The Southern Shores Planning Board will take up a strikingly altered version of a tree-removal ordinance that was proposed, then withdrawn and redrafted, by the Town, and consider the Town’s latest wording about minimum lot-width measurements for all residential districts, at its regular meeting Monday, to be held at 5 p.m. in the Pitts Center.
The meeting will be live-streamed on the Town’s You Tube website.
For the agenda, see https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/planning_board/meeting/3102/3-18-24_pb_meeting_agenda.pdf.
For the new tree-removal/permit ordinance, which amends the Town’s lot disturbance/stormwater management permit requirements and is proposed in Zoning Text Amendment 24-02, see https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/planning_board/meeting/3102/3-11-24_zta-24-02_tree_removal.pdf.
For the lot-width measurement changes proposed for all residential districts, as well as the government/institutional district, in Zoning Text Amendment 23-05, see https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/planning_board/meeting/3102/3-14-24_zta-23-05_lot_width.pdf.
STORMWATER PERMITS/TREE REMOVAL
Originally included in ZTA 24-01, which, according to Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett’s meeting report to the Planning Board, was approved, with revisions, by the Town Council at its March 12 meeting, ZTA 24-02 now applies only to the commercial district and not to any Southern Shores residential districts. It also applies only to trees in setback zones.
(Regretfully, we have not had an opportunity yet to review the March 12 meeting videotape, except for its end, which we checked to learn who was appointed to the Planning Board. See below.)
The now independent and revised ZTA 24-02 proposes amending Town Code sec. 36-171, which concerns lot disturbance and stormwater management (“LDSM”), to require a landowner to obtain an LDSM permit in order to remove trees greater than 6 inches in diameter that are measured at 4.5 feet above the ground and are within a front-, side-, or rear-yard setback “on any unimproved lot in the general commercial zoning district.”
These are significant changes from ZTA 24-01, which required permits for such tree removal on “any” unimproved lot, not just commercial lots, and covered tree removals from any location on a lot.
(See The Beacon, 2/18/24, for our reporting on the original ordinance.)
Question: Who is responsible for watering down a proposed change that we viewed as good stewardship and community protection by the Town?
Answer: Clearly someone who has authority over the Town staff.
If the point of the newly required permit is to guard against stormwater runoff into adjacent properties and roadways caused by the removal of old-growth trees, then ZTA 24-02 should address all unimproved lots, not just those in the commercial district. We urge the Planning Board to take that position under consideration.
The Beacon would go a step further and impose a permit requirement for such tree removal on all lots, regardless of whether they are improved or not.
Increasingly, we see new homeowners taking down large trees soon after they move in.
Stormwater runoff is a major hazard in Southern Shores, and causing it is not an “individual property right.” The Town owes it to the community to guard against runoff, when it has the means to do so.
ZTA 24-02 provides civil penalties for a commercial property owner’s failure to obtain a permit to remove trees greater than 6 inches in diameter measured at 4.5 feet above ground in a yard- setback space. It proposes that each tree removed in violation be viewed as a separate offense and requires the Town to issue a warning citation to an offender before taking enforcement action.
The offender has 30 days after receiving the warning to “abate” the violation by replacing the removed tree with a tree “similar in size.” If this is not done, the ZTA proposes that the Town may fine the offender, as outlined in Town Code sec. 1-6(d), which imposes a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation, and establishes that each day that a violation exists is another violation.
LOT WIDTH ZTA
The minimum lot width required by the Town Code varies according to the zoning district. It is 100 feet in the RS-1 single family residential district and the R-1 low-density residential district; 75 feet in the RS-8 multifamily residential district and the RS-10 residential district; and 50 feet in the government and institutional district.
Question: At what point—i.e., where—on a lot is width measured?
The Town staff tried a year ago to make the answer to this question less ambiguous in the Town Code than it was. This turned out to be a difficult task that was not achieved.
On June 6, 2023, the Town Council voted 3-2 to enact a stopgap ordinance on minimum lot width that had the effect of requiring all lots created after June 6 to be rectangular, i.e., uniform in width throughout, while the staff continued to work on a revision. The stopgap meant that a conforming lot on a cul-de-sac could not be created.
The two dissenting Council members were Mayor Pro Team Matt Neal, who wanted to resolve definitional difficulties last year and not delay, and Councilwoman Paula Sherlock, who supported him.
ZTA 23-05 proposes new definitions for “building setback line,” a demarcation that has been used to determine the point at which width is to be measured on a lot, and “lot width,” amending Town Code section 36-57.
The proposed definition in ZTA 23-05 for building setback line is the “line parallel to or concentric with the front lot line establishing the allowable distance between the front lot line and the nearest portion of any building, [etc.].”
In the RS-1 district, where most of us live, for example, the Code provides that the minimum width of all lots is 100 feet “measured at the building setback line.”
For those lots that front on a cul-de-sac, ZTA 23-05 proposes that the building setback line is “25 feet from the front lot line, or the point where the lot is 100 feet wide, whichever distance is closer to the front lot line.”
For all other lots, ZTA 23-05 proposes that the building setback line is “25 feet from the front lot line.”
This same language is repeated in the width requirements for the other districts mentioned above.
Is it unambiguous? Is it reasonable?
Does it help to know that the Town Code defines the front lot line as “the line separating said lot from that street which is designated as the front street on the building permit, certificate of occupancy, or subdivision plat”?
We leave it to the Planning Board to sort out the ZTA and decide.
Regretfully, again, we are unable to cover the Planning Board’s deliberations at its Monday meeting. We will try to catch up with zoning issues before the Town Council’s April meeting, which is April 9.
CHARLIE RIES JOINS PLANNING BOARD
The Town Council unanimously approved Charlie Ries’s appointment to the Planning Board as the Board’s Second Alternate.
Current Second Alternate Michael Zehner will move up to the First Alternate position, from which Dan Fink recently resigned, thereby creating the vacancy.
Mr. Fink’s appointment was set to expire June 30, 2024.
The Town had two applicants for the alternate position: Mr. Ries and Richard W. Filling.
Before nominating Mr. Ries for the appointment, Mayor Elizabeth Morey, who said she met with both applicants, borrowed a phrase from Planning Board Chairperson Andy Ward in describing them both as “totally over-qualified.”
According to his application, Mr. Ries spent three decades in U.S. diplomatic service, concentrating on economic affairs and Europe. After leaving the State Department, he joined RAND Corporation as a Senior Fellow and went on to serve eight years as Vice President, International, overseeing the non-profit global research organization’s three international offices.
Mr. Ries’s appointment takes effect immediately and runs through June 30, 2027. He lives on South Dogwood Trail.
Mr. Filling is an engineer who had a 30-year career with Baltimore Gas & Electric, during which he acquired extensive experience in land development and zoning projects, according to his application. He had a second career as a home improvement contractor and finish carpenter. Mr. Filling has been active with Better Beaches, N.E.S.T., and the SSVFD. He lives in Chicahauk.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/16/24
The Southern Shores Beacon 