New Bern City Hall courtroom and overflow seating area were at capacity during Planning and Zoning Board meeting Thursday due to safety regulations, according to the Fire Marshal.
Roughly 30 property owners and residents stood outside City Hall waiting for an opportunity to go inside the building and share their thoughts with the Planning and Zoning Board on the proposed rezoning of 1,245 acres of land from agricultural and low-density residential districts to high-intensity commercial and high-density residential zoning districts in New Bern’s ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) on Sept. 17, 2026.
Tonight was the first time NewBernNow.com has seen property owners stand outside New Bern’s municipal building and wait for an opportunity to speak on a request to rezone property.
Weyerhaeuser NR Company applied to rezone the land as detailed in the meeting packet.
P & Z Board Members Kellie Kiser, Margot Fesperman, Brad Jefferson, and Kip Peregoy found the request to rezone 315.74 acres of land identified on Craven County GIS as Tax Parcel ID: 8-209-13000 from Agricultural 5F (A-5F) to Commercial 3 (C-3) in the southwest and southeast corner of US 70 and NC 43 to be reasonable and consistent with the Land Use Plan Update of 2022. They recommended that the Board of Aldermen approve the request. Mike Duffy voted against the motion.
Kiser, Fesperman, Jefferson, and Peregoy found the request to rezone 376.2 acres of land identified as CC PID: 8-211-011 from Agricultural 5F (A-5F) and Residential 15 (R-15) to Residential 6 (R-6) to the east of Future NC 43 Connector to be reasonable and consistent with the Land Use Plan Update of 2022 and recommended that the Board of Aldermen approve the request. Duffy voted against the motion.
The board also found the request to rezone 553.4 acres of land identified as CC PID: 8-209-18000 from Agricultural 5F (A-5F) Residential 6 (R-6) in the southeast corner of US 70 and US 17 Bypass to be reasonable and consistent with the Land Use Plan Update of 2022 and recommended that the Board of Aldermen approve Weyerhaeuser’s request.
More details will follow when the meeting video is uploaded as we were not able to go beyond the building’s entryway until the middle of the meeting.
City of New Bern board and committee meeting agendas and packets can be found here. Meeting videos are available on City 3 TV and YouTube channel.
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By Wendy Card, editor. Send an email with questions or comments.