Keep Trees NC
Our aim is to bring awareness and a voice to citizens who want to preserve and protect as much of our local community and tree-scape as possible for future generations.
Keep Trees NC Wilmington is a grass roots movement to end clear cutting and mature growth canopy cutting in Wilmington, North Carolina. Our mission is to keep original mature-growth tree canopy and wetlands, in the midst of rapid and large-scale development in the Wilmington area.
🚨ACTION ALERT🚨 Our community needs YOU!
We need New Hanover County (NHC) citizens to comment to adoss@nhcgov.com by May 26th in response to the New Hanover County Planning Board fast-tracking an amendment to the Residential Density and Infill Development Guidelines.
You can read the amendment here.
This amendment is vague, lacking specifics and metrics, and is written in developer language. However, it appears to give developers and planners more leeway to develop denser and “higher mixed-use intensity” projects adjacent to existing low density areas and neighborhoods. This will change the appeal and integrity of established neighborhoods, and our community as a whole, in perpetuity. It also conceivably allows for even greater destruction of the green spaces, tree canopy and ecosystems surrounding those neighborhoods.
Nowhere in this amendment do the authors address the consequences of all of the potential negative impacts on existing neighborhoods when previously inappropriate development is now considered appropriate.
These impacts could include:
loss of trees
taller structures
increased noise and lights
increased traffic
school congestion
loss of property values
loss of quality of life.
It states these developments are allowed to be closer to our neighborhoods ‘than what may have been anticipated when those communities were designed’. This shows a total disregard for the residents in those communities. It states that fences, roadways and retention ponds can serve as “transitional buffers" between commercial high-density and neighborhoods, which, obviously, will address none of the impacts listed above
Our community is already deeply concerned about the over-development of our county. Proposing such an amendment is tone-deaf and suggests citizens’ legitimate concerns are irrelevant.
These decisions affect so much of what is important to us. Our voices do matter and we can no longer stand by and do nothing as the destruction of our green space, mature tree canopies, biodiverse ecosystems, and quality of place are bulldozed by overdevelopment and reckless planning.
Please submit your public comment today! adoss@nhcgov.com
Comments must be sent before the May 26th deadline.
Existing local tree protection ordinances may need to be improved, expanded, or properly enforced.
After hearing the upset from so many local residents about rapid tree loss and overdevelopment (and all the negative impacts of that), we decided to stop complaining and start trying to understand how we as a community got to this point (so fast), and how we can change it.
Although, New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington have local tree ordinances and a recent Urban Forestry Master Plan, and many organizations are doing good work to plant and educate about trees (see below), developers may have found a way around our laws.
The word is out. Wilmington is a developer's dream. While many of us live and love the area for its small-town feel, green roadways, nature and outdoor access, development projects are turning our "green scape, into a "grey scape".
Ready to take the next step?
Citizens are in the dark about why clear-cutting and inappropriately sited development is happening. Neighborhood-by-neighborhood, our communities are having to spend so much time and energy fighting for what should be a given, protected trees and green spaces. Its time to get an understanding of what’s going on and how we can preserve our community for the future.
Attend Wilmington City Council and New Hanover County Commissioner Meetings
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New Hanover County Commissioner Meeting Dates
New Hanover County Courthouse, 24 North 3rd St Room 301
Monday, May 6 - 4:00 PM
Monday, May 20 - 9:00 AM
Monday, June 3 - 4:00 PM
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Wilmington City Council Meeting Dates
May 7 6:30-8:30
May 21 6:30-8:30
June 4 6:30-8:30
In the News
Observe most local development projects going up and you can clearly see something is not working. Subcontractors are clearing land and may cut too deep into tree buffers, harm root systems, cut down protected trees and pay a small/token fines for disregard to tree protection laws. Local news outlets are reporting on overdevelopment and the harm it is causing.
Good Work Already Being Done
