Post by ozzy on Mar 18, 2007 6:04:09 GMT
Back in August, this article was posted in a local newspaper.
I know that this is an area that has plenty of cp's even though I had yet to search the area myself. This was a perfect reason to plan a trip. So on my next day off I packed my equipment and headed to the area.
When I first got there I saw that the side of the road where I think the first stage will take place was not a good site for cp's. It looks to be farm land.
On the opposite side of the road, there was a sign that said something about the sheriffs dept and Oak Island police are monitoring the site to prevent trespassing. No unauthorized vehicles. So I walked a little farther down the road and entered the woods where there were no signs. 100ft from the road I spotted the first cp. A D.intermedia, or is it a D.capillaris trying to be a D.intermedia?
A plantlet on the flower stalk.
The black thing in this next pic is a pollution barrier that construction sites have to have around wetlands.
You can't see it here but there is a path that was cut into the woods.
In this pic you can see the path better.
Along this path where there are wet spots, where more sundews are growing.
This cut path, goes into a very dark wooded area. In this area, across the path there were a lot of spiders.
This is the strangest spider I have ever seen. It seam to have swept back wings. It almost looked like a jet. On closer look the wings were thorns.
The next spider was very big. You can't tell by the first pic. On the second I put my hand next to it to show it's size.
This path opens up into a classic pine savanna. Prime cp land.
I know there was some cp's in this area, I could just feel it. The hard part was finding them. The savanna borders the main road. So I walked up to the road to look in the ditches.
I saw a cardboard box and I can't resist the urge to see if there was a snake under it. I picked it up and this venomous creature popped out.
There was also a male black widow that crawled away as soon as I picked the box up. I probably saved him from being eaten.
I walked all the way across the savanna without seeing any cp's.
There was a cut path about 20 feet wide that made it's way behind the pine savanna so I continued on the path.
I came up on a big clump of dried spagnum.
Apparently, they have also done some draining here too.
All down this path I found clump after clump of dried sphagnum.
Off to the side I saw a little path leading to a wet sunny area. When I got to it I could feel that the ground was soft. I was on a bed of pure peat. With my size 13 boots the ground had no problem holding me up. My snake hook is 5 ft long and it sunk right into the peat.. Take a look at these two pics.
I stuck the hook all the way down into the ground without any trouble at all. All but about a foot of it was in the ground. I could have stuck it farther but I wanted to be able to pull it back up. Just imagine how much rain this areas holds. With the ground at least 4ft of peat, this area soaks up millions and millions of gallons. If they pave over this area, we lose that buffer and there will be major flooding the next time we have multi hurricanes.
On farther down the path, the woods open up.
By looking at the land features I realize that I must be on the rim of a Carolina bay. CP's are known to grow in and around these bays. I start looking around and I find sundew after sundew.
Notice the white sand. This area seems to be very dry. The only cp that would even attempt to grow here is D.brevfolia. This white sand is a classic marker of a carolina bay. So what ever created this white sand also created the bays.
The cut path goes farther but I had to make it back to my van and I was getting really tired. It was a hot August day with temputures in the mid 90s with humidity of 100%. 'So I headed back the way I came. When I got to the pine savanna, I decided to take a different path, hoping to find something. I was walking near the road and I saw this sign from the back
I start walking back towards the cut path and just behind this sign here's what I saw.
I knew there was some nice cp's here. I was within 20 ft of these vfts when I walked through this area the first time. And when I found them they seemed to be everywhere.
Unfortunatly I didn't find any pitcher plants, but they are probably here somewhere. Every marker plant was there. It was the right conditions for them but I guess I'll have to do some more searching.
This land is for sale. I don't know how long these plants will be here.
-
So long, rural byways
By Paul R. Jefferson
Staff Writer
It's all about the traffic. And some developers are betting that a new bridge and thousands of new homes will create just the kind they need.
Around the intersection of ##### Road and N.C. 000, the seeds are being planted for a retail mecca bigger than any existing commercial centers in Brunswick County.
Where a convenience store best known as "Worms and Coffee" now stands alone, a trio of shopping centers will soon rise, with a combined area of 150 acres and commercial space totaling almost 870,000 square feet. It will be more spread out but almost as big as Westfield Independence mall, which has 1.1 million square feet of store space.
The ##### Road/N.C. 000 corridor, for a long time a stretch of roadway identified more for an absence of residential or commercial development, has become the hottest spot on county Planning Department maps.
The near-coast area is rapidly getting filled up, said Helen Evans Bunch, Brunswick County zoning administrator.
Spurring the developments are the road's location and its role as the transit point for future traffic from the second Oak Island bridge, scheduled to be built by 2010.
At #### Road, nearly all of the surrounding land on either side of N.C. 000 has been rezoned from rural residential to commercial use. "All of the land has been rezoned, but not all have projects on them," Bunch said. "And all of them are mixed-use projects," combining residential with retail and commercial projects.
In the past two and a half years, she said, the county has approved 13,004 homes for the N.C. 000 corridor - more than a third of the total 35,606 approved for the unincorporated areas of the county.
Motor vehicle traffic is expected to grow exponentially there as new residents move in and the new bridge provides access to the county's largest town.
Three large commercial developments are converging to serve as anchors at the ##### Road/N.C.000 junction. Both the planned Midway Landing commercial development, comprising 13.1 acres on the intersection's northeast quadrant, and the 98-acre Midway Station site on the southwest quadrant were approved by county planners in November, though no construction has begun.
In mid-June, Lowes Foods announced plans to build a retail and business center on 39 acres of the northwest quadrant, directly behind the Midway Trading Post, aka "Worms and Coffee."
The Lowes project will include 80,000 square feet of retail space, and an additional 80,000 square feet of leased space for additional stores or medical offices. The supermarket, the third Lowes in the county, is expected to be open in 2009, said company spokeswoman Dianne Blancato.
"Since the project is in its initial stages, we do not know who the other tenants will be at this point," she said. "It is possible that some of the retail space could be leased to companies that operate in other Lowes Foods shopping centers.... We anticipate we will begin marketing the space in October."
According to Planning Department documents, Midway Landing will include four buildings up to 40 feet tall fronting both ##### Road and N.C. 000. The project developer is listed as William Batuyious.
Midway Station, across the way, will have more room for retailers, with 11 buildings planned for the site. Tom Young is listed as the land's owner.
Midway Station is the largest commercial development approved to date in an unincorporated area of the county, Bunch said.
Dan Weeks, a land planner and landscape architect from HadenStanziale in Wilmington, represents the developers on both sides of N.C. 000.
With 98 acres to work with, the Midway Station property is more than double the size of Westfield Independence mall, which covers 44.2 acres in the middle of Wilmington.
"We see a hotel site, a professional/medical office, retail and home improvement," he said.
Weeks said construction of the commercial centers would take from 2006 until 2012 or perhaps longer, depending on factors such as the pace of residential growth and road improvements. Across the road, the smaller commercial project could house a grocery store, a drugstore with a drive-through window and a bank branch, among other things, Weeks said.
For comparison purposes, at 13.1 acres, Midway Landing is roughly the size of the Hanover Center, across from Westfield Independence mall.
Karen Sphar, executive director of the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce, said the new retail projects bode well for the area, promising to cut down on drive times for current and new residents.
She said the chamber has a minor role in recruiting retailers to populate the shopping centers.
"We do provide information to companies looking for relocation. What happens is they go out and solicit for the anchor store. If they need data on types of businesses and where they are located, we give it to them. Or they ask people on our board what they might like to see. Most of the time, they come in and don't identify themselves with any particular firm and do a lot of work on what type of businesses are in the area," Sphar said.
The head of the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce in Shallotte, Mitzi York, said shopping centers are an expected offshoot of the residential boom along N.C. 000.
York said the ##### Road retail sites will add a third or fourth major commercial center to the growing county, joining the Leland area, with a new Wal-Mart center on the way; Shallotte, with a Belk store anchoring its main shopping plaza; and the Southport-Oak Island market.
She said optimism over the economic growth is tempered by concern about increased traffic.
"Everybody knows that we should be concerned. There will be a lot of impact on 000. Transportation and infrastructure improvements will be a big part of what's to come, especially with the new state port also coming in," York said. "It will be important for it to be done right."
Shelley Lesher, mayor of St. James, said that while she and other St. James residents look forward to commercial development, the proposed ##### Road projects are in the St. James Fire District and would increase the coverage area.
At planning hearings last fall, she originally wanted planners to delay the retail projects until improvements were made to beef up the number of fire hydrants. Only two hydrants, widely spaced, are currently located in the area.
Unless developers contribute money to build another fire substation, the shopping centers would put too much demand on the fire departments from St. James, Sunset Harbor/Zion Hill and Bolivia, she said.
By Paul R. Jefferson
Staff Writer
It's all about the traffic. And some developers are betting that a new bridge and thousands of new homes will create just the kind they need.
Around the intersection of ##### Road and N.C. 000, the seeds are being planted for a retail mecca bigger than any existing commercial centers in Brunswick County.
Where a convenience store best known as "Worms and Coffee" now stands alone, a trio of shopping centers will soon rise, with a combined area of 150 acres and commercial space totaling almost 870,000 square feet. It will be more spread out but almost as big as Westfield Independence mall, which has 1.1 million square feet of store space.
The ##### Road/N.C. 000 corridor, for a long time a stretch of roadway identified more for an absence of residential or commercial development, has become the hottest spot on county Planning Department maps.
The near-coast area is rapidly getting filled up, said Helen Evans Bunch, Brunswick County zoning administrator.
Spurring the developments are the road's location and its role as the transit point for future traffic from the second Oak Island bridge, scheduled to be built by 2010.
At #### Road, nearly all of the surrounding land on either side of N.C. 000 has been rezoned from rural residential to commercial use. "All of the land has been rezoned, but not all have projects on them," Bunch said. "And all of them are mixed-use projects," combining residential with retail and commercial projects.
In the past two and a half years, she said, the county has approved 13,004 homes for the N.C. 000 corridor - more than a third of the total 35,606 approved for the unincorporated areas of the county.
Motor vehicle traffic is expected to grow exponentially there as new residents move in and the new bridge provides access to the county's largest town.
Three large commercial developments are converging to serve as anchors at the ##### Road/N.C.000 junction. Both the planned Midway Landing commercial development, comprising 13.1 acres on the intersection's northeast quadrant, and the 98-acre Midway Station site on the southwest quadrant were approved by county planners in November, though no construction has begun.
In mid-June, Lowes Foods announced plans to build a retail and business center on 39 acres of the northwest quadrant, directly behind the Midway Trading Post, aka "Worms and Coffee."
The Lowes project will include 80,000 square feet of retail space, and an additional 80,000 square feet of leased space for additional stores or medical offices. The supermarket, the third Lowes in the county, is expected to be open in 2009, said company spokeswoman Dianne Blancato.
"Since the project is in its initial stages, we do not know who the other tenants will be at this point," she said. "It is possible that some of the retail space could be leased to companies that operate in other Lowes Foods shopping centers.... We anticipate we will begin marketing the space in October."
According to Planning Department documents, Midway Landing will include four buildings up to 40 feet tall fronting both ##### Road and N.C. 000. The project developer is listed as William Batuyious.
Midway Station, across the way, will have more room for retailers, with 11 buildings planned for the site. Tom Young is listed as the land's owner.
Midway Station is the largest commercial development approved to date in an unincorporated area of the county, Bunch said.
Dan Weeks, a land planner and landscape architect from HadenStanziale in Wilmington, represents the developers on both sides of N.C. 000.
With 98 acres to work with, the Midway Station property is more than double the size of Westfield Independence mall, which covers 44.2 acres in the middle of Wilmington.
"We see a hotel site, a professional/medical office, retail and home improvement," he said.
Weeks said construction of the commercial centers would take from 2006 until 2012 or perhaps longer, depending on factors such as the pace of residential growth and road improvements. Across the road, the smaller commercial project could house a grocery store, a drugstore with a drive-through window and a bank branch, among other things, Weeks said.
For comparison purposes, at 13.1 acres, Midway Landing is roughly the size of the Hanover Center, across from Westfield Independence mall.
Karen Sphar, executive director of the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce, said the new retail projects bode well for the area, promising to cut down on drive times for current and new residents.
She said the chamber has a minor role in recruiting retailers to populate the shopping centers.
"We do provide information to companies looking for relocation. What happens is they go out and solicit for the anchor store. If they need data on types of businesses and where they are located, we give it to them. Or they ask people on our board what they might like to see. Most of the time, they come in and don't identify themselves with any particular firm and do a lot of work on what type of businesses are in the area," Sphar said.
The head of the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce in Shallotte, Mitzi York, said shopping centers are an expected offshoot of the residential boom along N.C. 000.
York said the ##### Road retail sites will add a third or fourth major commercial center to the growing county, joining the Leland area, with a new Wal-Mart center on the way; Shallotte, with a Belk store anchoring its main shopping plaza; and the Southport-Oak Island market.
She said optimism over the economic growth is tempered by concern about increased traffic.
"Everybody knows that we should be concerned. There will be a lot of impact on 000. Transportation and infrastructure improvements will be a big part of what's to come, especially with the new state port also coming in," York said. "It will be important for it to be done right."
Shelley Lesher, mayor of St. James, said that while she and other St. James residents look forward to commercial development, the proposed ##### Road projects are in the St. James Fire District and would increase the coverage area.
At planning hearings last fall, she originally wanted planners to delay the retail projects until improvements were made to beef up the number of fire hydrants. Only two hydrants, widely spaced, are currently located in the area.
Unless developers contribute money to build another fire substation, the shopping centers would put too much demand on the fire departments from St. James, Sunset Harbor/Zion Hill and Bolivia, she said.
I know that this is an area that has plenty of cp's even though I had yet to search the area myself. This was a perfect reason to plan a trip. So on my next day off I packed my equipment and headed to the area.
When I first got there I saw that the side of the road where I think the first stage will take place was not a good site for cp's. It looks to be farm land.
On the opposite side of the road, there was a sign that said something about the sheriffs dept and Oak Island police are monitoring the site to prevent trespassing. No unauthorized vehicles. So I walked a little farther down the road and entered the woods where there were no signs. 100ft from the road I spotted the first cp. A D.intermedia, or is it a D.capillaris trying to be a D.intermedia?
A plantlet on the flower stalk.
The black thing in this next pic is a pollution barrier that construction sites have to have around wetlands.
You can't see it here but there is a path that was cut into the woods.
In this pic you can see the path better.
Along this path where there are wet spots, where more sundews are growing.
This cut path, goes into a very dark wooded area. In this area, across the path there were a lot of spiders.
This is the strangest spider I have ever seen. It seam to have swept back wings. It almost looked like a jet. On closer look the wings were thorns.
The next spider was very big. You can't tell by the first pic. On the second I put my hand next to it to show it's size.
This path opens up into a classic pine savanna. Prime cp land.
I know there was some cp's in this area, I could just feel it. The hard part was finding them. The savanna borders the main road. So I walked up to the road to look in the ditches.
I saw a cardboard box and I can't resist the urge to see if there was a snake under it. I picked it up and this venomous creature popped out.
There was also a male black widow that crawled away as soon as I picked the box up. I probably saved him from being eaten.
I walked all the way across the savanna without seeing any cp's.
There was a cut path about 20 feet wide that made it's way behind the pine savanna so I continued on the path.
I came up on a big clump of dried spagnum.
Apparently, they have also done some draining here too.
All down this path I found clump after clump of dried sphagnum.
Off to the side I saw a little path leading to a wet sunny area. When I got to it I could feel that the ground was soft. I was on a bed of pure peat. With my size 13 boots the ground had no problem holding me up. My snake hook is 5 ft long and it sunk right into the peat.. Take a look at these two pics.
I stuck the hook all the way down into the ground without any trouble at all. All but about a foot of it was in the ground. I could have stuck it farther but I wanted to be able to pull it back up. Just imagine how much rain this areas holds. With the ground at least 4ft of peat, this area soaks up millions and millions of gallons. If they pave over this area, we lose that buffer and there will be major flooding the next time we have multi hurricanes.
On farther down the path, the woods open up.
By looking at the land features I realize that I must be on the rim of a Carolina bay. CP's are known to grow in and around these bays. I start looking around and I find sundew after sundew.
Notice the white sand. This area seems to be very dry. The only cp that would even attempt to grow here is D.brevfolia. This white sand is a classic marker of a carolina bay. So what ever created this white sand also created the bays.
The cut path goes farther but I had to make it back to my van and I was getting really tired. It was a hot August day with temputures in the mid 90s with humidity of 100%. 'So I headed back the way I came. When I got to the pine savanna, I decided to take a different path, hoping to find something. I was walking near the road and I saw this sign from the back
I start walking back towards the cut path and just behind this sign here's what I saw.
I knew there was some nice cp's here. I was within 20 ft of these vfts when I walked through this area the first time. And when I found them they seemed to be everywhere.
Unfortunatly I didn't find any pitcher plants, but they are probably here somewhere. Every marker plant was there. It was the right conditions for them but I guess I'll have to do some more searching.
This land is for sale. I don't know how long these plants will be here.
-
