The Wilmington Board of Adjustment held a special meeting on May 28, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers. The board considered two variance requests and updated its Rules of Procedure. All votes were handled as separate items.
I'd like to call the May twenty-eighth Board of Adjustment meeting to order. I'll read the Board of Adjustment Introduction. Hearings before the Board of Adjustment are quasi-judicial in nature. Decisions of the board are based on the record of these proceedings. To grant a variance requires a concurrent vote of four-fifths of the members of the board. To reverse or modify the determination of an administrative official requires a simple majority. Evidence submitted to the board for review becomes part of the record. Appeals of board decisions are to Superior Court and are based on the record. Appeals must be filed within thirty days of the date of the filing of the board's order in the planning division. State your name and address and speak clearly. Opposed. Food services, little Caesars and Banking, Wells Fargo to the west, and food services again, Bojangles to the east. Property to the north is a residential site, formerly a multifamily development, and currently under review for a new multifamily project with the city. Here you have an aerial view of the subject properties. Some additional views of the properties, the access easement for tree removal to the left and the current building on site as viewed from South College Road. Here we have the site plan showing the tree to be removed, which is a 32-inch long leaf pine, and the 138-foot setback, which is a reduction of 62 feet from the 200 foot requirement of a setback from a drive-through facility at a commercial restaurant or drive-through facility. Staff has reviewed this through the TRC on December 3rd of 2024, as well as on December 4th of 2025. Subsequently, on February 5th, we had a separate meeting to review the deficiencies in the site plan and the requested variances that would need to be achieved in order to build this site. On April 7th of this year, the applicant submitted a request for a variance to the city codes. A second variance request from section 18 205 drive-thru facilities, which requires a 200 foot setback from any residential district. Currently, the MD district to the north is defined as a residential district within the current LDC. The applicant has uh chosen a location for his structure drive-thru within the 200 feet and is requesting a variance of 62 feet or 138 foot setback. The applicant asserts in their application that the proposed drive-thru facility facilitates mobile order pickup and thus reduces noise common of a traditional drive-through facility as we normally see. Should the board choose to grant the proposed variances, staff recommends the following conditions uh that dumpsters not be located between the public right-of-way and any building or canopy, and that tree mitigation be done in accordance with the land development code. This concludes my presentation. I'd like to submit my presentation into the record. And here you'll see the findings of facts and the specific waiver requests. Thank you. Any questions for staff? Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Robert Michael. Um question can you describe for us a little bit more in detail what the uh mitigation requirements might entail? Sure. Thank you. So it is uh man, my mind's flaking me right now. What is the mitigation requirement? My mind's blaking. It's two for every for 32-inch long leaf pine, it's going to be uh multiplied times two. So you'd end up with 64 inches of mitigation multiplied again by uh 175 to get your mitigation cost. All right, thank you very much. Anything further for staff? Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh I would like to present. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Sam Frank. I represent the applicant. Several folks with me here today.