About Bancroft Parkway

Bancroft Parkway is Wilmington's first greenway, established in 1911 and named after industrialist William P. Bancroft in 1932. It links Rockford Park to the north and Canby Park to the south, running 18.1 acres through the heart of western Wilmington.

Bancroft's vision -- realized over more than 20 years of construction and 50 years of neighborhood development -- was a residential corridor where buildings were set back from the greenway to preserve light, open air, and community. That vision was shaped with input from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Today there are no buildings taller than three or four stories anywhere along Bancroft Parkway. A nine-story building would be visible from the entire corridor and would set a precedent for what comes next.

A Street Designed to Last

Bancroft Parkway is one of Wilmington's defining greenways -- a tree-lined residential boulevard stretching through the northwest of the city, designed to be both beautiful and livable. Unlike a commercial corridor or a through-street, the parkway was built to anchor neighborhood life: a wide median planted with mature trees, flanked by two- and three-story homes, and connected to the surrounding neighborhoods -- Bancroft Village, Wawaset Park, Union Park Gardens, the Highlands, and areas in between.

What Makes It Different

Bancroft Parkway is not a commercial street. It is not a main highway. It has no high-rise buildings. Today, the entire corridor is zoned C-1 -- which limits buildings to a maximum of three stories and 47 feet -- with one exception: the public library. That is the only C-2 zoned property on the parkway. There are no apartment towers. There are no buildings that interrupt the tree canopy or the rooflines of neighboring homes.

That character did not happen by accident. It reflects decades of planning decisions, community investment, and zoning choices that recognized Bancroft Parkway for what it is: a residential greenway, not a development corridor.

What We Stand to Lose

The proposed rezoning would change that permanently. If parcels at the corner of Bancroft Parkway and West 11th Street are rezoned from C-1 to C-2, the city's zoning code would allow buildings on those parcels of up to 15 stories and 180 feet -- not as an exception, but as a matter of right. The building shown in the developer's renderings is nine stories tall and significantly taller than any tree or structure on the parkway today.

Once that precedent is set, it cannot easily be undone. The question before the city is not just whether one building should be built. It is whether Bancroft Parkway should remain what it has always been -- or whether it should become something else entirely.