Plans to build an 88-unit apartment complex in the 2600 block of North College Road will not proceed, according to a public hearing request by College Road Development Partners.

Instead, a self-storage facility is now planned for the North College Road location, according to the request.

A public hearing to revoke a previous rezoning request is scheduled during the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners regular meeting on Sept. 4. A community meeting is also scheduled on Sept. 6 at Northside Church on North College Road.

Rising costs of building materials associated with anticipated changes in the flood zone where the property is located were cited in the request as the reason for the change.

College Road Development Partners, the owner of the 8-acre property near Laney High School, had a market study done to determine other uses for the location.

“The market study indicated that a quality temperature controlled self-storage would be well suited for the property,” the request states.

The hearing request is for the revocation of a special use permit and rezoning that was previously approved for the apartment complex.

The owner of the property wants the zoning to be changed from its current apartment complex rezoning, R-10, back to its initial B-2 and R-15 conditional zoning district to develop a self-storage facility on the property.

Two years since the apartment complex rezoning, there have been no efforts to develop the high-density apartment complex and none will be made "because it is not economically feasible to do so," according to the request.

This was not the owner's first change of plans for the property.

In 2012, the owners had an initial plan for a 120-unit building that included both residential and commercial space. Four years later, those plans were changed to a less intensive 88-unit development made up of three buildings.

New Hanover County approved the rezoning for the 88-unit development in May 2016.

A year later, Cindee Wolf of Design Solutions submitted a request on behalf of College Road Development Partners to rezone the location to a B-2 conditional zoning district for self-storage units.

The rezoning request was recommended for approval by the planning board but was denied by the board of commissioners in April 2017.