Episode Twenty-Three - Council Preview (6/18/26)

Episode Twenty-Three previews Thursday's Wilmington City Council workshop and regular meeting. The meeting opens with two public hearings: a zoning text amendment touching the data center use category at the center of an active federal lawsuit, and a separate rezoning request that explicitly excludes data centers from its proposed use. The episode also covers third readings on a transportation grant and a health benefit plan renewal, a transit civil rights compliance program, a traffic control change downtown, and a rundown of commitments, including recycling and fire department staffing legislation, that remain absent from the agenda.

Transcript

Opening

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Matt. Thursday's meeting is a loaded one, so let's get right into it.

Workshop

SPEAKER_00 0:13

The workshop starts at 6. Safety Director Nick Evelyn is giving a presentation on the fire department's organizational structure, the only presentation on the agenda. After that, it's legislation review for five pieces of business heading into the regular council meeting. A transit civil rights compliance program, a traffic control change near downtown, two appropriations ordinances, and the first reading on a zoning change tied to a property on Prairie Road. I'll walk through each of those in a minute.

Regular Meeting and Public Hearings

SPEAKER_00 0:44

The regular meeting starts at seven and it opens with two public hearings. That's where I want to spend most of this preview. First is a zoning text amendment to part eleven of the Planning and Zoning Code, Section 1141.02, the table of principal uses by zoning district. The specific use in question is data centers. The Planning Commission recommended this change on May 4th and forwarded it on to council. As of the draft agenda, the text of the amendment is on file with the clerk for public inspection, but I have not seen a public draft of the actual language myself. I'll have more once that's available. Here's the context worth having before Thursday, not my opinion on it. Data centers are currently listed as a permitted use in light industrial and general industrial zoning districts under O twenty five thirty six, the ordinance that passed last year. The ordinance is one of three pieces of legislation currently being challenged in federal court in Sharp versus City of Wilmington. Here's what's on the public record since the last episode, and there's more of it this week than there was a few days ago. The preliminary injunction hearing that was scheduled for June 16th did not happen. According to the Wilmington News Journal's review of the federal court docket, it was vacated at the request of attorneys representing the city with no new date set. I'll be up front that the next part is essentially hearsay, not something from the court record itself. A post in the Wilmington Residents for Responsible Development Facebook group said that the reason for the delay was a family emergency involving someone connected to the case and that the delay was not opposed by either side. I can't verify that through the docket yet, but it doesn't contradict anything in it either. Separately, the court gave the plaintiffs until Thursday, june eighteenth, the same day as this week's meeting, to file additional briefings supporting their injunction request. The existing order stays in effect regardless. The Planning Commission remains barred from acting on the data center's site plan until the court says otherwise. One more update from the docket. Amazon was formally granted permission to intervene as a defendant on June 9th. This is the second delay on this case, and the project itself remains in limbo while it works through the courts. Counsel generally should avoid discussing the legal merits of active litigation, and that's understandable. This isn't the first time I've raised the broader point though. Back on April 2nd and again on June 4th, I made the same observation, major issues moving through the pipeline with very little public discussion from council until they're already mostly decided somewhere else. At the same time, residents are watching a very public process unfold. Whether council chooses to provide any procedural updates while the case is pending is something I'll be paying attention to going forward. So, as council holds a public hearing Thursday on the zoning category at the center of this case, the federal case itself is still very much open, just moving on a different clock than expected. That's the backdrop worth having as you listen to how Thursday's discussion goes, whatever direction it takes. The second public hearing is a separate rezoning request for a property on Prairie Road, asking you to go from light industrial to general industrial with modifications. This one has a different relationship to the data center conversation, and the difference is worth knowing going in. The applicant, AZEC Group, has written language into the requested zoning limiting the property's use to packaging, light manufacturing, storage, and logistics. Their own filing explicitly excludes data centers as a permitted use on that site. The property sits inside a larger annexation of 89.46 acre parcel out of Union Township, of which 60.1 acres are subject to Thursday's rezoning request. That annexation ordinance, O2625, is on Thursday's old business agenda for its second reading. A separate legislative track from the zoning request itself. So you have two zoning items in the same night with two very different relationships to the word data center. Worth keeping straight as you follow along. One structural detail across these two hearings is worth flagging. The Prairie Road rezoning hearing pairs with the first reading on 02629 later in that same meeting. The data center zoning text amendment hearing does not pair with any ordinance reading anywhere else on this agenda, new business or old. I don't know yet whether that means the ordinance has not been drafted or whether it's coming at a future meeting. It's a real difference in how these two hearings are being handled on the same night, and it's worth watching for whether and when that ordinance shows up. Old business also covers two third readings that have been moving through the committee since May. Resolution 2622 authorizes rural transportation grant agreement between the Federal Department of Transportation. Resolution 2623 renews the city's health benefit plan administration with UMR. Both are expected to pass without much discussion. New business is where the workshop's five items land for first reading or full passage. R 2625 adopts a Title VI compliance program for Wilmington Transit, required by federal law for any transit systems receiving federal funds. O2631 changes the traffic control at Douglas and South Wall Street, changing it from an all-way stop to a two-way stop, based on a city commissioned traffic study that found no operational concerns with the change. O2630 and O twenty six thirty two are routine appropriations and fund transfer ordinances. And O2629 gets its first reading, the zoning change for the prairie road property following the public hearing earlier the night.

What I am watching for…

SPEAKER_00 7:11

A few things I'm watching for going in. Recycling legislation was promised for the first meeting in June. That meeting happened on the 4th with nothing on the agenda. As of the draft of this agenda, there's nothing on the 18th either. That's two consecutive meetings without delivery on a commitment Council President Osborne made back in March. Fire Department staffing legislation was also promised, most recently for the week after the last meeting. It's not on the agenda, though Safety Director Evelyn is presenting on the fire department's organizational structure at the workshop. I don't know yet whether that connects to the staffing question or is a separate matter. I'll have more once I've seen it, but I've got a good feeling it'll connect. And the CRA and development agreement for the data center project, along with the housing council, the city is required to create by state law, remain completely absent from any public meeting. That's the rundown. Two hearings, two zoning items, a federal lawsuit moving on a new timeline of its own, and a growing list of items that have been publicly discussed but have yet to appear on an agenda. I'll be back this weekend after the meeting to wrap it up. Thanks for listening to Wilmington Weekly.