Southport board OKs land offer to NC Wildlife Commission

More than 400 acres in Southport will be permanently conserved if the state follows through with buying the land.

The Southport Board of Aldermen in a 4-2 vote last week gave the interim city manager the green light to offer the land to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission for a little more than $637,000.

Part of the sale agreement, city leaders emphasized, requires that the state place the land in conservation in perpetuity.

An Oct. 10, 2022, letter from a wildlife commission official to the board indicating the agency’s ongoing interest in the land stated the commission’s desire, “with the hope of protecting the property’s significant conservation value in perpetuity.”

Interim City Manager Bonnie Therrien explained during the board’s March 14 meeting that wildlife commission officials were waiting to receive final approval from its funders before signing off on the sale. Funding is provided through the N.C. Land and Water Fund, state Attorney General’s Office Environmental Enhancement Grant Program, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Program.

The wait is over whether the funders will give the OK for a 5-acre sliver of land that would adjoin the property but remain under local government ownership be the site of a future county-built water tower.

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point officials are also looking at the proposed water tower site to determine whether such a structure would be appropriate on land that is within the Army ammunition port’s blast zone

At the time of the meeting, the city was waiting to hear back from federal government officials, Therrien said.

The city’s offer officially provides the state wildlife commission an opportunity to buy the land it initially expressed an interest in purchasing four years ago.

The commission received funding in late 2021 to buy the land, an area wildlife officials say is ecologically important because it supports both federal- and state-listed species, including federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and state-listed species of amphibians.

Because of its proximity to 16,000-acre ammunition port, the largest in the country, the federal government prohibits the land from being developed.

Two years ago, a commercial construction firm offered to buy or lease no fewer than 50 acres from the city to mine clay-like material and use the earth to build up eroded berms buffering ammunition and explosive areas within the Army installation.

The wildlife commission returned to the city to remind aldermen of its request to buy the land in hopes of expanding the game land footprint in the area. The property is adjacent to the state’s Green Swamp Game Land.

Before aldermen cast their votes, Southport resident Tom Veale praised the board’s intent to sell the land to the state.

“That’s a great thing and it’ll benefit everybody for generations to come having that as green space,” Veale said, noting that he represented a group of 300 members of a group who opposed mining on the land.

The city bought a majority of the little more than 440-acre tract in 2005 with plans to use it as a spray irrigation site for a new sewer plant. Southport officials eventually opted out of building a plant, instead deciding to merge the city’s water and sewer with Brunswick county.

The wildlife commission initially made an offer of $660,000 for the land, but the city trimmed the final asking cost because the sale includes about 426 acres. In addition to the 5 acres the county wants to set aside, Southport wants to keep 10 acres to use as a debris-disposal site and training area for the city’s fire department.

The city’s sale agreement will now go to the Southport Planning Board for review and recommendation. The planning board’s recommendation will go back to the board of aldermen for a final vote.