadways; (5) hours of operation limited to MondayFriday 7 a.m.7 p.m. for all uses, Saturdays 8 a.m.3 p.m. for all uses, and Sundays 10 a.m.3 p.m. for the retail nursery only; and (6) "no heavy equipment associated with the contractor office use shall be stored, staged, or used on-site," including but not limited to backhoes, excavators and dump trucks, and any nursery equipment use shall be limited to the hours of operation.

The board voted in favor; there was no roll-call tally in the transcript and no named opposition recorded at the time of the motion. The boards recommendation will be forwarded to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners; the meeting agenda at the start of the night listed a tentative county commissioners hearing for Monday, March 10, 2025.

The applicant said she would not seek a continuance and that the proposed conditions were acceptable. The planning staff noted they would review and may refine the condition language with county legal staff before forwarding the final recommendation to the commissioners.

The boards action does not itself rezone the property; the County Commissioners have final authority on zoning changes.