Developers plan to start selling lots by this fall in a gated neighborhood coming to South College Road.

Whiskey Branch is expected to include more than 150 houses and townhomes on land between South College Road and Navaho Trail that's owned by the Cameron family.

A preliminary site plan for the development, which had initially included 170 residential units, was approved in October.

The project was downsized in March, and in June, the development partnership known as Whiskey-Navajo Partners asked to have the planned road network changed from public to private because of technical issues with the N.C. Department of Transportation, along with the installation of three gates.

In June, New Hanover County's Technical Review Committee approved the request to make the roads private but denied the gate installation. The county's legal staff, however, said the basis for the denial, which was related to interconnectivity rules, was incorrect.

After another TRC meeting this week, developers got the green light to install gates. Whiskey Branch is expected to help meet the demand of buyers who are currently shopping for homes in the Wilmington area, said Shawn Horton, one of the developers and owner of Leland-based Trusst Builder Group.

Horton's company has also been building homes in The Forks at Barclay, a neighborhood of single-family houses and townhomes on 17th Street, where only eight lots are left, he said.

"The Forks is very successful, and we aim to do a lot of the same things [at Whiskey Branch] that the market's responded to favorably at The Forks but use what we've learned and improve upon it," Horton said.

Selling is expected to begin around Labor Day, which is Sept. 4 this year.

"It's rare to find a piece of land that's this nice and this well-located," Horton said.