The city planning staff is recommending some changes to rules governing Wilmington’s Urban Mixed Use zoning district.
The proposed amendment to the UMX classification would, among other changes, allow greater flexibility for building height increases; add three prohibited uses; and factor in building and site design tweaks. The Wilmington Planning Commission will consider the proposal at its meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 102 N. Third St.
The UMX district was adopted by the City Council in 2013 and amended in 2014 to apply to certain pieces of property outside of the city’s 1945 corporate limits.
Among the reasons for the most recent proposed changes are feedback on the existing standards from developers and community members and to align the UMX regulations to with the city’s newly adopted Comprehensive Plan, said Christine Hughes, senior city planner.
“What we’ve found is we’re not necessarily getting the height increases where it’s most appropriate because we tied it to a street type,” said Hughes. “We’re proposing to remove that street type requirement.”
For example, In the proposal, the minimum height of buildings is 25 feet, a new addition to the UMX regulations, while the maximum is still four stories or 45 feet; however, the line regarding the maximum has been changed to take out “along arterial streets.”
The height still may be increased to 75 feet with a special use permit, but again the phrase “along arterial streets” has been removed in the proposed amendment. The rule, “Along residential and collector streets, building height shall not exceed” 35 feet or two stories, has been removed altogether in the recommendations.
Stand-alone commercial parking lots, contractor storage yards and fuel pump islands would be added to UMX’s prohibited uses.
“We found that they just really can’t truly work within that urban context,” Hughes said.
The main purpose of some design changes in the proposal is to make projects more pedestrian-friendly, she said.
“We really are trying to make it easier to redevelop and to infill. We don’t have a lot of vacant land left, and we know that density and mixed use doesn’t belong everywhere in the city, but that there are really good places that it does belong,” Hughes said. “That’s probably what we’ll be doing for the next several years, try to make that easier and encourage people to infill and redevelop where we have those opportunities.”
Some redevelopment is already taking place in UMX areas. For example, a rezoning of property from light industrial to UMX at 1510 S. Third Street helped pave the way for the second phase of South Front Apartments. City officials and the developer, Tribute Companies, consider the first phase a successful redevelopment of what was abandoned public housing.
South Front Apartments Phase II is currently under construction, with 10 two-bedroom apartments with car ports already framed, said Mark Maynard Jr. of Tribute Companies, on Monday. The project will ultimately include 54 apartments and 3,700 square feet of commercial space.
The property is nearly contiguous with the city's 1945 corporate limits, and its zoning change to UMX “worked for that specific project and gave us the flexibility to do the project we wanted to do there,” Maynard said.
