Sprawl-busters in Southport, NC report that the city fathers have voted to approve a satellite annexation of a piece of property that will open the door to a site plan hearing for a proposed Wal-Mart superstore. Opponents to the project gathered 700 signatures on a petition, and have drawn support from more than 30 area merchants. The population of Southport is only 2,500 people. The land in question has a substantial wetlands on it, and borders a waterway, Dutchman’s Creek. There is also a utility company canal bordering the site. The parcel was once used as the trash dump by the city. Wal-Mart plans to create holding ponds on the site, and pump the water into the neaerby creeks. Presumably this is being done to prevent the Wal-Mart from floating away on a site that clearly has wetlands/flooding issues.Perhaps this new store is part of Wal-Mart’s “wet-look” prototype. Two of the six aldermen are apparently already making money off the project: one by surveying the land, another by clearing land for the developer. The two officials, however, did not recuse themselves from the annexation vote. The Aldermen also voted to lift the city’s sewer moratorium on commercial development to speed the way for Wal-Mart.
To find out how you can help stop this project, contact Maria Tilling at [email protected]. A “satellite” annexation, by the way, means the land being annexed is not even contiguous with Southport, but they are skipping over other land to annex this parcel for Wal-Mart. Who says city government can’t be accomodating?
