BURGAW — This week, Pender County commissioners approved a special use permit for a 29-acre botanical garden roughly nine miles north of Burgaw.
Preliminary designs include an outdoor amphitheater, flower cutting garden, annual Christmas light display, bar and café, special event pavilion, wedding chapel, nature trail, and a quarter-acre pond that would serve as the focal point of The Gardens of Southeastern North Carolina.
Johnson Family Farm Holdings, which owns Johnson Nursery and Garden Center in Willard, submitted the permit application for land adjacent to its existing business. In total, the Johnson family owns and leases 193 acres of land bisected by Johnson Nursery Road and to the northeast of Watha Road.
All three commissioners present at Monday’s monthly meeting — Chairman George Brown, David Williams, and Fred McCoy — voted in favor of the special use permit on the land, which is zoned Rural Agriculture.
According to a project narrative submitted by David Johnson, president of the Johnson Nursery Corporation, a total capacity of 750 guests at The Gardens is expected once the project is completed, which he hopes will occur sometime in 2024. A 150-car parking lot is also planned.
In 2021, the family plans to begin obtaining architectural plans and permits, raising funds, and applying for grants while searching for partners to run the on-site Garden Café and event pavilion, according to Johnson. The following year, if all goes according to plans, construction will begin, which he expects to last into 2023.
He said the main purpose of The Gardens will be to “display and evaluate plant material for Southeastern North Carolina,” and, more simply, provide “an area to relax.”
“I believe this development will enhance the character of western Pender County and will have a positive effect on our health, morals, and welfare,” Johnson wrote.
The detailed project narrative outlined a computer program designed for botanical gardens, which will use GPS technology to allow guests to point their smartphones at a label on each tree and read a detailed explanation of its name and description. The family also plans to set aside half the 29 acres for a natural wooded area that may include honey-producing bee hives (with the honey sold at a future gift shop next to the café), plants that attract and feed birds, and native plants to the region. Johnson noted he hoped to employ a beekeeper and partner with the Audubon Society to assist in designing the property and to provide its local chapter an area to observe local bird species.
“Here there are already beautiful mature Beech Trees and other native hardwoods existing on land that overlooks Washington Creek,” according to the narrative.
The special use permit will allow the project to include a retail store, rental and leasing abilities, educational and instruction services, a full-service restaurant, an outdoor amphitheater, and an alcoholic beverage service. With the approval of the permit, Johnson will now be required to submit a master development plan to include a phasing schedule and overall site plan for all buildings.
Overall, the plans include:
- Cutting Garden: An area to display plants useful for floral arrangements; seasonal classes for up to 50 people per class who will have access to the garden where they can select their own cuttings and be taught the basics of arrangements.
- Christmas Light Display: Citing the popularity of winter light shows at Airlie Gardens in Wilmington and Brookgreen Gardens south of Myrtle Beach, each attracting thousands of visitors over a few-week period at the end of the calendar year, Johnson said he hopes to set up a similar display in the 15-acre area of wooded Beech trees.
- Event Center: an approximately 7,500-square-foot facility that can seat 250 guests for a meal and 600 guests in auditorium-style seating for lectures and performances; planned to serve weddings, corporate events, horticultural classes and events, industry events, periodic community praise and worship services, lectures, etc.
- The Garden Café): a 4,000-square-foot full-service lunch and dinner restaurant capable of seating 100 guests both inside and on a screened porch overlooking the pond.
- Gift Shop: aside from the ability to buy plants at the existing garden center, guests would be able to buy novelty items at the gift shop next to the café.
- Lake Marian: a 1,300-foot ditch converted into a creek will flow into a quarter-acre pond, made by digging around Washington Creek, and cascading at the other end over a four-foot waterfall. At the northern end of the property, Johnson plans to build a dam, and the pond would hold roughly a half-million gallons of water to irrigate the property.
- Outdoor Amphitheater: adjacent to the pond will be a small stage and sound system for small performances and about 200 guests able to sit on the law surrounding the pond.
Send comments and tips about Pender County development to the reporter at mark@localdailymedia.com or (970) 413-3815
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Special use permit approved for botanical garden, café, amphitheater north of Burgaw - Port City Daily
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