10-05-06: Wal-Mart scales hurdle for store in Cedar Point

The Jacksonville Daily News
Published October 5, 2006
By Jannette Pippin, Daily News Staff

Wal-Mart scales hurdle for store in Cedar Point

CEDAR POINT — A proposed Wal-Mart store off N.C. 24 passed a preliminary hurdle this week.

The Cedar Point Planning Board is recommending that the town board approve plans for a 125,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store with the condition that the developers adhere to a stormwater management plan as presented for the site, located on the northwest corner of NC 24 and Old Highway 58.

Planning Board Chairman Rufus Murray said the stormwater plan includes controls that would exceed the state’s minimum standards, with retention ponds that would hold between 7 inches and 10 inches of rainwater during a 24-hour period.

“It’s almost five times higher than what the state requires,” Murray said.

The planning board tabled action on the Wal-Mart proposal last month to allow more time for traffic and stormwater management issues to be addressed.

The proposed development sits near the headwaters of Boathouse Creek, and there is concern that increased runoff from a large development could cause further degradation of already impaired waters.

Murray said the developer has been willing to work with the town to help reduce the impact of stormwater runoff, which can carry pollutants from parking lots and other impervious surfaces into nearby waterways.

“We asked for some concessions from Wal-Mart and we got that,” he said.

Neighboring Cape Carteret was similarly successful in getting more stringent stormwater run-off controls in place for a new Lowe’s Home Improvement store that is being developed just down the road.

Cape Lookout Coastkeeper Frank Tursi of the North Carolina Coastal Federation said it is encouraging to see the Cedar Point project moving in that direction.

“The preliminary engineering suggests the company can go beyond what the state requires and that is a good thing,” he said.

Tursi said he’d also like to see the project go a step further and become a model for other practices for reducing stormwater, such as pervious surfaces that allow rainwater to seep through them and vegetative islands within parking lots that hold water-absorbing plants.

“This project could really showcase how to develop large commercial developments in a sensitive watershed area,” he said.

The site plan for the Wal-Mart project now goes to the town board, which will consider approval of the Wal-Mart project once it also receives the recommendation of an advisory committee looking at architectural standards of the building.

Meanwhile, a Cedar Point property owner has stepped up to help ease the concerns of residents worried about the traffic a proposed Wal-Mart store would bring to their front door.

The residents of Magens Bay subdivision expressed concern last month that the large retail store would bring more traffic to an already busy highway, making it difficult to get in and out of their neighborhood.

The subdivision sits across the highway from the proposed development, but its entrance would not line up with the new road and stoplight planned for the Wal-Mart.

Dan Reitz of Cape Lookout Properties LLC said in a Sept. 25 letter to the town that he has undeveloped property to the east of Magens Bay and his eastern-most property line would likely line up with the signal light.

He said he would be willing to give Magens Bay residents access to the property as it is developed so that they could access the highway via the traffic signal.

The idea remains just that for now, but Murray said Reitz is to be commended for coming forward as a citizen with the offer.

“I’m just really ecstatic that he stepped forward as a citizen,” he said. “It just shows people can work together.”

Contact staff writer Jannette Pippin at jpippin@freedomenc.com or (252) 808-2275.