(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s primary driving route through the Outer Banks on Friday morning remained closed on Ocracoke Island and Hatteras Island.

N.C. 12 was washed over by water and sand from the ocean following the pass of Hurricane Erin. The closure on Ocracoke Island is between the Northern Ferry Terminal and the National Park Service Pony Pens; on Hatteras Island, it is between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Hatteras Village.

In addition to sand removal, pavement damage would determine how long sections of N.C. 12 are to remain closed.

In the 5 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, Erin was in the first stages of post-tropical transition about 425 miles south-southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about 700 miles north of Bermuda. Maximum sustained winds were 90 mph, and the movement had increased to 22 mph.

Hurricane force winds of 74 mph or greater were up to 125 miles from the center of the storm, and tropical storm force winds of 39 mph or greater had grown to 370 miles from the center. A gust of 56 mph was reported on Bermuda at Wade International Airport.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect on the Atlantic Seaboard.

Representatives from Costco and its affiliated development companies told local residents at a Enka community meeting Thursday night that the warehouse retailer plans to submit official plans for its first Asheville store to the city within two to four weeks.

The meeting, in which multiple residents expressed concerns about the prospect of increased traffic because of Costco’s popularity, marked the first significant update on the project since Asheville Watchdog broke the news in March that the low-cost retailer had submitted plans to the city for a store situated on 25 acres within Enka Commerce Park, with 839 parking spaces.

At the time, The Watchdog had obtained plans that also showed the preservation of the nearby historic Enka clock tower, which officials reiterated was a priority Thursday. 

Renee Rutherford, Costco’s director of real estate, told about 25 people gathered in a meeting space by the Enka-Candler Library that the project is moving ahead, but it will take time.

“This is the first part of a long approval process,” Rutherford said. “We haven’t submitted anything to the town yet.”

Nettie Boyle, a project manager with BL Companies, which is handling design and architecture elements of the project, said after the meeting that the entire planning and approval process with the city could take nine to 12 months. (Boyle is not related to this article’s author.)

“So this is the first process — the neighborhood meeting — and then I believe it’s 14 days later, we can submit our preliminary site plan to the city,” said Boyle. 

Costco has not finalized the purchase of the land from the owner, Martin Lewis, but it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to buy the property, Rutherford said. After the permitting and design process, construction could take another year, Rutherford said.

Will Palmquist, principal planner with the city’s Planning & Urban Design department, said previously that Costco had scheduled an early July review meeting with the city’s Technical Review Committee. Palmquist said the project would require a conditional zoning, as it’s more than 100,000 square feet.

Once plans are submitted, it will next head to the Planning & Zoning Commission. The commission’s recommendation would be forwarded to City Council for the final decision.

Traffic a huge concern

Many locals expressed joy following the initial announcement last spring, as the current nearest Costco to Asheville is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, about 70 miles away.

But multiple residents at the meeting expressed concerns about Costco’s potential impact on traffic because it will likely draw customers from a wide area. Rutherford said Costco stores, which are open seven days a week, can draw about 600 vehicles an hour, although she stressed that occurs at peak shopping times.

The Biltmore Lake neighborhood, which has more than 800 homes, sits just across Sand Hill Road from the proposed site.

“It’s gonna be quite devastating for Biltmore Lake residents to have 600 cars an hour (going there),” one resident said, adding that it seems “really irresponsible to add” thousands of vehicles a day onto local roadways.

“And I understand everything about the jobs and all that — all that’s great for the city, and I agree with that,” he said. “But there also needs to be something that’s going to be done about the increased traffic.”

Another resident voiced similar concerns, saying, “It seems grossly inappropriate to throw all the traffic from Asheville proper and all the surrounding areas — because everybody loves Costco — and plop it down right here in the middle of this beautiful area where they’re already struggling with development.”

Rutherford and Boyle said 80 percent of the traffic coming into Costco will enter off Smokey Park Highway, turning onto the former “bridge to nowhere” that opened earlier this year after years of dormancy. They also said the Costco would likely have two other entrances, one off of Sand Hill Road and another off Jacob Holm Way.

Rutherford said Costco stores typically hire about 200 employees to start, “and then it grows from there.”

Barbara Mosier, an associate engineer with Kittelson & Associates, said her firm is conducting the traffic study, which should be complete within about a month. The study will encompass the area around the commerce park, including multiple intersections and Smokey Park Highway east to the I-40 interchange, she said.

The methodology for traffic studies is fairly standard, but Mosier said allowances are made for Costco’s popularity.

“We have Costco-specific traffic rates, because we know that Costco is a very intense use,” Mosier said. “We know that there’s a lot of people who like it. It generates more use than a similar-sized other warehouse club. So we do have Costco specific rates that we use to make sure that we are fully capturing that impact, and we will reflect that in the study.”

Rutherford, Boyle and Mosier said Costco will consider mitigation efforts to make traffic flow smoother.

Costco also offered assurances that it plans to participate in a greenway project at the Enka Commerce site. Known as the Enka Heritage Trail, it’s supposed to span 2 miles of asphalt, starting at Sand Hill and Enka Lake roads, proceeding along Hominy Creek to its intersection with Sand Hill Road, south of Warren Haynes Drive.

Construction was supposed to start in 2023, with completion due this year. But the project has stalled.

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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