Just beyond a wooded area that marks Paws Place Dog Rescue’s east-facing property line, signs of neighbors to come dot the horizon.
Rooftops of two-story houses in various stages of construction peek over treetops in a new development cropping up on one side of the rescue’s land in Winnabow, an unincorporated area along U.S. Highway 17 in Brunswick County.
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On a recent May afternoon, Paws Place President Lee VanOrmer looked in the direction from where the steady sounds of building filled the air and mustered up her best, glass-half-full shot of optimism.
“That’s more families that can come here and adopt dogs,” she said.
The reality is that the new neighborhood, like so much of the seemingly endless development occurring in Brunswick County, is not one welcomed by existing residents worried that too much building, too fast, is creating problems.
Here in North Carolina’s southernmost coastal county, it’s not uncommon to read local news stories about mounting traffic-related issues, concerns about flooding exacerbated by stormwater runoff and human run-ins with alligators being squeezed out of the once-secluded areas they prefer.
And, by all indications, development here is not going to slow down.
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Years of building to come
Since June 1, 2015, the county has approved 123 developments that call for the construction of more than 45,900 housing units, according to information provided on Brunswick County Planning and Community Enforcement’s website.
Only 13 of those developments are 100% complete. Construction of residences in more than half – 75 to be exact – has not begun.
“It is so much,” Brunswick County resident Christie Marek said. “When I started this I didn’t realize how much I was getting into. It’s like the more you try to change something you learn that we’re several years behind homebuilders. It’s like they almost planned on this.”
Marek founded Brunswick County Conservation Partnership, a nonprofit born out of a coalition of residents concerned about their county’s future. The aim of the partnership is to protect Brunswick’s natural resources and advocate for “responsible” development.
That can look like any variety of measures, be it creating wider buffers between a new development and wetlands or adjacent properties, limiting clearcutting, or implementing stormwater mitigation plans to ultimately keep runoff from flowing into and polluting streams and rivers, Marek said.
Marek lives in Ash, a rural, largely agricultural, unincorporated area along N.C. Highway 130 that she refers to as “the country side of the beach.”
“We don’t have a lot of growth out here,” Marek said.
So, when builders asked the county to approve a sprawling, multiuse development of thousands of homes and commercial space next to her small family farm, she took notice.
County officials in March 2024 approved Ashton Farms, a development that will include more than 2,700 single-family lots, 200 townhome lots and a little more than 20 acres of commercial space.
Early this year, the county planning board approved the 645-acre King Tract, an 1,800-home development through farm and forestland adjacent to Ashton Farms.
Residents persistently raised concerns about potential impacts these developments may have on what equate to hundreds of acres of wetlands in the area.
Months before the King Tract was approved, Marek began asking county leaders to adopt a temporary building moratorium.
“I would love to see a moratorium to just halt development until we get a flood study done and wildlife study done,” she said.
Brunswick County commissioners in a split vote last fall turned down that idea.
The county later posted an explanation on its website that local governments are barred from adopting temporary building moratoria.
“State law provides little to no ability for local governments to issue temporary moratoria on development projects within their jurisdiction,” the website states. “This aspect of state law is important to keep in mind whenever the County receives questions or suggestions to put a moratorium on residential development due to reasons like amending the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) or writing or updating plans.”
The website goes on to explain that proposed developments undergo “a thorough review process” and that impacts to infrastructure and water and wastewater systems are addressed before proposals go to the county planning board.
Several projects are either under construction or planned to expand capacity at wastewater treatment plants and the county has “dedicated significant time and resources” to updating its 20-year water and sewer master plans and five-year capital improvement plan, according to the county.
Brunswick County Conservation Partnership has applied for a $1 million grant to study the potential effects, including flooding, overdevelopment in the area may have on everything from wildlife to wetlands to trees.
But as the federal government guts grant programs, Marek said she’s not counting on those funds to come through. The partnership late last year launched an online donation campaign to raise funds to cover the cost of the study.
“It’s not that we want to stop all development,” Marek said. “It’s stopping irresponsible development and that’s what’s going on here.”
Wetter ground
There’s a patch of marsh on the grounds of where Paws Place Dog Rescue has operated the last eight years.
“We could count in the summer on it being dry,” VanOrmer said.
That’s no longer the case.
The kennel where dogs are housed in a sprawling building that sits at the end of a gravel road stretching hundreds of yards off N.C. Highway 87 is on 17 acres classified as being of minimal flood risk.
Yet, since the no-kill shelter opened in spring 2017, flooding and the threat of it has been on the uptick. VanOrmer is convinced that is due, at least in part, to encroaching development, despite assurances from officials that developers have to comply with the county’s stormwater management and discharge control ordinance.
Unprecedented rainfall from two coastal storms that swept the area within the span of less than a decade caused historic flooding.
Paws Place’s 7,000-square-foot building was inundated with 3 feet of water following Hurricane Florence’s record rainfall in September 2018.
U.S. National Guard troops were called in to help evacuate the kennel’s inhabitants at the time to dry ground at a local gas station.
Last September, Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight, more commonly referred to in these parts as the “unnamed storm,” dumped more than 20 inches of rain, destroying dozens of homes, washing out roads and causing millions of dollars in damages.
“We had water come up to the door and we used dog food to keep the water out,” VanOrmer said.
But the two people who rode out the storm at the kennel were trapped by floodwaters that cut off the entrance to the property.
The unnamed storm amplified to the rescue’s board of directors the need for an on-site storm shelter, one a quick walk from the kennel that, as of May 20, housed some 35 dogs.
The rescue had just enough money to pay a contractor to pour an elevated concrete slab that will be the base of the storm shelter.
Now the rescue is racing to raise enough money to finish the shelter, the ground level of which will house lawn equipment and a van. Walls of the second level, which will be climate controlled, will be lined with crates ready for dogs that get moved from the main building during storms.
“Really, the situation has become, we need an evacuation-type scenario,” VanOrmer said.
She said $95,000 in pledges have been made to the rescue, closing in on its $150,000 goal. VanOrmer said she hopes construction will begin in early June with the building being finished before September.
Next door, homes will likely continue to be erected in the new neighborhood of Saltgrass Landing, plans of which call for nearly 260 residences.
Another large housing development is planned adjacent the Paws Place property across Town Creek, which winds to the Cape Fear River.
“Unfortunately, we can’t seem to stop development,” VanOrmer said.
