After their rezoning request was denied by the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, the next step for the owners of 73 acres on Blue Clay Road could be to seek a conditional zoning, officials said Tuesday.

The commissioners voted 2-3 against approval after a public hearing Monday afternoon during which neighbors expressed their opposition to a rezoning from R-20 to the higher-density R-10 category. According to agenda documents, 260 adjoining acres, to the north of the four parcels that make up the 73 acres, are already zoned R-10 and include the Ivy Woods and Runnymead subdivisions. 

Jonathan Barfield, along with commissioner Rob Zapple, were in favor of the rezoning, which would have allowed more housing units.

“Castle Hayne is the least-developed part of our county, and we could do things to spur economic development in that area, whether it be the building of housing, bringing in industry in some of the I-1 and I-2 [industrial zone] areas ... To me, it’s all about jobs and economic development and broadening the tax base here in the county to keep our taxes low,” Barfield said Tuesday.

A site plan is not required for a conventional rezoning, and that led to uncertainty about how a potential developer's plans for the land might fit in with existing subdivisions, said commissioner Beth Dawson, who opposed the request in her vote.

“I am supportive of the highest and best use [of properties]. Being able to have, perhaps, smaller homes or smaller lots with an increased density I think is the way of the future ... ] but the neighborhoods that are out there have a sense of community, and I think it was important to make a decision that would maintain the character of the neighborhood,” Dawson said Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t doubt that it could be a very nice development, but the fact of the matter is, we don’t know.”

Commissioner Woody White, along with commissioner Skip Watkins, also opposed the rezoning. In addition to the potential impact on neighbors, White said, “I was concerned about increasing density at a time when we have considerable demands on our ability to deliver infrastructure.”  

White said he would have preferred a conditional zoning request “where the neighbors would have some idea of what they were looking at.”

While the property owners applying for the rezoning would have to wait a year to resubmit a conventional rezoning request, they could request a conditional zoning, for which a site plan is required, more quickly if that’s what they end up wanting to do, said Cindee Wolf, owner of Design Solutions. Wolf applied for the Blue Clay Road property rezoning request on behalf of owners TF Holdings Lt. Partnership, the heirs of Rachel Trask Gonsalves, and New Beginning Christian Church Inc.

Efforts to reach the potential developer of the property were unsuccessful Tuesday.