The Southern Shores Town Council sent a “Take Action” email yesterday to residents, encouraging them to oppose what it described as “astronomical” homeowners insurance rate increases recently requested by the N.C. Rate Bureau (NCRB) in one of two public comment forums to be held Monday, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or to object to the increases by other means before a Feb. 2 deadline.

The NCRB’s request of the N.C. Dept. of Insurance earlier this month for increases in homeowner insurance rates statewide has aroused considerable alarm locally where the Bureau has asked to raise rates 45.1 percent in the “beach areas” of Dare and Currituck counties and 33.9 percent in the two counties’ “coastal areas.”

These areas are in territories 110 and 130, respectively, in the NCRB’s rating system, which uses such factors as population density and loss experience to divide North Carolina territorially.

(See the Jan. 5, 2024 press release sent by the Dept. of Insurance about the Bureau’s rate filing: https://www.ncdoi.gov/news/press-releases/2024/01/05/insurance-companies-ask-422-rate-increase-homeowners-insurance.)

The NCRB represents companies that write insurance policies in the state. It has asked the Dept. of Insurance for an average statewide increase in homeowner insurance rates of 42.2 percent, claiming that the insurance industry is losing money in paying off claims.

The NCRB’s highest requested rate increases are concentrated in the southern coastal area of North Carolina. It has asked for increases in homeowner insurance rates of 99.4 percent for the beach areas of Brunswick (Bald Head Island, Holden Beach), Carteret (Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle, Morehead City), New Hanover (Carolina Beach, Wilmington), Onslow and Pender counties (territory 120) and 71.4 percent in the “eastern coastal areas” of these counties, as well as in a long list of eastern coastal area zip codes (territory 140).  

See the NCRB’s territorial maps at https://www.ncrb.org/ncrb/Residential-Property/Territory-Maps.

A public-comment period is required by law before the Dept. of Insurance can take action on the requested rate increases. Monday’s all-day public forums will be held in a hearing room in Raleigh and, simultaneously, in a virtual hearing.

You may provide comments in person at the N.C. Dept. of Insurance’s Jim Long Hearing Room, which is in the Albemarle Building, 325 N. Salisbury St., in Raleigh, or participate in the virtual forum via: https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=mb3fe10c8f69bbedd2aaece485915db7e.

You also may email public comments to 2024homeowners@ncdoi.gov or write to the Dept. of Insurance c/o Kimberly W. Pearce, Paralegal III, 1201 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1201. Comments sent by email or regular mail must be received by Feb. 2.

In its “Take Action” email, the Town Council said it “strongly opposes these astronomical homeowners insurance rate increases, which, if implemented, would make homeownership unattainable for many first-time buyers and be extremely difficult for current homeowners to afford—particularly Dare County’s teachers, first responders, medical personnel, government employees and service industry staff, among many others. Many homeowners will opt for higher deductibles in order to avoid the exorbitant insurance premiums. This will result in homeowners receiving smaller insurance claim payments, which will directly impact their ability to recover from storm damage or other disaster events.”

Mayor Elizabeth Morey has already sent a letter to Mike Causey, the N.C. Commissioner of Insurance, opposing the NCRB’s requested increases. See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/town_council/page/3132/insurance_rate_increase_mayor_morey.pdf.

Besides encouraging residents to express their opposition to the rate increases, the Town Council’s email provided “talking points” prepared by the Outer Banks Assn. of Realtors for residents to use. See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/town_council/page/3132/2024_ho_talking_points_-final.pdf.

Among the points offered by the OBAR is the following: “N.C. law states that insurance rates shall not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. It is implausible that the requested rates can be determined to be anything other than excessive.”

To find out the rate increases requested by the N.C. Rate Bureau throughout North Carolina, go to: https://www.ncdoi.gov/2024-territories-ncrb-proposed-rates/open.

You may read the entire Take Action email/press release at: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/towncouncil/page/take-action-proposed-homeowners-insurance-rate-increase.

The NCRB does not have the authority to regulate insurance rates or to require insurance companies to adopt the rates it files. The Dept. of Insurance is solely responsible for regulating insurance rates in North Carolina.  

If Insurance Commissioner Causey does not agree with the NCRB’s requested rates—and he likely will not—he can deny them or negotiate them with the Bureau. If the Department and the Bureau cannot reach a settlement within 50 days, the Commissioner will call for a hearing.

For an excellent overview of the situation, see an article by USA Today reporter Gareth McGrath at https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/local/2024/01/16/nc-insurers-want-to-nearly-double-rates-for-coastal-homeowners/72179676007/.

Mr. McGrath expounds upon how climate change and the rising value of coastal property influenced the Rate Bureau’s request and concludes that, if history is any guide, the parties will settle on rate increases that are much less than the industry wants and much higher than homeowners think they should bear.  

The NCRB has asked that its requested rate increases take effect Aug. 1.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 1/20/24   

(We continue to have problems preserving graphics links between the website and the Beacon’s Facebook page, for which we apologize.)

Citing a forecast of severe weather, the Town of Southern Shores has canceled the quasi-judicial hearing scheduled tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. before the Town Council on the special use permit application (SUP 23-01) submitted by Ginguite, LLC, a subsidiary of SAGA Realty & Construction, for a mixed-use group development of luxury condominiums, retail shops, restaurants, and offices at 6195 N. Croatan Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 158).

The hearing has been rescheduled to Feb. 6, when the Town Council will hold its next regular monthly meeting, according to a Town announcement posted online late this afternoon.

(See The Beacon, 1/4/24, for a preview of the hearing.)

DARE STUDENTS HAVE REMOTE LEARNING DAY TOMORROW

Earlier today, the Dare County Schools announced that tomorrow will be a Remote Learning Day for students and an Early Dismissal Day for staff members because of predicted storm conditions. Staff members are to report for work in the morning. 

The Superintendent’s Office will decide at noon tomorrow whether to alter school hours on Wednesday.

Storm conditions forecasted to start tomorrow afternoon are expected to continue into Wednesday.

Weather Forecast: Dare County is already under a Coastal Flood Warning and High Wind Warning, according to the National Weather Service. A cold front with strong winds that is arriving in our area tomorrow is expected to cause both soundside and ocean flooding.

The storm event tomorrow will principally pose a wind threat, according to the NWS, with the high temperature in the mid- to upper-50s. Conditions are expected to worsen tomorrow evening as rain and wind velocity increase and temperature declines.

THE BEACON, 1/8/24

The Southern Shores Town Council will hold a quasi-judicial hearing on the special use permit application (SUP 23-01) submitted by Ginguite, LLC, a subsidiary of SAGA Realty & Construction, for a mixed-use group development of luxury condominiums, retail shops, restaurants, and offices at 6195 N. Croatan Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 158), on Ginguite Creek, Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center.

The Town Council is dedicating its first regular meeting of year to the hearing, according to the agenda posted on the Town website. No other business is scheduled.

The Town Planning Board voted unanimously Nov. 20 to recommend a denial of Ginguite’s SUP 23-01. It reached a decision after devoting three lengthy monthly meetings last fall to a review of the application, all of which were attended by a vocal crowd of opponents from both Southern Shores and the larger Outer Banks community.

(See The Beacon, 11/20/23, as well as articles posted 9/19/23 and 9/29/23 and in October 2023.)

See the meeting agenda at https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/soshoresnc- pubu/MEET-Agenda-ed9d93e84bb548dda5443282f597838c.pdf.

Links to documents in the extensive SUP application record, including all written materials submitted by Ginguite, LLC, the Town staff’s recommendation, and other documents reviewed and relied upon by the Planning Board are at: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/planning/page/quasi-judicial-hearing-will-be-held-january-9-2024.

Ginguite proposes to build two three-story wood-framed buildings, 200 parking spaces, and associated infrastructure on what it represents is about 4.55 acres of a 6.96-acre property that is zoned predominantly commercial, with a small section of R-1 low-density residential in the northern end.

Ginguite withdrew its plan to have a marina on the site when the Town advised it that marinas are not a permissible use of the property under the Town Code.

Thirty-six multi-family residences would be constructed, 30 in an exclusively residential building and six in a building that also would house retail shops, offices, and restaurants, according to Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder, Partner, and Chief Executive Officer of SAGA, who has served as Ginguite’s representative since early 2022 when he first started publicly promoting the mixed-use project.

While the Town Council often defers to the Planning Board’s recommendations, it is not bound by them. The Council will make its own factual determinations and exercise its own discretion in reaching a conclusion Tuesday on Ginguite’s application.

A quasi-judicial hearing is similar to a court proceeding. Rules of evidence are observed, and only sworn, factual testimony by parties to the hearing (Ginguite and the Town of Southern Shores) or the witnesses they call may be presented. Such hearings protect the due process rights of the party or parties seeking the municipal administrative action at issue.  

The public will have an opportunity to comment before and after the hearing. (See below.)

BACKGROUND ON MIXED-USE ZONING IN TOWN

Ginguite is seeking a permit for the first-ever residential/commercial use (mixed-use) group development in Southern Shores. It cannot apply to the Town for a building permit until it receives a special use permit and meets any conditions that the Town may impose in it.

The Town Council authorized mixed-use group development zoning on June 7, 2022, when it held a public hearing on Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 22-06 and unanimously voted to enact an amended version of the ZTA, which Ginguite first proposed in a sketchy form in February 2022.

ZTA 22-06 added a “mixed-use group development of commercial and residential buildings” as a conditional or “special use” in the C general commercial district and specified the requirements for such developments. (See the amendment at Town Code 36-207(c)(11).) 

The Planning Board met publicly over a period of months in early 2022 with Mr. Gupta, cautiously considering how to support, yet regulate, mixed-use zoning, before it voted, 4-1, to recommend 1) denial of the ZTA presented by Mr. Gupta, which it viewed as insufficient, and 2) approval of its own version of the ZTA, labeled PB-ZTA 22-06. The Board’s ZTA included lot-coverage restrictions. Both ZTAs went to the Town Council for a hearing.

The Town Council approved a version of the ZTA promoted by Mayor Elizabeth Morey and Mayor Pro Tem Matt Neal that incorporated all of the language of PB-ZTA 22-06, except the Planning Board’s lot coverage restrictions. The Mayor opened discussions by framing the two choices that the Council had on lot coverage, neither of which was what the Planning Board had recommended. (See The Beacon, 6/10/22 and 6/20/22 for background and analysis.)

Four of the five current Town Council members—the exception being newly elected Councilman Robert Neilsen—supported the revised ZTA proposed by Mayor Morey and Mayor Pro Tem Neal, as well as the design plan for the Ginguite Creek project that Mr. Gupta presented, even though the ZTA was not site-specific.

There is no doubt from the public record that the Town Council enacted ZTA 22-06 with the SAGA/Ginguite project specifically in mind.     

As The Beacon previously reported, Mayor Morey, Mayor Pro Tem Neal, and Town Manager Cliff Ogburn met privately with Mr. Gupta on the morning that the Council held the public hearing on ZTA 22-06 and took its vote. The Beacon’s source on this meeting is the mayor herself.

Mr. Gupta stated during meetings with the Planning Board that he earlier had met with Planning Director/Deputy Town Manager Wes Haskett and other “Town officials” to negotiate the mixed-use ZTA. The Town shepherded both this ZTA and this project.

There was no public opposition during the Planning Board’s months of meeting publicly with Mr. Gupta to discuss ZTA 22-06. This period coincided with a time when The Beacon was on winter hiatus. 

We believe that legitimate questions can be raised about the review process of ZTA 22-06, both before the Planning Board and the Town Council. An argument can be made that the Planning Board should have had another round of review of the ZTA after it made amendments to Ginguite’s version, i.e., it created PB-ZTA 22-06, and the Town Council should have sent its own amended version of the ZTA back to the Planning Board for consideration before it voted.

The Town Attorney advised the Town Council that it could proceed with a vote.

The public would have been given notice and an opportunity to be heard at additional reviews of the revised ordinance.

PLANNING BOARD’S RECOMMENDATION OF DENIAL OF SUP

The Town Planning Board based its unanimous decision Nov. 20 to recommend a denial of Ginguite’s application principally on the allegedly deplorable state of the on-site wastewater treatment plant that currently serves the Southern Shores Landing, Ginguite’s neighbor to the east, and would serve the new development.

The Gupta family owns the wastewater treatment plant, which has been operated on an emergency basis since 2009 because of regulatory noncompliance. We are not aware of any action that the Guptas may have taken since Nov. 20 to correct the plant’s deficiencies.  

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 dysfunctionality of the plant, detailing numerous violations for which the owners have been cited.

“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 an infiltration pond.

The Planning Board also sought a 50-foot side-yard setback between Ginguite’s proposed development and the boundary line with the Southern Shores Landing (SSL).

Although SAGA expanded its original 15-foot side-yard setbacks with the SSL community to setbacks that varied along the boundary from 20 feet to 34 feet, the developer said it could not accommodate wider setbacks. Mr. Gupta argued that because the Landing is commercially zoned, Ginguite is not required by the Town Code to preserve more than a 15-foot setback.

Southern Shores residents turned out at every Planning Board meeting review of SUP 23-01 to express often impassioned opposition to the SAGA project. After the Board voted to deny the SUP, applause broke out in the audience.

A strong public turnout is expected Tuesday.

People who wish to comment about the proposed SAGA project and/or the requested SUP will be able to do so during two periods devoted to public comment, one scheduled before the quasi-judicial hearing and one after. Speakers must limit their remarks to three minutes. There will be sign-up sheets in the rear of the Pitts Center meeting room for those who wish to speak.

Any questions about the hearing should be directed to Mr. Haskett at whaskett@southernshores-nc.gov or 261-2394.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 1/4/23