One person died and another person was rescued yesterday after the ultra-light glider in which they were riding crashed into the ocean near 120 Ocean Blvd. in Southern Shores, according to news releases by the Town of Southern Shores.
The Town reported that the aircraft malfunctioned and crashed around 10 a.m. yesterday. One of its passengers was rescued and safely brought to shore soon after it fell into the ocean, the Town said. The body of the second passenger was recovered yesterday about 3 p.m.
Neither of the glider passengers is being identified at this time.
Some television media sources reported that the rescued passenger was injured in the crash. They described the aircraft alternately as a hang glider.
In April 2020 a Kill Devil Hills man drowned after his motorized paraglider crashed into the ocean near Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills, and he became entangled in his harness.
Numerous first responders participated in yesterday’s search, rescue, and recovery, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Dept., the Southern Shores Ocean Rescue, the Duck Fire and Rescue, the Southern Shores Police Dept., and the Kill Devil Hills Surf Rescue, according to the Town. Survey boats being used in the nearby beach nourishment effort were also employed.
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Weeks Marine crews started laying the dredge discharge pipe, also known as the sub-line, on Tuesday near 60 Ocean Blvd. Dredges will come close to the shore, hook up to this line, and start pumping sand that was collected at another location farther south and offshore. Pumping will start after Hurricane Fiona passes offshore, according to the Town.
Weeks Marine will section off the active construction area. Beachgoers will be able to access the oceanfront on either side of this area.
The Town will provide periodic updates on the beach nourishment project on the Town website. The sand pumping in the 60 Ocean Blvd. sub-line will proceed south and tie in at the town line with the Kitty Hawk project.
(We regret that we have not been in Southern Shores this week to report on this news firsthand.)
Equipment on the beach at the Trout Run access awaits deployment for the nourishment project.
The Town Council will receive an extensive quarterly budget review from Town staff at its Tuesday morning meeting that, according to meeting materials posted on the Town website just yesterday, will include discussion of an updated capital improvement plan, assessment/analysis of the Town’s unassigned fund balance, and an overview of the Town’s current financial status and upcoming major capital expenses.
This review is described in those materials by Town Manager Cliff Ogburn as the “initial” quarterly review in a budget update reporting framework requested by the Town Council. Mr. Ogburn is proposing that next year’s reviews be held in January, April, and October.
The Town Council, which adopts its new fiscal-year budget in June after a mandatory public hearing, will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Pitts Center.
We consider it regrettable that the Council meeting agenda notice, which was published Sept. 13—a week before the meeting date—made no mention of a quarterly budget review and that Mr. Ogburn did not refer to such a review when he gave notice of Tuesday’s meeting at the Town Council’s Sept. 6 meeting.
The agenda says only, “Budget Items for Discussion,” and lists three broad topics, without context; Mr. Ogburn only alluded publicly to budget issues. The meeting materials were posted on the Town website a day later than such materials are customarily posted.
As we noted in our 9/15/22 post, we are unable to cover the Tuesday meeting, as well as the Planning Board meeting on Monday, but we will watch the Town Council meeting videotape and report to the Southern Shores public as soon as possible about significant budget news.
We commend to your attention now the Town’s proposed capital improvement plan, which has been reduced from 10 years to five years. You will find it on pages 45-48 of the meeting materials.
Residents will find proposed future sidewalk construction, which has been mentioned only in passing in Town Council meetings, of substantial interest. The Town has prioritized what it calls “future path segments” as follows:
Priority 1A: Ocean Boulevard, from the cell tower Triangle to East Dogwood Trail
Priority 1B: Ocean Boulevard, from East Dogwood Trail to Hickory Trail
Priority 2A: Hickory Trail, from East Dogwood Trail to N.C. Hwy. 12 (Duck Road)
Priority 2B: Hickory Trail, from Duck Road to the beach access
Priority 3: Hillcrest Drive, from Hickory Trail to Duck Road
Priority 4A: Sea Oats Trail, from East Dogwood Trail to Hillcrest Drive
Priority 4B: Sea Oats Trail, from Hillcrest Drive to Duck Road
Priority 5: Wax Myrtle Trail, from East Dogwood Trail to Hillcrest Drive
Priority 6: Chicahauk Trail, from the cul-de-sac to Trinite Trail
Priority 7: Skyline Drive: entire length
Priority 8A: N.C. Hwy 12, from U.S. Hwy. 158 to East Dogwood Trail
Priority 8B: N.C. Hwy 12, from East Dogwood Trail to 13th Avenue
According to the meeting materials, if all of these sidewalks were five feet wide and four inches thick, their total estimated construction cost would be $524,462.40. If the proposed sidewalks were eight feet wide and six inches thick—and, therefore, constitute multi-use pathways—their total estimated construction cost would be $1,198,538.88.
The Town has already committed to spending $1 million per fiscal year for at least 10 fiscal years to the street pavement maintenance plan, which started this fiscal year, although the work done in August and this month was originally scheduled for 2021.
At the Sept. 6 meeting, Mr. Ogburn raised the possibility of continuing with the pavement work scheduled for 2022, which was to be year two, in this fiscal year, and, thus, spending more than what was budgeted in FY 2022-23 for this purpose.
We refer you to the street-by-street pavement maintenance schedule that appears on pages 49-60 of the meeting materials so that you may know when your street will be serviced.
The Town did an excellent job of previewing this work and publicizing the maintenance schedule, including holding a public forum with the contractor, but residents were still caught unaware when construction started in August. We encourage you to sign up for the Town’s newsletter so you will be informed about public works projects and other public services. (NOTE: The seasonal Friday garbage collection has been suspended. Trash is now being collected only on Monday.)
The Town Council has made no secret of the need to raise property taxes in FY 2023-24. If you peruse the capital improvement plan, you will be reminded of some of the Town’s continuing capital obligations and learn of proposed additional spending. Among the former are the annual $1,202,939 debt for beach nourishment over the next five fiscal years and the annual $314,020 obligation for the 30-year loan that funded the fire station construction. Twenty-five years remain on this debt service.
Besides a request for additional funding for the streets in FY 22-23, Town staff is also seeking approval of a new budget appropriation of about $1 million to pay for replacement of the Trinitie Trail Culvert at the Trinitie Trail Bridge in Chicahauk.
Personnel from Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., a surveying, engineering, and planning/design firm based in Raleigh with whom the Town contracted, will present their findings regarding options for replacing the existing aluminum pipe arch culvert at the bridge before the Town Council discusses budgetary matters. These options are detailed in the meeting materials.
Staff also seeks an increase in the annual appropriation for canal dredging and maintenance—from $20,000 to $50,000—and a one-time “contribution” for such maintenance this fiscal year of $100,000.
DARE CAMPGROUNDS DUE REFUND FOR OCCUPANCY TAXES
In another financial hit, the Town of Southern Shores is being required to refund some of the monies that it received from Dare County in its distribution of occupancy taxes because Dare incorrectly collected occupancy taxes from campgrounds which, by N.C. statute, are not required to remit them.
Occupancy taxes are typically paid by any lodging property that also pays sales tax, such as hotels and motels, bed-and-breakfasts, and short-term rental homes, including Airbnb housing. We would be curious to know why Dare thought they should be applied to campgrounds, which don’t rent out rooms.
According to a meeting agenda item summary by Mr. Ogburn, the Town may be liable for a maximum refund of $165,000 and a minimum refund of $50,000, depending on the statute of limitations applied for the overpayments. The minimum would apply, he explains, if the statute of limitations is only three years.
The Town Council will likely approve Tuesday a resolution that authorizes the Town Manager to refund the Town’s share of the overpayments of occupancy taxes. This resolution appears in the meeting materials on page two. (Resolution 2022-09-03.)
If three years is the minimum statute of limitations being considered and the Town faces a maximum exposure of $165,000, Dare County clearly was in ignorance of the state law for far longer than any competent county government should be.
Dare County shares occupancy tax revenues with all six municipalities and the Dare County Tourism Bureau and uses a percentage of these taxes to finance its Beach Nourishment Fund.
Furniture is acceptable for pickup, but should be placed roadside.
The fall bulk trash collection will be Friday, Oct. 7. The Town asks that you not place items in a street right-of-way for pickup before Friday, Sept. 30.
For details about what is and is not approved for pickup, and where you may dispose of unapproved items, see:
The items most often mistakenly put out for collection, and rejected, are building materials, including lumber, lumber scraps, roofing, doors, windows, screens, stairs, cabinets, and demolition debris. Carpets, rugs, televisions, water heaters, and toilets are also unacceptable.
All yard waste/vegetative debris must be bagged in clear or brown paper bags for it to be collected.
TOWN MEETINGS
The Town Planning Board will meet Monday at 5 p.m., and the Town Council will meet Tuesday at 9 a.m., both in the Pitts Center.
The Beacon will not be covering these meetings.
Heading the Planning Board agenda is continued consideration of Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 21-08, which is a rewrite of Town Code sections pertaining to the regulation of signs. Former Town Attorney Ben Gallop was to do a final legal review of the ZTA before the Board signed off on the Code changes.
This is basically a housekeeping ZTA. The maximum building height in town is 35 feet.
The most interesting agenda item before the Planning Board is a discussion of potential design standards for new commercial construction and, perhaps, for remodeled and substantially improved commercial buildings. The Board has not yet defined its focus.
No commercial design standards currently exist. The Board has expressed an interest in creating some in the wake of the Town Council’s approval of mixed-use commercial-residential developments in the commercial district.
The principal issue on the Town Council’s agenda for its Tuesday morning meeting is the budget.
Weeks Marine, the Town’s beach nourishment contractor, will begin delivering construction equipment to the Trout Run beach access tomorrow, and plans to have its crews set the pipe for pumping sand onshore at 60 Ocean Blvd. as early as Thursday or Friday, the Town of Southern Shores announced this afternoon.
Project sand pumping could start at 60 Ocean Blvd. as early as Saturday and head south to the Southern Shores-Kitty Hawk town limit, the announcement said.
The Trout Run beach access, which is next to 168 Ocean Blvd., will remain open unless Weeks Marines crews are actively using it to load and unload equipment, the Town said.
Town Manager Cliff Ogburn has previously reported that there will be three dredging “sub-lines” in Southern Shores, two in addition to the 60 Ocean Blvd. sub-line.
At the Sept. 6 Town Council meeting, Mr. Ogburn said that Weeks Marine was going to try to move a crew up from Kitty Hawk to this area in mid-September to start the project. Sand pumping will occur elsewhere in town when crews are available.
Weekend barricades on the residential cut-through routes will no longer be used this year.
The Town Council unanimously approved dance and group fitness establishments as permissible businesses in the Town’s general commercial district and the installation of a crosswalk at 10th Avenue and N.C. Hwy. 12 (Duck Road) in a meeting last night that lasted about an hour.
The Council also unanimously approved a preliminary subdivision plat submitted by the property owners of 267 Hillcrest Drive to divide their 122,376 square-foot lot into two lots, both of which would meet Town zoning requirements.
(See The Beacon, 9/2/22, for background on the meeting agenda.)
All of these actions were expected and, in the case of the dance/fitness studio addition to the permissible uses of property in the commercial district (Zoning Text Amendment 22-09) and the subdivision plat, were recommended unanimously by the Town Planning Board. (See The Beacon, 8/11/22 and 8/16/22.) The N.C. Dept. of Transportation recommended the 10th Avenue crosswalk.
The only “wrinkle” in the approval process occurred when Mila Smith, the owner/operator of Atlantic Dance in Kill Devil Hills, informed the Council during remarks she made in the public hearing for ZTA 22-09, that she would not be moving her studio to Southern Shores after all. When questioned by Councilwoman Paula Sherlock about the change in her plans, Ms. Smith, who submitted the application for ZTA 22-09, revealed that the commercial space “we had our hearts set on” had been leased.
Although Ms. Smith never identified the prospective location for Atlantic Dance, Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett told The Beacon at the Aug. 15 Planning Board meeting that it was a space in the Southern Shores Crossing. He said the same last night in response to a query from the Council.
The ZTA, which the Town Council enthusiastically approved, adds “group fitness, aerobics, dance, karate, yoga, gym, and/or weight training” to the list of permissible service establishments in the commercial district. (See Town Code 36-207(b)(3).)
Also yesterday, Town Manager Cliff Ogburn announced that the probable starting date for the Town’s beach nourishment project, which is expected to take 43 days, is now Oct. 2 and that the street paving work that was slated for the first year of the Town’s new 10-year paving maintenance plan is done.
Although some of the street work may look like “a patchwork quilt,” Mr. Ogburn explained–as he has previously–that all streets will eventually have a smooth overlay on them.
Mr. Ogburn referred the Council and residents, many of whom apparently have complained to him about how some of the streets look, to Hickory Trail, east of Duck Road; Soundview Trail; and Chicahauk Trail as examples of how all the streets will look when the overlays are complete.
The Town Manager also reported that last weekend was the last time this year that the road barricades will be used on the residential cut-through routes.
In his update, Mr. Haskett reported that since May, when the changes in the Town’s solid waste ordinance took effect, the Town has issued 63 warning citations to property owners of ordinance violations, the majority of them on Ocean Boulevard and Duck Road. He did not detail the nature of the warnings.
PUBLIC COMMENTS OF NOTE
In public comments last night, Tony DiBernardo, who lives on Ninth Avenue, which NCDOT also considered for a crosswalk on Duck Road, complained about the condition of the walkway on the east side of the thoroughfare, calling it “atrocious.”
Mr. DiBernardo, who also serves as vice chair on the Planning Board, said he has been writing to Town Council members for the past six years about repairing and improving the walkway, but has received little response. He exhorted the current Council to put some budgetary dollars into maintaining the walkway—before it authorizes the construction of a walkway on the west side.
In other comments, homeowner Len Schmitz, of Wax Myrtle Trail, addressed the Town Council’s recent decision to ask NCDOT to lower the speed limit on N.C. Hwy. 12 to 35 mph, year-round. Citing the potential use of the road by “golf carts,” Mr. Schmitz noted safety concerns with such vehicles and expressed a preference for a 40 mph speed limit on the thoroughfare.
Currently, the speed limit on N.C. 12 is 45 mph, except from May 15 through Sept. 15 when the speed limit drops to 35 mph from the Kitty Hawk town line north to Trout Run.
As The Beacon reported 8/3/22, the Town Council’s unanimous approval of a year-round 35 mph speed limit on N.C. 12 cleared the way for low-speed vehicle (LSV) drivers to use the thoroughfare at all times, a consequence that elected officials did not discuss during their deliberations.
No one on the Town Council responded to Mr. Schmitz.
LSVs are motorized electric or gasoline-powered four-wheeled vehicles that generally do not travel at more than 25 mph. Regular golf carts are not LSVs, but there are LSV golf carts.
LSVs must meet State of North Carolina requirements and be licensed in order for them to be street legal.
According to N.C. General Statutes sec. 20-121.1(1) low-speed vehicles may be operated only on roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or lower.
Mr. Schmitz clarified with The Beacon today through Facebook that he would maintain the higher speed on Duck Road year-round and support the lower 35 mph limit only for the section of Ocean Boulevard between the Kitty Hawk town line and the cell tower/Duck Road split. (We hope we got that right!)
We agree in part with Mr. Schmitz. We support a 40 mph speed limit on N.C. 12, except from May 15 through Sept. 15, when we favor a 35 mph limit on the entire stretch of the road, not just in the Ocean Boulevard area.
OCTOBER MAYOR’S CHAT: Mayor Elizabeth Morey announced that she will hold another Mayor’s Chat on Wed., Oct. 19, at 4 p.m.
The Planning Board next meets on Sept. 19 at 5 p.m.; and the Town Council will hold a morning session on Sept. 20 at 9 a.m., to discuss budgetary issues and the next phase in the street paving maintenance plan. The Beacon will preview the agenda for each of these meetings.
All of the meetings will be held in the Pitts Center.
The Town Council will consider at its regular meeting Tuesday approving the installation of a crosswalk on Duck Road (N.C. Hwy. 12) at 10th Avenue, an action endorsed by the N.C. Dept. of Transportation after a traffic safety study recommended one.
The NCDOT would pay for the crosswalk installation, while the Town of Southern Shores would cover the cost for overhead solar lights up to $4,000, according to an agenda item prepared by Town Manager Cliff Ogburn for the meeting.
The Council will meet Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center behind Town Hall.
The Council’s meeting agenda is remarkably light for its first post-summer session. Besides a discussion of the 10th Avenue crosswalk, the Council will hold public hearings on two matters that The Beacon covered last month in Planning Board reports:
1) a preliminary subdivision plat submitted by the property owners of 267 Hillcrest Drive, which is a 122,376 square-foot lot that they propose to divide into two lots; and
2) a Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA 22-09) to amend the applicable Town Code sections to allow dance and assorted fitness establishments in the Town’s commercial district.
For background on the subdivision plat, which the Planning Board unanimously approved, and ZTA 22-09, which was introduced by Mila Smith, the owner of Atlantic Dance in Kill Devil Hills, and unanimously recommended for approval by the Board with amended language that would allow establishments for “fitness, aerobics, dance, karate, yoga, gym, and/or weight training,” see The Beacon, 8/16/22 and 8/11/22.
Lest there be any confusion—which we have heard expressed—we would like to emphasize that ZTA 22-09 applies only to the commercial district and not to any residential districts. If the zoning change is approved, Ms. Smith will not be able to operate her dance studio or a gym or any other fitness business next door to your home or on your residential block.
The Town currently permits residents to operate “small-scale” home-based businesses, but it strictly controls them to ensure that their conduct is “subordinate” to neighbors’ “property right of quiet enjoyment.” (See Town Code secs. 36-239 to -42.)
Also Tuesday, Mr. Ogburn will give updates on the beach nourishment project and the street paving maintenance schedule. At the Council’s August meeting, Mr. Ogburn reported a projected start for beach dredging of mid- to late-September. We expect that timing to be delayed.
POTENTIAL 10th AVENUE CROSSWALK
The proposed new crosswalk has come about because residents who live on the west side of the northern end of Duck Road approached the Town Manager about the installation of an additional crosswalk. He responded to their request.
According to Mr. Ogburn’s agenda item, the State Traffic Safety Engineer and a consultant from VNB Engineering evaluated the Town’s crosswalks in a “cursory review” and recommended that one be installed at Duck Road and 10th Avenue on the southern leg. Crosswalks at Duck Road and west-side 9th and 12th avenues, which, like 10th Avenue, dead-end into cul de sacs, were also considered.
There is already a crosswalk at Duck Road and 11th Avenue, which intersects with Sea Oats Trail on its west end, although there is no traffic light control at this intersection. Traffic light-controlled intersections exist at Hillcrest Trail, which is just south of 9th Avenue, and at Sea Oats Trail, which becomes 13th Avenue on the east side. The Duck town line is just north of 13th Avenue.
It would appear from meeting agenda materials that the reason 10th Avenue was selected for a crosswalk instead of 9th Avenue or 12th Avenue is because of its distance from the traffic-controlled intersections. A 12th Avenue crosswalk, according to remarks in the materials, is of “lesser priority” because of the avenue’s “proximity” to the 13th Avenue crosswalk, from which it is 448 feet away.
Ninth Avenue is reportedly just 415 feet from the Hillcrest Trail intersection, whereas 10th Avenue is 883 feet from the Hillcrest intersection and 1393 feet from the Sea Oats intersection. It is 485 feet from the 11th Avenue crosswalk, but this crossing, as stated, is not traffic-controlled.
It seems to us that all residents on the west side of these avenues are deserving of crosswalks, especially in light of the fact that there is no sidewalk on their side of Duck Road. The approved reduction of the speed limit on all of N.C. Hwy 12 from 45 mph to 35 mph, year-round, will help make all pedestrian crossings on Duck Road easier and safer.
DIGGING DEEP BEACH HOLES
We conclude our preview of the Town Council’s upcoming meeting with mention of a rather unusual document that appears in the Town Council’s consent agenda.
The consent agenda is rarely discussed by Council members, who typically approve it perfunctorily at the beginning of their meeting.
The unusual document in next week’s consent agenda is titled “Town of Southern Shores Resolution in Support of Legislation Concerning Digging Dangerous Holes on the Beach,” and it “expresses” support of “state legislation [that] would increase our capacity to address the incredibly dangerous issue of holes on the beach.”
The whereas clauses of the resolution outline the dangers of “large beach holes,” including the possibility of their collapse resulting in the deaths of people and “marine life” (sea turtles are very vulnerable) trapped in them, as well as damage to vehicles driven on the beach by people who cannot see them, and conclude with a request that the State of North Carolina enact legislation that would “provide stronger enforcement mechanisms” than are available in local ordinances for their prevention.
In May, the Town of Kill Devil Hills issued a public plea to beachgoers about the dangers of digging deep holes on the oceanfront, just hours before an 18-year-old man was reported to have died when he became trapped in a hole he and his sister were digging on a New Jersey beach.
At that time KDH released a photograph of an Ocean Rescue supervisor standing in an abandoned deep beach hole, with his arms outstretched and a look of frustration on his face, and characterized such holes as a common hazard.
The proposed resolution mentions the N.J. fatality as well as data from a Harvard medical professor who studied sand-hole collapses and reported 52 cases in the United States from 1997 to 2007. We recall the death of a man in Salvo in 2014 who was trapped when sand collapsed on him while he was reportedly tunneling between two six-foot-deep holes he had dug.
The Town of Southern Shores makes “unlawful” the “excessive digging or mounding of sand” that “presents a present, dangerous condition [or is] left for any period of time . . .” Town Code sec. 35-55(b)(3). We would be curious to know the history of this ordinance’s enforcement and why the Town believes it needs State involvement to prevent this danger from occurring on its beaches.
GARBAGE WILL BE PICKED UP ON LABOR DAY: Town-wide trash collection will occur Monday, as usual, but please note that today is the last day for a trash pickup on Friday. The recycling collection day will not change: It will continue to be Friday.
We don’t have any artwork to illustrate this blog post, so we thought you might like to see some other local youngsters who participated in the Southern Shores Boat Club’s crabbing tournament earlier this month. (Photo by Deidre Howard)
The Planning Board unanimously voted to recommend the addition of various group fitness and dance establishments as permitted uses in the Town’s general commercial district and approved a preliminary subdivision plat submitted by the owners of an oversized lot at 267 Hillcrest Drive at its regular monthly meeting yesterday.
The Board also received an overview from attorney Jay Wheless, who represents the Town’s Board of Adjustment (BOA), about the BOA’s hearing procedure in anticipation of an upcoming appeal by an aggrieved property owner of a Town zoning decision.
The Planning Board also sits as the Board of Adjustment, which is a quasi-judicial body that decides issues of fact and makes legal decisions in certain zoning matters, but only two of the Board’s current five regular members have participated in a hearing. Neither of the Board’s two alternates has taken part in one.
(For background on the Board’s business agenda yesterday, see The Beacon, 8/11/22.)
The Planning Board actually recommended approval of an edited and expanded version of Zoning Text Amendment 22-09, which was submitted by Mila Smith, the owner and operator of Atlantic Dance, and proposed to add “group fitness-aerobics/dance/karate/yoga” to the permitted “service establishments” in the commercial district.
The language the Board recommended replaces hyphens with commas and adds two more fitness examples so that the use now reads “group fitness, aerobics, dance, karate, yoga, gym, and/or weight training.”
Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett clarified that “similar uses not specifically listed” also would be considered permissible under this language. He told The Beacon that the original language of the ZTA was based on a Nags Head ordinance.
Ms. Smith, whose business is currently located in the Dare Centre in Kill Devil Hills, submitted ZTA 22-09 as a required first step to moving into Southern Shores. In remarks she made to the Planning Board yesterday during the ZTA’s hearing, Ms. Smith said she was “looking to move to a safer unit that functions properly.”
She also mentioned that the majority of her students, who are girls who come for lessons after-school, live in Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk. (See The Beacon, 8/11/22, for more details about Ms. Smith’s application.)
Mr. Haskett confirmed with The Beacon that Ms. Smith is looking at a location in the Southern Shores Crossing.
(Some of you may remember, as we do, that a small fitness facility once operated in the Crossing. Mr. Haskett did not know its history. It ceased operation some time ago.)
Planning Board members said very little about the preliminary subdivision plat submitted by Matthew and Allison Cassella, Chicahauk homeowners who purchased the large, irregularly shaped property at 267 Hillcrest Drive in May and now seek to subdivide it into two lots.
The Hillcrest property, which already has a single-family dwelling and other improvements on it, consists of 122,376 square feet, well in excess of the Town’s minimum lot size requirement of 20,000 square feet. The two lots that the Cassellas propose creating through what Mr. Cassella called in brief remarks before the Board a “conservative subdivision” also would be well in excess of 20,000 square feet each. Each would be at least 100 feet wide and have at least 30 feet of frontage on the public right of way, as required by Town ordinance.
Mr. Cassella said that he and his wife are dividing the lot into two for their children, so that each will have a home in Southern Shores.
UPCOMING BOA APPEAL
The appeal that the Board of Adjustment expects to hear, and for which Mr. Wheless was preparing members, is of the Town’s denial of a recombination plat that the owners of 55 Skyline Road submitted, according to Mr. Haskett, who spoke with The Beacon after the meeting.
According to the Dare County gis, the Skyline Road property is vacant and consists of 80,000 square feet or 1.8365 acres. The owner of record is Skyline Oaks Properties LLC, which formed in July 2021 and purchased the property on Aug. 19, 2021. According to public records, Planning Board member Robert McClendon is an owner and the registered agent of the LLC, which uses his home address as its business address.
During yesterday’s meeting, Mr. McClendon asked his fellow Planning Board members if any of them were “aware of the appeal that’s coming up.” Board chairperson Andy Ward quickly acknowledged that he was, and member Ed Lawler said he was, as well, in “a rough way.”
Impartiality by members of the joint Planning Board-Board of Adjustment is a huge problem, we believe, when the BOA hears appeals of Town zoning decisions, which is why The Beacon has long championed the re-establishment of a BOA separate from the Planning Board. The decision being appealed to the BOA by an aggrieved property owner is always one made by Mr. Haskett, with whom the Planning Board works hand-in-glove. The Planning Board represents the Town, and it is the Town that opposes a property owner in a BOA appeal.
Before April 1, 2014, Southern Shores had two boards, with no overlapping members. In the interest of fairness, it should restore that status. All other towns on the Outer Banks have separate planning boards and boards of adjustment.
As Mr. Wheless explained yesterday, any decision that the BOA makes on an appeal must be supported by three of the five members. Mr. McClendon obviously will have to recuse himself. That already two other Planning Board members know about the appeal and, therefore, have talked about it, most likely with Mr. Haskett, is a red flag.
The Beacon will delve into the facts and law pertaining to the appeal at a date closer to the hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, but will not occur before Sept. 19, according to Mr. Haskett.
THE TOWN COUNCIL REACHES OUT
Town Councilman Leo Holland spoke during public comments yesterday to “get into the record” how he responded to two emails that he received from Chairperson Ward regarding the Council’s approval of a significantly different version of a Zoning Text Amendment establishing mixed-use developments in the commercial district than the one recommended by the Planning Board.
We refer you to The Beacon’s 7/19/22 article for details about these emails, which Mr. Ward read into the record at the Planning Board’s July 18 meeting. In short, he described the gap between the two town bodies as a “bit of a disconnect” and expressed strong opposition to the lot coverage that the Council approved for mixed-use, saying it had “strayed from our founders’ original vision of Southern Shores which speaks to land use that naturally protects environmental resources and fragile areas by limiting development and growth.”
According to Mr. Ward, neither the Mayor nor any other members of the Town Council acknowledged his first email, which was dated June 8, so he sent a second one a week later with the subject, “Reply?” In this email, he questioned Council members’ lack of a response and wrote: “Respect should not get in the way of different viewpoints.”
Mr. Holland said yesterday that he “interpreted” the June 8 email “as not requiring a comment” and mentioned that, in fact, an unnamed Council member had responded.
He further explained that he responded to Mr. Ward’s second email within two hours of receiving it. Since then, Mr. Holland said, “he and I have had some discussion.”
It was not “the intent” of the Town Council to “ignore” the Planning Board, the Councilman concluded.
Henley Totten (left) and Hayes Russell display their $30 cash prizes for catching the most crabs and the largest crab, respectively, among pre-teen participants in the SSCA Boat Club’s first annual crabbing tournament for young people held last Saturday. Teenagers Penelope and Addison Greene won prizes in the older age group. Also pictured are SSBC members Eric Howard (blue shirt) and George Kirby. (Photo by Deidre Howard)
The Town Planning Board will consider adding various fitness and dance studios to the permitted uses of property in the commercial district and allowing Hillcrest Drive property owners to subdivide their oversized lot into two buildable lots at its meeting Monday at 5 p.m. in the Pitts Center.
The Board also is expected to discuss the procedure for appeals before the Town Board of Adjustment, which is a quasi-judicial body that hears requests for zoning variances and appeals of zoning decisions by Town administrative officials.
Since April 1, 2014, the Planning Board also has served as the Board of Adjustment.
Mila Smith, the owner and operator of Atlantic Dance in Kill Devil Hills, has submitted a Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) to add “group fitness-aerobics/dance/karate/yoga” to the list of permitted “service establishments” in the Town’s C general commercial district. The change would appear as new Town Code sec. 36-207(b)(3)(g).
Ms. Smith’s ZTA 22-09 also would establish a minimum parking requirement for off-street parking for “group fitness-aerobics/dance/karate/yoga” service establishments of “one parking space for each 250 square feet of gross floor space.” This change would create a new Town Code sec. 36-163(4)(b)(7).
In a letter sent to the Town, Ms. Smith says she has operated Atlantic Dance in the Dare Centre in Kill Devil Hills for the past 27 years and is looking to move to “a new location that is better suited for our needs.”
She does not identify a commercial space in Southern Shores for her business’s relocation, but she does mention the “opportunity to dance and grow in a beautiful new space.”
According to Ms. Smith, the “majority of our 175 dance families live in the Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk area.”
No explanation is given in the Planning Board meeting materials for why Ms. Smith is seeking an addition to the permitted service establishments that includes “group fitness-aerobics,” “karate,” and “yoga,” as well as dance. While we do not object to the inclusions, we do think the language could be tidier.
Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett has recommended that the Planning Board recommend approval of ZTA 22-09 to the Town Council.
HILLCREST DRIVE SUBDIVISION
Matthew and Allison Cassella, who are Chicahauk homeowners, have submitted for Planning Board review and approval a preliminary subdivision plat for their property at 267 Hillcrest Drive, which they purchased in May.
According to Mr. Haskett’s analysis, the property, which already has a single-family dwelling and other improvements on it, consists of 122,376 square feet, well in excess of the Town’s minimum lot size requirement of 20,000 square feet.
The lot is on the west side of Hillcrest Drive, close to the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Hickory Trail. It is one of the large, irregularly shaped lots on Hillcrest that has canal frontage at the end of a flag-pole section of the property.
The Cassellas propose to subdivide the property into two lots, one of which would be 70,360 square feet in area (Lot 1-B) and contain the house and other improvements, and the other of which would be vacant and 52,016 square feet in area (Lot 1-A), including the flag-pole section.
Both proposed lots would meet the Town’s minimum lot width of 100 feet—except in the narrow flag-pole section—as well as the Town’s requirement that they each have at least 30 feet of frontage that abuts a public right-of-way or private street.
Mr. Haskett has recommended that the preliminary subdivision plat be approved.
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
It is unclear from the Planning Board meeting materials what the context of the Board’s discussion about Board of Adjustment (BOA) appeals will be.
Included in the materials are the following Town Code sections pertaining to the BOA: sec. 36-364, “Voting,” which specifies the majority required for the board to grant a variance; sec. 36-366, “Appeals of administrative decisions,” which defines what an administrative decision is and details the appeal process; and sec, 36-369, “Impartiality of board of adjustment members,” which explains when a board member should recuse himself or herself for bias or other interest that would compromise his/her impartiality.
We strongly believe that the Town should return to its pre-April 1, 2014 status and have an independent Planning Board and Board of Adjustment, separate and apart from each other, with no overlapping members.
Appeals to the Board of Adjustment, albeit infrequent, are of decisions (issuances/denials of building and zoning permits, e.g.) made by the Zoning Administrator, currently Mr. Haskett, with whom the Planning Board has a close working relationship.
The Planning Board regularly consults with, and defers to the judgment of, Planning Director Haskett and the Town Attorney, who represents the Town in a property owner’s appeal to the Board of Adjustment.
(The Town is now represented by L. Phillip Hornthal, III, of Hornthal, Riley, Ellis & Maland, after years of being represented by Benjamin M. Gallop, of the same firm. Mr. Hornthal made his first Town Council meeting appearance on Aug. 2.)
We also believe it is improper for the Planning Board, which is an advisory board, not a legal decision-maker, to determine whether existing zoning requirements, which it may have had a hand in creating, cause the unnecessary hardship required for a variance to be granted.
Before April 1, 2014, when the Town Council consolidated the two boards, upon the recommendation of both Mr. Haskett and Mr. Gallop, the Board of Adjustment was an independent body that never consulted or collaborated with Town staff. In fact, it rarely met, which was one reason why the consolidation occurred. But that’s a poor reason, as we learned in 2018-19 when BOA rulings led to development on nonconforming, 50-foot-wide lots.
Southern Shores is the only town on the Outer Banks that does not have a board of adjustment separate from its planning board. Even the Town of Duck, which has just one-quarter of the year-round population that Southern Shores has, has two boards with different members.
Southern Shores has many smart, talented people who would be willing and qualified to serve on the Board of Adjustment. As the town continues to grow, so will the need for an independent administrative board to adjudicate variances and zoning appeals.
A Beacon reader sent in this photo of the traffic backup at 10 a.m. today in the left-turn lane of U.S. 158-east for South Dogwood Trail. She estimated that there were 20 vehicles in the line when she pulled into it.
Dear Readers: Please feel free to comment on traffic conditions in the residential areas this weekend on The Beacon blog and Facebook page. We hope the “Local Traffic Only” barricades that are in place at street intersections reduce the cut-through traffic in the dunes, in Chicahauk, and on Ocean Boulevard north of the Duck Road split.
The Town is asking people to avoid driving on South Dogwood Trail tomorrow and Friday, if they can, while construction crews work on the pavement along “a very narrow stretch of road” between Fairway Drive and East Dogwood Trail.
According to a special Town announcement released this afternoon, trucks and trailers will have a difficult time passing in this stretch, and all vehicles traveling on South Dogwood Trail will have “longer wait periods before being waived through the construction area.”
If you’ve driven on South Dogwood Trail this week, you already know to avoid it, if possible. The road has been reduced to one lane in areas under construction, and drivers are already experiencing long waits before they can pass through.
Town Manager Cliff Ogburn said Tuesday at the Town Council meeting that contractor Fred Smith Co. started its pavement maintenance work this week on South Dogwood Trail, instead of Twelfth Avenue, as was planned, because of “confusion.” The work on South Dogwood Trail was scheduled to be done Sept. 13-16 and Sept. 26–after the summer tourist season.
The Southern Shores Beacon 