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Neighborhood slammed by Florence faces new challenge
Homes in Stoney Creek sit with trash covering the lawn after Hurricane Florence. (Photo: Matt Bennett/WWAY)BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — While one Brunswick County neighborhood still tries to recover from Hurricane Florence, they now have to worry about potential flooding from a new proposed development.
Karen Gaughan and her husband built their house in Stoney Creek Plantation back in 2002. It sits on a cul-de-sac that backs up to the proposed development location.
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“Right now, looking at that, you can’t convince me that that’s not going to impact our area,” said Gaughan.
After seeing their home nearly destroyed during Florence, and now living out of a camper in their driveway, they’re worried a proposed development could make the problem even worse.
“We’re concerned that all of those buildings, the parking areas and so-on and so-forth are taking up even more of the soil that we don’t have in this area and will lead to further flooding,” she said.
Jennifer Benson has lived in the neighborhood since 2011. Her concern is not only for her fellow neighbors, but also future residents of the proposed development.
“I went through all of the town documents, trying to find what the developer is planning to do to mitigate future flooding to the future residents, and there’s no mention of it being in a flood plain,” said Benson.
Plans show that the proposed buildings would sit only a few feet away from the flood zone.
The developer, Bishop Ridge LLC, submitted an application to be annexed into the town of Leland.
If approved, the developer would receive $100,000 when construction is completed, and sewer service from the town of Leland.
The town expects to receive about $80,000 in taxes per year from the development if the deal goes through.
Town of Leland Economic and Community Development director Gary Vidmar says Town Council was going to vote tomorrow, but they pushed that back to November 15 to get more public input.
The developer has not returned our calls.