Planning board asks for more information, continues proposal to remove Collector Street 15 from county streets plan

The Pender County Planning Board voted to continue consideration of a zoning text amendment that would remove Collector Street Number 15 from the adopted Pender County Streets Plan of 2021 so staff could provide additional technical information about the county’s planned water-supply facilities and the transportation implications of removing the collector.

Senior planner Adam Moran explained the proposed amendment: Collector Street 15 was shown in the county streets plan as a roughly 2.5-mile planned collector connecting Harrison Creek Road to U.S. 17 at Washington Acres Road. Moran said the county has recently purchased a tract along that corridor to locate well sites and a drinking-water treatment facility and that removing the planned roadway is intended to preserve a buffer to protect surface and groundwater quality for the public water supply.

Board members pressed staff for more information. Several members said they were concerned that removing Collector Street 15 could undermine connectivity in the collector network and worsen traffic on U.S. 17. “If Collector Street 15 is eliminated by action ultimately by county commissioners, how does that impact the rest of the Collector Streets in that area?” one member asked.

Members also asked for factual support for staff’s contention that a constructed roadway poses a material risk to the county’s planned well sites. Moran said the well project is in design and that he did not have specific contaminant-distance studies in the record. Board members requested that public utilities provide the county’s well map, engineering or hydrogeologic studies (if any), and detail on well depths and required buffers so the board could weigh public-health protections against long-term transportation connectivity.

Given the technical questions and the lack of a consensus on proceeding, the board voted to continue the text amendment to a date uncertain and asked staff to return with information from Pender County Public Utilities and any available technical analyses describing potential contamination risks, well locations and timelines for the water project. Staff indicated the well project is in design and that the purchase of the corridor property occurred in roughly the prior year.

The board’s action was procedural; it did not remove the collector street from the plan and preserves both options until staff provides the additional materials and the board can consider the tradeoffs between protecting water resources and maintaining the county’s planned roadway network.