The chief reason cited by The Planning Board for its “rejection”—which is actually a recommendation to the decision-making Town Council to deny approval of SUP 23-01—is the deplorable state and operation of the on-site wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) owned by the Gupta family.
The WWTP that would serve the proposed Ginguite, LLC, development at 6195 N. Croatan Hwy. has been serving the residences at Southern Shores Landing (SSL). It is currently in noncompliance with utility regulations and has been cited for numerous violations.
Planning Board Member Ed Lawler painstakingly went through documentation that he had obtained from online research into the websites of the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality and the N.C. Utilities Commission to show the incredible dysfunctionality of the WWTP, which has not worked as it should and has been operated on an emergency basis since 2009.
“There is no treatment occurring there,” said Mr. Lawler, who noted that “the water never gets to the area where it should go,” going instead into the infiltration pond.
“The level of equipment that’s not operational is phenomenal,” he said.
Mr. Lawler’s research resulted in the documentation that the Town posted last week and we highlighted in our 11/18/23 blog. We were unaware that these documents came from a search by the Planning Board because the source was not identified by the Town.
In a letter to the Town Attorney in which she responds to questions about the SUP from the Planning Board, SAGA attorney Jamie S. Schwedler repeatedly states that the operation of the WWTP is not an appropriate subject for a Special Use Permit request. (See The Beacon, 11/18/23.)
Mr. Ward read aloud Ms. Schwedler’s letter and noted that her objections to the attention paid by the Board to the WWTP were a matter for the Town’s lawyers to address. Although the WWTP is owned by GWWTP, LLC, a different SAGA subsidiary than SUP applicant Ginguite, LLC, Mr. Ward treated them as one in the same, referring to the plant owner as the “Gupta-managed LLC.”
“The Gupta-managed LLC has operated the wastewater treatment plant in a manner that is detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare” of the community, he concluded.
The disastrous state of the WWTP, which poses water-quality and environmental hazards, “trumps everything,” he said, in the Planning Board’s decision-making.
(See The Beacon, 11/18/23, for more details about the WWTP.)
Among the other reasons cited by the Board for denying approval was its insistence that Ginguite, LLC, maintain a 50-foot setback from the eastern line of its property adjacent to Southern Shores Landing.
Although Ginguite expanded its original 15-foot setbacks between its property and SSL to setbacks that varied along the boundary from 20 feet to 34 feet, the developer said it could not accommodate wider setbacks.
At the first Board hearing of the SUP in September, SAGA CEO and Ginguite, LLC, principal Sumit Gupta said 50-foot setbacks caused him “heartburn.” He attended tonight’s meeting, but did not speak and was not permitted to comment after the Board’s decision, had he chosen to.
Both Planning Board members Tony DiBernardo and Robert McClendon cited the Town Land Use Plan as authority for their votes. Mr. McClendon said that the Ginguite project “is not compatible with the area in which it is located,” a provision that is contained within the LUP Vision Statement, but is rarely invoked.
Chairperson Ward referred to the Town Code extensively to buttress the Planning Board’s decision with legal authority, citing for the first time a section dedicated to the Town’s management of wastewater systems and the oversight role that the Planning Board plays. (See Sec. 32, et seq.; in particular, Sec. 32-4.)
At its meeting last month, Katie Morgan of Colington, who used derogatory words to describe SAGA and its development practices, passionately told the Planning Board that if it denied approval to SAGA’s permit, “You all would be heroes on the beach.”
She got her wish.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
The Beacon, 11/20-11/21/23
The Southern Shores Beacon 
Was there, it was awesome!!!
LikeLike
Wow, what great news! Some backbone at last!
LikeLike