Sewer ban close to being lifted

For developer Jeff Stokley, the sewer moratorium in northern New Hanover County has been like pouring money down the drain.

The ban has prevented him from building 150,000 square feet of retail space at Stokley Centre off Market Street, costing him major tenants and hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and lost revenue, he said.

Still Stokley, president of the Wilmington Cape Fear Home Builders Association, sounded upbeat this week, confident he'll soon be building again.

Indeed officials say they are days from finishing $5 million in emergency repairs that are key to lifting the ban.

Work should be substantially complete by Thursday, said Chris Ford, an engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates, the consulting firm overseeing the project.

The finish date is a week later than Horn told city council on Jan. 8, but still two months ahead of the original schedule. "It can't come a day soon enough for our industry," said Donna Girardot, executive director of the homebuilders association.

From July to December, the number of permits issued New Hanover County dropped 7 percent from the same period last year, in part because of the sewer ban, she said.

Once repairs are finished, all eyes will turn to the N.C. Division of Water Quality, the agency that implemented the ban on extensions to the Northeast Interceptor after the 9-mile force main leaked millions of gallons of waste in a series of spills.

Ed Beck, regional supervisor for the water quality division, will tour the repairs today.

The division is responsible for accepting the repairs and lifting the ban, a process that should take about a week after work finishes, Beck said.

The ban arose in stages, but should lift in one fell swoop, he said.

In April 2006, the state implemented a moratorium on sewer extensions in areas served by the Northeast Interceptor, roughly the northeast corner of New Hanover County.

As a result, developers could not build new subdivisions or major commercial developments.

But flow into the troubled main continued to rise, in part, because of on-going construction in areas such as Landfall and Porters Neck, where sewer infrastructure was already in place.

In April 2007, the state cracked the whip again, requiring the city and county to cap flows into the Interceptor.

To avoid an immediate ban on building in the area, officials redirected some of the Interceptor's waste to the Northside treatment plant, which serves downtown Wilmington. The excess load quickly pushed the Northside plant to its capacity.

As a result swaths of northern New Hanover county served by the Northside plant and the Northeast Interceptor have been out of bounds to new construction for months.

Eighty-five projects are in line for permits they can't collect until the problem is resolved, according to the New Hanover County Department of Inspections.

Girardot said lifting the ban will revitalize the industry as the city and county struggle with budget holes caused by mistakes in calculating their tax base, she said.

"It's going to put people into a frenzy," said Dave Spetrino, head of Plantation Building, who has been sitting on plans for about eight single-family homes and 24 apartment units. "We're hoping for the best."

Sam Scott 343-2370

sam.scott@starnewsonline.com