SPRING LAKE — The Spring Lake Board of Aldermen will hold public hearings and vote on rezoning requests that could lead to new townhouses and a Starbucks in town.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at Town Hall.
The two rezoning requests would bring a six-unit townhouse complex to Chapel Hill Road and a Starbucks coffee shop to Spring Lake Shopping Center on N.C. 210.
Starbucks would be the fourth coffee shop in Spring Lake. Within a short distance of the location is 7Brew Coffee Drive-Thru, which opened in January; the veteran-owned Morning Jump drive-thru, which roasts its own coffee; and a Dunkin’, which will open in September. Currently, Starbucks has a satellite location with limited hours in the Courtyard by Mariott Hotel.
Other issues on the board’s docket include presentations by United Way of Cumberland County, a public hearing on a rezoning request, and a text amendment update changing the zoning ordinance to refer to Fort Liberty instead of Fort Bragg.
The rezoning request is to change a residential property to planned commercial at 206 Ziglar Circle. It was approved unanimously by the Cumberland County Joint Planning Board at its June meeting.
Also, Fort Liberty Garrison Commander Col. John Wilcox has asked the town for permission to test samples of drinking water for the presence of perfluorooactane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in properties acquired through Spring Lake Property Acquisitions.
In a letter sent to the town, Wilcox says test results in certain locations on Fort Liberty show a combined presence of these compounds in groundwater higher than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The installation is working in partnership with the Army Environmental Command and contractors to determine if any private or public water supply wells used for drinking water near Fort Liberty may contain these compounds exceeding the EPA’s lifetime health advisory of 70 parts-per-trillion.
The town created Spring Lake Property Acquisitions in July 2019 as a nonprofit organization to acquire property and promote economic development. In 2020, the agency purchased 25 parcels including 18 parcels addressed in the letter with an economic development loan of $3.5 million.
However, in November 2020, then-Garrison Commander Col. Scott Pence wrote to the town that the land needed an environmental study among other levels of review before Fort Bragg could consider it for a land swap.
Wilcox’s letter in May 2023 was addressed to Spring Lake Property Acquisitions and “to whom it may concern.”
The board also is expected to go into closed session to discuss matters of personnel and attorney-client privilege.
