NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Castle Hayne is one step closer to getting a bottle shop following the county’s planning board meeting.
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A plot of land up for conditional rezoning was unanimously approved by the New Hanover County Planning Board on Thursday, Dec. 5, after a lengthy discussion about the shop’s planned location near a residential area.
The property on 5406 Castle Hayne Road is owned by applicant Douglas Brandon Paluck with P&P Enterprises. The lot has an old house from the 1940s, a 250-year-old oak tree in the front yard, and a shed out back. Paluck plans to renovate the decades-old house into a bottle shop with putt putt, cornhole, and acoustic live music, with locally-made art for sale.
“No liquor, no late nights, family-friendly, no later than 10 p.m,” Paluck told the planning board.
The shop’s proposed hours include weekdays from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 8 p.m. Paluck also said the live music will have no bass and no drums, to be mindful of noise levels for nearby neighbors; music will be set up outdoors on the back porch.
Paluck proposed that the 0.82-acre parcel, currently zoned as residential district (R-15), be divided and partially rezone almost half of the acres to regional business district (B-2). The former allows residential housing only, and the latter allows for commercial businesses. Because the former house will be operating as a retail bottle shop, the zoning has to allow for commercial use.
The adjacent parcel, a commercial zone, contains Myer’s Attic, a consignment shop also owned by Paluck. Paluck’s personal house is partially in both zones — between Myer’s Attic and the future bottle shop — because the houses were built before zoning.
Thus, the partial rezoning keeps Paluck’s house primarily in a residential zone, while having the necessary commercial zoning to open the bottle shop.
“It’s so difficult from the zoning from 1985,” he said.
Donna Rivera, who lives behind the property on Blossom Street, spoke during public comment and described the area as a “quiet, peaceful neighborhood” potentially disrupted by the bottle shop.
“I don’t know why he would buy into residential and try to flip it,” Rivera said. “I don’t think it’s fair at all. I’m totally against it.”
Denise Garner, another public commenter, who lives several houses down on Castle Hayne Road, shared the sentiment.
“My porch is facing where this will go,” she said. “When I get home, I like when it’s quiet. And it is quiet in the area.”
Garner explained she doesn’t want lights shining onto her porch while she’s sitting outside or noise at night when she’s trying to sleep.
“I just wish it was somewhere else other than that close to me,” she said.
The site is surrounded by a mix of residential and commercial use properties, with several restaurants and businesses less than a mile away in Castle Hayne. However, the 2016 Comprehensive Plan for New Hanover County designates the property as community mixed use, which allows retail, so the rezoning is within the growth vision for the area.
The board thought the idea for a bottle shop was good for the community, but spent almost an hour deliberating how they could appease the neighbors’ worries.
“What I don’t want to do is overregulate to where we kill your business,” board member Cameron Moore said.
The board requested outdoor activities and sound amplification end at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. as recommended by the board of adjustment, to help with the noise concerns, to which Paluck agreed.
Paluck went before the BOA in November, where the board also recommended there be no exterior light poles with light fixtures and a fence at least 6 feet tall be installed around the property line.
At the planning board meeting, Paluck offered to keep lighting to a minimum in addition to the BOA’s condition, only having what’s necessary for parking and in compliance with the UDO.
Paluck plans to have Edison bulb hanging lights for outdoor activities and said he can agree to lights-out at 10 p.m.
“I think that, in and of itself, takes care of 90% of the potential problem that would be casting light towards neighbors,” board member Kevin Hine said.
The board also requested a 10-foot-wide opaque vegetation buffer along the back side of the property, facing the street to act as a light and sound barrier for Blossom Street residents. The area, called a street yard, is required to have one canopy tree and six shrubs per every 600 square feet, but opacity isn’t a requirement. Paluck agreed to treat the street yard as a transitional buffer, which does require opacity.
Paluck has already put up an 8-foot-high wooden fence around the backyard perimeter facing Blossom following the BOA’s conditions; a vegetation buffer will go inside of it. The fence will also extend around both sides of the property where there will be two more transitional buffers on the property lines between Paluck’s home and Myer’s Attic.
The bottle shop will only be accessible from Castle Hayne Road to mitigate traffic off Blossom Street, per conditions set by the board of adjustment.
“I also had a request,” Paluck said, “about getting the street — Blossom — reduced from 35, and I did that. I requested the DOT and got 25 miles-per-hour back there now.”
There will be “no parking” signs on Blossom Street to usher people toward the entrance of the bottle shop, outfitted with eight gravel parking spaces, 15 grass spots and 12 more at Myer’s Attic, the latter open after 5 p.m.
The board asked Garner and Rivera if his conditions inclined them more toward supporting the project.
“I would be all good if they did the lighting and the sound barrier,” Garner said.
Rivera was less easily swayed.
“I’d like to know what happens when he doesn’t abide by it? What do we do if he doesn’t do it?” she questioned.
“I can tell my daughter not to speed, but then she speeds and gets a ticket, and so it’s some of the same things,” Moore responded. “There’s things we can control and things we can’t control, and this is one of those things, to be honest. We hear you, but there’s a limit of what we can control after the fact.”
“Basically, you would have to complain,” board member Clark Hipp chimed in.
“Well, if he could make it nine o’clock, I would have a better time with it,” Rivera conceded.
Next, the project will be headed to the county Board of Commissioners for final approval.
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