Walmart and Carolina Quickcare have approached the Town of Carolina Shores with hopes of building facilities and opening by 2026.
During the Carolina Shores Planning and Zoning Board May 15 meeting, residents expressed frustrations about the proposed Walmart and were told that a Carolina Quickcare has also been proposed to be built next door to it.
Walmart update
Walmart in April submitted plans to the Town of Carolina Shores for a new Walmart Supercenter to be located in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
If approved and constructed, the new store will be roughly 171,000 square-feet and built on 27 acres in the Carolina Shores ETJ off U.S. Highway 17 West, across from Emerson Bay Road and near the town’s Medical Center Parkway and the Goodwill.
The proposed site plan includes a 10-fuel bay gas station, drive-thru pharmacy, a parking lot with 690 spaces, two vehicle entrances and two stormwater ponds. Additional lots for other commercial businesses are also included. The plans also include preserving the existing cemetery on the property.
Matt Drake, Civil Engineer with Atwell, LLC, during the May 15 meeting reiterated that the cemetery will remain undisturbed.
If the entire property is fully built with the additional commercial businesses, Drake noted, the existing cemetery would be on a commercial lot.
The new Walmart is not a done deal, as the Carolina Shores Board of Commissioners will vote on final project approval, Town Attorney James Eldridge said.
“It’s not a done deal because it’s a major site plan application that, by code and various provisions in [the town’s] ordinance, has to go through various processes — including review and comment by the planning board,” he noted.
Eldridge explained that the planning board’s vote is not “binding.” However, it will be passed to the board of commissioners as a recommendation.
The attorney said the major site plan is administrative, and cannot be given conditions if it is a permitted use and meets all code and ordinance requirements. The project is allowed “by right,” he said.
“Just like if you buy a residential lot, you have the right to build a residential structure there,” Eldridge explained. “They have the right, based on the table of uses, to build this commercial retail establishment.”
He said the site plan approval process is nonnegotiable. “If they meet the black and white, they’re in,” he noted.
Several residents, like Beacon Townes residents Bill Steuernagel and Barbara Heffernan, shared their concerns with the planning board during public comments.
Steuernagel told the board that the Beacon Townes neighborhood has drainage problems due to runoff from U.S. Highway 17. He said he is also concerned about the added traffic and noise that will come from the superstore and accompanying businesses.
There are traffic improvements to U.S. Highway 17 in the proposed plan but planning board member Ashley McEntee said the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) must review and approve all traffic improvements for the site. “They don’t get full approval before NCDOT figures this out,” she said.
In response to Steuernagel, Town Administrator Chad Hicks said he will address those drainage and noise concerns with NCDOT.
Asked what the overall impact the commercial businesses will have on traffic, Hicks said that is unknown until a traffic impact analysis is completed.
The two closest Walmart Supercenters to Calabash-Carolina Shores-area residents are in Shallotte and North Myrtle Beach, S.C. Both stores are approximately 15 to 20 minutes away — without traffic. In total, there are currently three Walmart Supercenters in Brunswick County: Shallotte, Southport and Leland.
Some residents, like Heffernan, said the area does not need another Walmart Su%er.
“This is important to me,” Heffernan said. “I don’t know why Walmart itself wants to build here when we have one eight miles down the road and one 10 miles up the road. It seems like overkill to me.”
Heffernan also voiced concerns about safety with the increase in people when the town does not have its own police station nor fire station.
Many residents said they did not want the supercenter, but resident Ron Floor has hopes that the store could benefit local residents. Floor suggested that a cell tower be installed atop the store to increase cell phone reception.
After hearing from residents and the civil engineer on the project, the plan was put to a vote. All but one voting planning board members voted in favor of recommending plan approval to commissioners.
Planning board member Ruth Ann Campbell opposed recommending approval of the plan to commissioners. She said the su%er will create more traffic and congestion along U.S. Highway 17.
“I don’t feel like we need a Super Walmart here… we don’t need a lot more traffic here… There’s going to be so much congestion just even trying to get out on U.S. Highway 17,” Campbell told The Brunswick Beacon.
The plans will go before the town’s board of commissioners in June for final approval or denial.
Carolina QuickCare enters the lineup
Also during the May 15 meeting, Hicks shared that the town has received site plans for a Carolina QuickCare, which would be built next to the proposed Walmart. If constructed, the approximately 3,600 square-foot urgent care will be located across from Persimmon Road, also near the town’s Medical Center Parkway and the Goodwill.
The facility is still in the designing phase, Construction Manager Mark Zelnik told The Brunswick Beacon. He said they hope to start construction before the end of the year and open by March 2025.
The urgent care is a separate property and project and is not part of Walmart’s plans.
What’s going on with Publix?
The Walmart is the biggest and most recent major supermarket to propose a Carolina Shores location, but it is not the first new grocery store coming to the area. Carolina Shores residents have been expecting a new Publix since last year.
Last April, Publix announced its plans for a Carolina Shores store to be located on the northwest corner of Calabash Road and U.S. Highway 17.
The Publix, if built, will sit adjacent to CVS on the other side of Calabash Road.
The Publix store is expected to be part of a larger commercial space. Last year’s press release stated the new store will be approximately 45,000 square feet in size.
Hicks told The Brunswick Beacon that no official permits for the Publix have been submitted as of May 15, over one year after the news broke of the grocer’s plans to open a Carolina Shores location.
Although the new Publix location will be in close proximity to a CVS and Food Lion, he said the store could be part of a strip mall with other businesses.
Savanna Tenenoff is the staff writer at The Brunswick Beacon. Feel free to reach out with comments, questions and tips at stenenoff@brunswickbeacon.
