USDOT Announces Significant, Immediate Changes to the Federal DBE Program
On September 30, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that removes long-standing race- and sex-based presumptions in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. Instead, all applicants must now provide individualized proof of social and economic disadvantage.
This marks a significant shift for DBE and non-DBE firms across the country and in North Carolina, and it raises immediate questions about how certifications will be handled and how DBE participation will be tracked on new and existing federally funded contracts.
Key changes of the ruling include:
• Re-certification Required: Every currently certified DBE must undergo reevaluation. Firms will be required to submit new documentation and personal narratives to establish eligibility.
• Suspension of Goals and Counting: Until reevaluation is complete, recipients may not set DBE contract goals or count DBE participation toward existing goals. This could impact reporting on current projects.
• Tracking Requirements Changed: Collection and reporting of race and sex data for bidders and DBE certifications will be eliminated.
• Higher Documentation Burden: Firms must now submit individualized evidence of disadvantage, which may increase certification time and costs.
There are many details that have to be worked out. Updates will be provided as they become available.
Bridge Replacement
The future of dozens of properties remains up in the air as the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project marches on. From securing funding to navigating a nearby nature preserve, the N.C. Department of Transportation is working through various obstacles on its way to building a new bridge over the Cape Fear River. The project, which has a price tag of over $1 billion, is still in the planning phase but will hit significant milestones in the coming year.
In spring 2026, an environmental assessment of the project will be published. The department will hold a public hearing in the summer and select a design alternate by the fall. As construction draws nearer, NCDOT will put dozens of Wilmington properties under the microscope to make space for the new bridge.
Early site plans identified 67 properties that are in the vicinity of the future construction zone. The new bridge will be built to the south of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, with ramps leading to Dawson, Wooster and Front streets. The project will have a larger overall footprint than the current bridge, with six lanes, a median, shoulders and a 15-foot multi-use path. Selection of the design will further determine how much of an impact the project will have on downtown Wilmington properties. Alternate B is a fixed-span bridge that could impact more properties, while Alternate A is a drawbridge that was estimated to cost over $300 million more.
Site plans from 2024 show properties from the river to Third Street that could be key in completing the project. The properties are owned by a variety of businesses, private individuals and public entities, according to the plans. However, the parcel data used by NCDOT to identify the property owners is from 2019. NCDOT Assistant Director of Communications Lauren Jenkins said the department is still working to determine what will be impacted.
“We do not have final plans, so it is too early in the design process to address right-of-way needs and impacts,” Jenkins said.
While it’s too early to know what all will be impacted, NCDOT has already spent millions on property acquisition for the project. In May 2023, the department bought a plot of land near the river for $18,142,000. The property was slated for development when NCDOT entered talks with previous owner Riverman LLC to acquire it.
Cape Fear Development had proposed Proximity at Dram Tree Point, a mixed-use complex with 204 apartments and 4,395 square feet of retail and restaurant space. In a memo, the department stated that jumping on an opportunity to buy the land would save them money in the long run. “Acquisition after development would result in much higher acquisition costs for NCDOT in the future,” the memo states.
Fire Safety
A bill recently sent to Gov. Josh Stein by the North Carolina legislature could be a small step in addressing the state’s housing supply gap. An added benefit: Getting more housing built could improve the state’s fire safety.
North Carolina is projected to gain 5 percent more households between 2024 and 2029, adding to a growing need, according to a study commissioned by NC Realtors and the NC Chamber Foundation. That same study estimated that 322,360 rental units and 442,118 units for sale would need to be constructed during those five years to close the gap.
North Carolina isn’t the only state facing this issue; the nation is short by an estimated 7 million housing units, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
This year, several municipalities across the country enacted zoning reforms — from parking requirements to building codes — to improve the affordability and availability of housing, according to Pew. The research center found that cities that added to their housing supply, often as a result of reforming local zoning codes, succeeded in keeping rent increases low.
While recent moves by the legislature haven’t reworked codes entirely, House Bill 926 does bar additional local zoning or development regulations.
Specifically it prevents cities or municipalities from:
• Setting minimum structure sizes beyond existing Residential Code
• Requiring parking spaces bigger than 9′ × 20′ (except for disability, parallel or diagonal)
• Demanding extra fire access roads beyond what current fire codes mandate
• Imposing pavement design standards that are more stringent than NCDOT minimums
“We’ve seen that overall, apartments have been the most effective way to improve housing affordability,” said Alex Horowitz, a researcher for Pew’s housing policy initiative. “Cities that have added a lot of apartments have seen housing affordability improve, but sometimes fire safety concerns can hold that back.” And even as cities eased codes, it turns out that building faster doesn’t have to mean compromising on fire safety, he said.
It was the question of changing regulations’ impact on fire safety that prompted a recent report by Pew co-authored by Horowitz.
“We’ve got building codes, we’ve got fire codes, we’ve got zoning codes, permitting processes, and there are all these pieces that fit together, but we wanted to know what housing types are the safest,” Horowitz said.
The report found that “multifamily buildings constructed since 2000 enjoy far better fire safety outcomes than other types of housing, because additional safety measures, such as self-closing doors, fire-safe materials, and sprinklers have been adopted widely.”
Six percent of Americans live in modern apartments, but only 1 percent of residential fire deaths in 2023 occurred in these buildings. Looking at fire deaths in North Carolina during 2023, researchers found that the fire death rate for single-family homes was 9.3 per million. For apartments built pre-2000, the rate was 9.1 per million in 2023. When looking at modern apartment buildings built since 2000, there was not a single fire death in 2023, the report found.
Transportation Taxes
The Black Political Caucus on Friday threw its support behind a referendum next month that would raise the Mecklenburg County sales tax by one percentage point. The new tax money would go towards funding a $25 billion transportation plan building more rail lines, bus service and road improvements. Voters will get the chance to vote on the sales tax in the general election this November. The influential Black Political Caucus is the highest-profile group so far to endorse the tax referendum. The transportation plan would fund the Red Line commuter rail, the east-west Silver Line light rail, the Gold Line streetcar extension and more frequent bus service, as well as more bike lanes, sidewalks and road improvements. Jocelyn Jones-Nolley, chair of the Black Political Caucus, said in a statement: "We look forward to partnering with the Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority and other stakeholders to ensure community concerns are prioritized and addressed, and that the benefits of this investment are shared broadly across all neighborhoods. This is about ensuring growth that works for everyone."
Steel Manufacturer
A new steel manufacturing company’s plans to open a factory in Hertford County will be “transformational” for the area, according to a state senator who worked behind the scenes to help land what is anticipated to be a nearly $1 billion investment project. Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, said he expects an official announcement from U.S. Forged Rings Inc., “coming very soon and it will be a very large event.”
“There’ll be folks from (Washington) D.C. coming down for this event,” he said. USFR did not respond to requests for comment.
Hanig spoke to Coastal Review in a telephone interview a few days after the General Assembly on Sept. 23 advanced to Gov. Josh Stein a bill to appropriate $51 million to construct a public dock with access to the Chowan River and another $11 million to build a public road “capable of accommodating industrial loads” to the dock.
Stein signed House Bill 358 into law on Tuesday, stating it “makes helpful investments across the state” and that it “supports the state’s broader economic efforts.”
The bill does not specifically name the business for which the dock and road would be constructed, but states the company “is a manufacturer of steel forgings and large diameter steel fabrications” that would be required to invest a minimum of $947 million in the project site and create no fewer than 835 new jobs.
USFR on its website advertises itself as the country’s “only integrated One-Stop-Shop Manufacturer of Steel Forgings and Large Diameter Steel Fabrications.”
“What it’s going to do for Hertford County and all of northeastern North Carolina is transformational,” Hanig said. “This is going to be probably the biggest economic development project in decades.” Hanig called what he said was a teamwork effort that included Hertford County commissioners, the county’s Economic Development Director Kelly Bowers, and state Rep. Bill Ward, a Republican who represents Camden, Gates, Hertford, Pasquotank counties, “magnificent.”