The Wilson County Planning Board recommended approval of a preliminary plan to subdivide just under 45 acres on Fab Whitley Road into 34 lots, while adding several site-protection and landscaping conditions including wide buffers, bermed screening and a paved easement to a family cemetery.

Planning staff said the proposed subdivision is in the county’s AR zoning district and consistent with the 2045 comprehensive plan; lots will meet the 40,000-square-foot minimum and be served internally by new streets. Staff noted the site is in the Neuse River Basin, is not in a flood-hazard area, and is part of the county’s voluntary agricultural district. County water will be available to the project while lots will use private septic systems. Staff said NCDOT asked for changes to an existing curve and for a three-way intersection with a stop sign at the new access to address sight-line and safety concerns.

The board’s recommended conditions go beyond staff’s checklist. The planning board asked that a 20-foot-wide buffer with a 15-foot base and a 5-foot-tall berm planted with shrubs and trees (examples mentioned during discussion included Nellie Stevens holly) be installed where property removals would open toward adjacent private land or residences. The board also recommended paving the cemetery access from the new subdivision road and placing maintenance responsibility with a homeowners association (HOA). The board emphasized that areas designated as wetlands would not be cleared and noted that required DEQ erosion and sedimentation permits would govern wetland impacts.

The plan includes an old family cemetery roughly 40 by 45 feet on proposed Lot 11; the applicant will provide an easement from the new street to the cemetery. Residents asked whether the cemetery would be maintained; the board’s motion specifies paving the access and recommended that the HOA maintain the paved access—not the gravesite itself. Several residents also asked that the developer provide berming and screening to discourage people from accessing a privately owned airstrip south of the property that lies across the county line.

Kevin Varnell of Stocks Engineering, representing the owner, said lots would not be “clear cut” and that trees at the back of lots would be left except where necessary for a building envelope and septic area: “They would not be clear clear cut… They’ll be clear just enough to build the house and the septic and repair area, and that would be at the back of the lot. It would be left wooded just like it is now.”

Public commenters raised several concerns: traffic and speeds on the existing curve where the subdivision would connect to Fab Whitley Road; the potential effect of added runoff on adjoining low-lying properties; wildlife and wetland protections; and the long-term maintenance of the small family cemetery. Kevin Pittman said his family leases farmland adjacent to the site and asked the board to consider water-flow and wetland protections that support farm lease income. Christina Campbell and Melissa Pittman described safety and runoff concerns tied to the existing curve and asked that DOT and the developer consider additional traffic controls and screening.

The planning board voted to recommend approval, with the listed conditions, and will forward the package to the Wilson County Board of Commissioners for final action at the Nov. 3 meeting. The board’s recorded roll-call vote on the motion was: Linda Scott — yes; Rodney Coleman — yes; Johnny Bass — yes; Charlie Farris — yes; Eunice Lindsey — yes; Lori Heimstone — no. The motion passed 5–1.

Next steps: the applicant must obtain DEQ erosion and sedimentation control permits, meet UDO landscaping requirements, and secure NCDOT approvals; commissioners will consider final approval on Nov. 3.