2/3/25: BOTH BUYER AND SELLER OF DOLPHIN RUN PROPERTIES KNEW OF RECOMBINATION REQUIREMENT IN TOWN CODE SEC. 36-132; TOWN COUNCIL SHOULD NOT PASS ZTA 25-01, GIVING WEALTHY VIRGINIA INVESTOR AN EXEMPTION.

It has come to our attention that the sale listing for 23 and 27 Dolphin Run, which were sold as a “single offering,” clearly notified all prospective buyers that “Anyone thinking of developing this as two separate lots should make themselves informed regarding the Southern Shores Town Development Code Section 36-132.”

There is no mistaking this notification. The shame is that both of the brokers associated with this transaction are longtime Southern Shores homeowners.

The Town Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing tomorrow at its regular meeting to consider Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-01, which would give the purchaser of the three Dolphin Run lots, Melvin Garrison III of Fredericksburg, Va., an exemption from the recombination requirement of Code Sec. 36-132(a).

The current Town Code requires Mr. Garrison, doing business as Garrison Beach, LLC, to recombine all three lots into one. ZTA 25-01 allows Mr. Garrison to build on the two lots (43 and 44) that make up 23 Dolphin Run, without recombining them, and to maintain the third lot (45) separately. (Please see The Beacon’s reports on 1/28/25 and 1/31/25 for factual background and an aerial photo of the properties.)

The Town Could must not approve this ZTA.

According to realtor.com (listing content above), the listing agent for the Dolphin Run properties was John Leatherwood, a broker with Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty who goes by the name “the Sandman.”

Surely, Mr. Leatherwood knows after decades of doing business in Southern Shores how to read its Code of Ordinances: Section 36-132(a)(2)(e) clearly required his client to recombine the three lots comprising these properties before selling them. Mr. Leatherwood could have done more than notify prospective buyers of the recombination: He could have notified the Town of an impending sale.

The buyer was represented by broker Gray Berryman, who is with Carolina Designs Realty and has often appeared at Town Council meetings, most recently in The Beacon’s recollection, to advocate for sidewalks in town.

Mr. Berryman, a former member of the Town Planning Board, was one of the investors who profited from the purchase and division of a developed 100-foot-wide lot in the oceanside area of Southern Shores into two 50-foot-wide-lots—before the Town rewrote the nonconforming lots/recombination ordinance in 2018-2019 to unambiguously prevent what he did.

In fact, Mr. Berryman and his wife currently own two nonconforming lots in Southern Shores that escaped the reach of the new Town Code sec. 36-132: 22 Porpoise Run (7,500 square feet) and 172 Wax Myrtle Trail (10,000 square feet).

Mr. Berryman is quite familiar with the nonconforming lots controversy and the process that the Town went through in order to draft and enact the current version of Town Code sec. 36-132. ZTA 25-01 proposes to amend sec. 36-132(a) to give Mr. Berryman’s former client, Mr. Garrison, an exemption from recombination that is uniquely tailored to his personal situation. This should not be allowed.

In light of this background, we strongly urge the Town Council to reject ZTA 25-01 and to defend the nonconforming lots/recombination ordinance, as it is written and has been in effect for the past five years. Mr. Garrison should not be able to buy a change in the law of which he was aware, but simply chose to disregard.

The Town should defend the ordinance and the rest of the property owners in Southern Shores. It has the winning argument, and the money expended in proving it is worth it.

By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 2/3/25