Two more Southern Shores residents have filed notice of their candidacies for one of the three Town Council seats up for election Nov. 7, joining two incumbents who are running and thus guaranteeing a contested race.
Robert E. Neilson, of 114 S. Dogwood Trail, filed his application with the Dare County Board of Elections last Tuesday, and Michael Guarracino, of 118 Tall Pine Lane—which is at the corner of Tall Pine Lane and South Dogwood Trail—filed with the Board yesterday, according to online BOE records.
Each candidate had previously applied for appointment to the Town Council in January 2022 to complete Elizabeth Morey’s unexpired term on the Council after she was elected mayor.
Dr. Neilson had a career in “domestic and defense-oriented agencies that culminated in a Senior Executive Service position in the Dept. of the Army,” according to a Jan. 14, 2022 article by The Outer Banks Voice. Mr. Guarricino formerly served as Deputy Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, which has its own security police service, The Voice also reported.
(The Beacon will delve more into candidates’ backgrounds after campaigning starts.)
Dr. Neilson and Mr. Guarricino join incumbents Matt Neal, a local builder (Neal Contracting) who has served as mayor pro tem for the past two years, and Mark Batenic, a former CEO of IGA Inc. who received the January 2022 appointment, in vying for one of the three four-year terms on the Town Council that are up for election.
Thus far, incumbent Leo Holland has not indicated that he will seek re-election.
To run for town office in Dare County, a candidate must have lived in the municipality for at least 30 days, be registered to vote in that municipality, and be at least 21 years old by the date of the election.
For more information about running for the Southern Shores Town Council, please see: https://www.darenc.gov/departments/elections/candidates. The two-week candidate filing period ends at noon Friday. (See also The Beacon, 7/8/23.)
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT DENIES VARIANCE FOR LARGE STORE SIGN
The Town Planning Board, sitting as the Town Board of Adjustment (BOA), denied yesterday a variance request by a sign company that would have enabled it to erect an exterior wall sign for discount retailer, Five Below, in the Southern Shores Marketplace, that would be considerably larger than the commercial sign size permitted by the Town Code.
Five Below plans to occupy the former store site of the Dollar Tree, between CVS Pharmacy and Food Lion.
The sign company, Cima Network Inc. of Chalfont, Pa., sought a variance that would have allowed it to erect a 156-square-foot sign to identify Five Below on its storefront—an increase of nearly 100 square feet over the maximum 58.2 square feet that the Town’s ordinance on sign size calculation would permit.
Pursuant to Town Code sec. 36-165(8) Table C, the maximum area of a wall sign for a store in a commercial group development, such as the Marketplace, is the equivalent of one square foot per linear foot of store frontage.
According to drawings submitted by Cima Network, whose representative Bill Lockett testified before the BOA in a hearing last night at the Pitts Center, the store frontage for the Five Below in the Marketplace is 58.2 feet, a length that limits the maximum wall-sign size to 58.2 square feet. The size of the store itself, he said, is 9650 square feet.
Mr. Lockett based his argument in favor of a larger sign on visibility from the highway and on safety, maintaining that people are more apt to avoid parking lot mishaps if they can see a store sign from farther away.
Describing Five Below as an “anchor tenant” of the Marketplace, he displayed for the BOA a proposed wall sign that identified the store name and had the tag line, “hot stuff. cool prices,” under it. (See example above.) Mr. Lockett said the tag line was added by the company during the Covid pandemic when prices on more items carried by the store exceeded $5.
Five Below, Inc. is a large U.S. chain of “specialty discount stores that sells products that are less than $5, plus a small assortment of products from $6 to $25,” according to Wikipedia. (See The Beacon, 6/21/23, for more background on the retailer.)
In ruling upon a variance request, the Board of Adjustment, which is a quasi-judicial body that functions much like a court does, must decide if an “unnecessary hardship” would result to an applicant from strictly applying a Town zoning ordinance to its situation.
Because strict application of Town Code sec. 36-165(8) Table C, would still allow Cima Network to erect a 58.2-square-foot wall sign on the Five Below storefront, the five-member Board had no trouble deciding that no unnecessary hardship would occur.
Representing the Town of Southern Shores, Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett testified that the one-square-foot-per-linear-foot-of-store-frontage requirement has been in effect since 2001 and that other businesses currently in the Marketplace have wall signs that are less than 58.2 square feet. He also testified that the new Marshalls and Rack Room Shoes wall signs are in compliance with the Town Code.
The Board of Adjustment—Chairperson Andy Ward, Vice-Chair Tony DiBernardo, and members Ed Lawler, Jan Collins, and Robert McClendon—voted unanimously to deny the variance.
In analyzing the Town Code standards for the grant of a variance (Code sec. 36-367(a)(1)-(4)), which generally involve the nature of any hardship that may exist, each BOA member expressed an interest in preserving the “aesthetics” of the Marketplace.
Cima has the right to appeal the BOA’s decision to the Superior Court of Dare County.
UPCOMING: Mr. Haskett announced that the Planning Board will take up the site plan submitted by the SAGA investor group, Ginguite LLC, for its mixed-use development at 6195 N. Croatan Hwy., next to the Southern Shores Landing; the new zoning text amendment on lot width; or both items, at its next regular meeting, Aug. 21. Chairperson Ward said that if the site plan is ready to be discussed, he would prefer to have it be the sole item on the Board’s agenda.
The Planning Board also will be meeting soon to critique with consultant Stewart the final draft it prepared of the new Land Use Plan, which will be posted on the Town website. The Board did not settle yesterday upon a date and time for this meeting.
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/18/23
The Southern Shores Beacon 