Protect Wilmington, N.C. from foolish overdevelopment

12/10/2023

The city of Wilmington has an "environmental planning" page on their website that says they have a team: https://www.wilmingtonnc.gov/departments/planning-development-and-transportation/environmental-planning

But if you contact the planning department and ask to speak to someone on that team, they will stutter and confess that there hasn't been an environmental planning team since Bill Saffo was elected in 2007.

Our Environmental Planning team seeks to integrate natural resource and environmental service benefit protection into planning and development efforts. By evaluating environmental conditions across the city, we can improve availability and access to natural areas and public spaces while fostering su...

10/22/2022

My motivation is tree canopy and the wildlife it supports. I love trees for many reasons and it is soul-shattering for me to see them torn down, especially in this stage of the game on our planet. I think we should know better than to cut down older trees. I didn’t want to do the dirty work to figure out how to keep developers in my neighborhood in check, but I knew if those trees started going down, and I hadn’t tried to do anything, I would deeply regret it. In fact, in October, 2020 I watched the 1 acre, 200+ year forest be leveled in a matter of a few days at Cherry Ave. and 39th Street, and with my heart in my stomach, wished I could have done more. Now, the arguably hideous Elevation Studio apartment sits there. I’m not going to sugar coat it, the work I’ve done has not been that fun and has been pretty inconvenient. But we had some success in our neighborhood.

10/21/2022

Why am I doing this on Facebook?

-To reach a broader audience in Wilmington than just my neighborhood and start a conversation.
-To brainstorm:
*A new way to approach conservation of trees in Wilmington that is fun.
*How to put government officials in their place, as servants, or to minimize their presence and authority.
*How to make citizens so powerful that private companies cannot take advantage on an easy money making scheme any longer.
*If and what boycotting might be effective.

Although tensions in general have become exaggerated on Facebook, the environmental community has seen a lot of success using it to network. So I’m willing to put an egg in this basket, as well as take other action. In my opinion, it matters to protect the quality of life for those of us who already live here, which will benefit future residents. I have experienced that when people speak up, it makes a difference.

10/19/2022

Hi, and welcome! You probably landed here if you share a love for the natural beauty of this city and/or concerns about development in Wilmington. Development is inevitable, but it needs to be smart. What "smart" looks like is as veritable as the person expressing what that looks like to them, and we can use this page to have helpful discourse and exchange about that.

In 2013, the city of Wilmington kicked off the "Create Wilmington" initiative to collect input from residents about a future vision for Wilmington growth and development, but how well did city staff listen, and how well do they listen to our feedback today? Was the "Create Wilmington" initiative (and future initiatives) a smoke screen to display that city staff performs the proper bureaucracy and appears to be listening, when they know they won't use the feedback from citizens, and already have their own plans?

Thank you for your time and efforts to protect where you live and play. I hope to make a small post every day and I encourage participation here!