WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners discussed temporarily removing the hourly fee at the county parking deck and will soon discuss rezoning for a business park and other items at a meeting on Monday, Feb. 5.

The board did not advance a motion for a waiver of the hourly parking fee at the county’s parking deck while the lanes of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge are closed for the preservation project.

If it had been approved, it would have been free starting on Feb. 7 and ending alongside the scheduled completion of the work on May 23. In case of any delays, it would have remained in effect until July 23.

Commissioners are set to look at a proposal for a business park with a restaurant, gas station, offices, a parking lot and more on 7.28 acres at Carolina Beach Road near the Seabreeze neighborhood.

To allow for the development, the developer is asking for the land to be rezoned from R-15 residential to (CZD) CB community business. The current zoning was set in 1971 to make sure that houses served by private septic and wells would be built at low densities, but this is no longer necessary due to water and sewer service expansions.

“The parcels are located within the historical Seabreeze neighborhood. Established in the mid-1920s ′s, the area was a prime vacation resort for African Americans within southeastern North Carolina from the 1930s through the 1950s,” the request for board action states.

Board members approved a resolution that was added to the agenda based on a request by Commissioner Dane Scalise at the last meeting.

The resolution asserts that the commissioners want the school board to keep offering the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley and to not create a newcomers school.

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