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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Collector Road Plan Unveiled for Southern Pender

By Megan V. Williams

Wilmington, NC – The proposed collector road plan, developed by the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization, is intended to create links to and between future developments along Pender County's fast-growing southern border.

The idea is to give future residents of Hampstead and Scotts Hill clear connections between their neighborhoods and onto arterial routes like US-17. Existing farm roads already cover many of the planned roads, but regional transportation planner Joshua Mellow says that the county now needs to secure those right-of-ways before development begins.

Mellow points to River Road, and the controversy over links to new developments, as what happens when an area doesn't plan ahead. People don't want to see these connections to River Road, Mellow said, because the connections would be to local streets.

Planned connections in Pender County would be bike and pedestrian friendly - a priority Mellow says the public voiced at earlier meetings - but these higher traffic streets would not have houses along them.

To sweeten the pot for developers, Mellow says the plan would exclude collector streets from density calculations, so that they wouldn't lose any land when it comes to the profitability of the project.

The public is invited to view the plan at tonight's open house from 5 to 7pm at Topsail High School. *****

More information about Tuesday's open house