A special use permit request that came before the county planning panel this week faced no opposition.

Southern Asphalt wants to build an asphalt mixing facility on 10 acres at 5600 Holly Shelter Road, which requires an SUP. The New Hanover County Planning Board unanimously approved the request during a five-hour meeting that also included six rezoning requests for separate properties. The county commissioners are expected to address the request at their meeting May 2.

"I don't think it was difficult. I think I had the right people to answer the questions. I think that had a lot to do with it," said Larry Sanderford, one of the owners of Southern Asphalt, of the request process on Friday.

One of those was an air quality consultant. Although classified as intensive manufacturing, those who represented property owner FSS Properties LLC and were working with Southern Asphalt explained that the proposed facility is not the same as Titan America's plan for a cement plant, something some had compared it to when news of the proposal reached them.

"It's a mixture of materials that are in every day life; it doesn't have a bunch of the same types of emissions that a cement plant has. [Some people] wanted to compare it to Titan, but it's a totally different thing," said Cindee Wolf, land planner and owner of Design Solutions who applied for the SUP on behalf of the property owner.

In March, Titan officials announced they’d be dropping plans to build a cement plant in Castle Hayne that was expected to create about 160 jobs, saying the project is no longer financially feasible because of the cost of building the facility.

If built, the asphalt facility would create three jobs, Sanderford said. Concerns relating to the county's current SUP coming from the business community in recent years have centered around its potential to keep large manufacturing employers away from the county.

"I cannot tell you any particular industry that it has cost us because quite frankly, I don't think we're making it that far out of the chute as far as staying on a list of places that they're considering. The idea that they're going to have to risk delays and potentially denial is a problem," said Hansen Matthews, a commercial broker and partner in Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co. 

Matthews attended the planning board meeting Thursday, having been asked by the SUP applicants to explain to officals that building an asphalt facility at 5600 Holly Shelter Road would not affect the value of nearby properties. Those surrounding businesses, like the 10 acres where the asphalt-mixing facility would go, are also zoned I-2, Matthews said Friday.

"It's 2,100 feet to the closest residential property, which is about half a mile," he said.

A group of business leaders and other stakeholders that was brought together through a grant to the N.C. Coastal Federation has suggested modifications to the SUP, which some have opposed.

On Thursday, the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce's board announced that it had approved the chamber’s 2016 Public Policy Agenda, which includes opposing "efforts that do not streamline the New Hanover County Special Use Permit process."