Ban on building lifted by state

The New Hanover County building ban is over.

Officials with the city of Wilmington announced Thursday afternoon that the state had accepted its emergency repairs to the Northeast Interceptor, a 9-mile force main with a history of leaking sewage into area waterways.

The N.C. Division of Water Quality cracked the whip last spring, capping new flow into the pipeline after growing frustrated with the local response to the problem.

As a result, much of northern New Hanover County has been off-limits to new building in some cases, since last June.

Wilmington spokeswoman Malissa Talbert said the city received a fax lifting the ban at 2:59 p.m. It was signed by Coleen Sullins, director of the N.C. Division of Water Quality.

"It just couldn't have come soon enough," said Donna Girardot, executive director of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association.

"Our economy suffers when we're not building."

The city spent more than $6 million on the repairs, which involved replacing or renovating stretches of pipeline off Greenville Loop Road and Pine Grove Drive, as well as upgrades to pump stations at Hewletts Creek and Bradley Creek. Extensive cleanup work remains.

More than 100 construction projects have piled up at the New Hanover County Inspections office during the ban with developers unable to get building permits.

Many other projects have remained in the hands of builders who didn't want to pay application fees while the ban was ongoing, said Jay Graham, county director of inspections.

He said his employees will be ready to get back to business.

"We have everyone geared up and ready to go," he said.

Still Graham has previously said he has not seen many developers chomping at the bit for the moratorium to lift, suggesting that some builders may have been happy to sit out a slow market.

But Jeff Stokley, president of the builders association, said that he was delighted by the news and was planning to immediately try to sign tenants for Stokley Centre, which is anchored by Costco.

He said he is a year behind schedule building 150,000 square feet of additional retail space for the center off Market Street and College Road because of the ban.

"We are very happy," he said.

City officials had hoped to finish the work by January, but problems pushed the deadline back. Still they said it was done sooner than the April finish originally expected.

Sam Scott:343-2370

sam.scott@starnewsonline.com