The Town Council voted 4-1 at its meeting last Tuesday to reject a five-foot reduction in the minimum side- and rear-yard setbacks in the RS-1 residential district for the placement of pool and mechanical equipment, generators, and 144-square-foot accessory structures.
Mayor Pro Tem Matt Neal, a homebuilder, cast the dissenting vote.
The vote on Zoning Text Amendment 26-04 means setbacks in the primary residential district of Southern Shores remain 15 feet for the side-yard and 25 feet for the rear-yard.
ZTA 26-04 grew out of ZTA 26-01, which was submitted in March by a local general contractor who sought a reduction in the setback minimums so he could use a pool cabana that, as mistakenly constructed, infringed upon a setback by about eight inches.
The Town Council tabled ZTA 26-01 at its May 5 meeting and asked Town staff to prepare two more Zoning Text Amendments to address the factual circumstances raised by the contractor.
One, ZTA 26-03, would allow the Zoning Administrator—Wes Haskett, the Town’s Deputy Managing Editor/Planning Director—to approve up to a 10 percent reduction in “minimum yard requirements” when a good-faith, “honest mistake” by a builder has occurred.
The other, ZTA 26-04, altered ZTA 26-01 by adding generators to the equipment that could be placed five feet closer to a side- or rear-yard property line and reducing the size of allowable accessory structures from 150 square feet to 144 square feet.
The Beacon has extensively covered the language and the action taken by the Planning Board and the Town Council on all three of these ZTAs in recent posts. See The Beacon, 6/1/26, 5/25/26, 5/17/26, and 4/21/26.
All we can say is what a difference one person makes.
The Town Council held public hearings last Tuesday on ZTA 26-03 and ZTA 26-04, but not on ZTA 26-01, which was withdrawn by the contractor.
While Mr. Neal dissented from the majority opinion on ZTA 26-04, he joined the rest of his Council colleagues in approving the “honest-mistake” exception ZTA.
The Beacon will elaborate upon the Town Council’s discussion about the setbacks reduction proposal later in the week when we have more time.
Councilwoman Paula Sherlock, who was absent for the May meeting and is the one person to which we refer, led the opposition to ZTA 26-04, and Councilmen Mark Batenic and Rob Neilson quickly fell in behind her, after being rather noncommittal at the May meeting when ZTA 26-01 was discussed.
In May, it appeared inevitable that some version of the setbacks-reduction ZTA would be enacted, despite the Planning Board’s keen opposition.
Last week, as soon as Ms. Sherlock announced that she was a “no,” the pendulum swung against enactment. TBC.
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ZTA 26-02, EXCEPTIONS TO RECOMBINATION: The Town Council also unanimously approved ZTA 26-02, which excludes from mandatory recombination adjacent lots owned by the same ownership that are subject to development or redevelopment “when there is no proposed increase in the footprint of existing decks and/or stairs.” ZTA 26-02 amends Town Code section 36-132(2).
The primary reason the ordinance on mandatory recombination exists is because most of the land parcels sold and developed on Ocean Boulevard, Skyline Road, and other nearby beach-side roads were 100-foot-wide parcels consisting of two 50-foot-wide lots.
As we said before, Kitty Hawk Land Co. platted land in this manner so that buyers would feel like they were getting “two lots for the price of one.” According to developer and real estate agent David Stick in his memoirs, it was a salesmanship ploy. No buyers treated the parcels as two separate lots for development.
These sales occurred before the Town was incorporated, and the Town Council set minimum dimension standards for lots. The Town’s mandatory minimum lot width is 100 feet. The Town would like these 50-foot-wide lots to be “recombined” into one 100-foot-wide lot, so that the parcel “conforms” to the width requirement.
Recombination, however, is a costly and time-consuming effort, requiring a land survey (costing at least $1500) and preparation of a recombination plat; presentation of the recombination plat to the Town, which charges a fee of at least $100, for its approval; and registration of the recombination plat by the homeowner or his/her agent in the Register of Deeds office, which also charges a fee.
When homeowners are simply seeking building permits so that they can repair or replace decks and/or stairs on homes—many of them rental homes—that do not increase the development footprint, recombination constitutes an onerous burden. With the Town Council’s enactment of ZTA 26-02, that burden no longer exists.
FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 BUDGET: The Town Council also unanimously approved the Town Manager’s Recommended FY 2026-27 budget of $12,981,790. (See The Beacon, 6/1/26, for background.)
No one spoke during the public hearing on the budget.
As we previously observed, the Town will be buying a new fire engine. We now understand why Town Manager Cliff Ogburn wrote in his narrative accompanying the recommended budget that the fire engine will need to be under contract by July 2026, “with $1,255,000 payable in 2029.” (We quoted this remark in our 6/1/26 meeting preview.)
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Ogburn explained that “it takes three years to take possession” of a new fire engine, so the Town plans to order the truck in July and receive it in 2029. The expense for the fire engine will be in the FY 2029-30 budget.
When we elaborate on the Town Council’s discussion about the setbacks ZTA that it defeated, we also will address some aspects of the new budget.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 6/8/26
The Southern Shores Beacon 