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TOWN OF NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH REGULAR BOARD MEETING JULY 5, 2007 7:00 P.M. PRESENT: Mayor W. Rodney Knowles, Mayor Pro-Tem Larry Hardison, Aldermen Richard Farley, Fred Handy, Richard Peters, Daniel Tuman and Town Manager Brad Smith CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Knowles called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the North Topsail Beach meeting room. INVOCATION: Reverend Dewayne Collins gave the invocation. PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE: APPROVAL OF
AGENDA: NORTH TOPSAIL UTILITIES, INC EXPANSION STATUS UPDATE- DANNY LASSITER: Mr. Lassiter, Regional Manager for Carolina Water service came forward to speak. He gave the Board brief updates on what is going to happen over the winter. He stated that he hopes North Topsail Beach has noticed the odor control device they have placed at the lift station at the high rise bridge. He stated after much time and funds that have been spent at this point and time they feel it is doing an adequate job and North Topsail Utilities hopes North Topsail Beach feels the same and if not they would certainly like to know. Mr. Lassiter stated this winter they had all the simplex stations through out the Island surveyed by GPS and located on the map so in the event of a hurricane or another natural disaster, it will make it much easier for them to locate these critical points including man holes and major critical valves. He stated the most important part that North Topsail Beach is wanting to hear is that June 27, 2007 Department of Water Quality accepted their fast tract application for expansion to North Topsail Utilities Waste Water Treatment Plant. He stated the schedule they have given them is that July 25th they will have a submittal meeting, on August the 8th there will be a review meeting, that is where they will talk about the plans and they will give them suggestions and recommendations. On August 29, 2007 they will have an ad info meeting where North Topsail Utilities will go back and answer DWQ’s questions. On September 28, 2007 North Topsail Utilities hopes to receive a permit to construct from DWQ. He stated the projected start construction date is December 5, 2007 and the projected completion of the first phase is October 24, 2008. Mr. Lassiter stated the first phase expansion is for total flow including what is already there 819,000 gallons to be 1,159,297 gallons which is an increase of 340,136 gallons for the equivalence of 945 taps at 360 gallons per tap. He stated there will be at least two to three additional phases and they will be submitting those standard review processes at the time they receive approval of the first phase so there will not be a lapses in time when they submit for the second, third and forth phase if a forth is needed. He stated their intentions are to build a plant for 3.4 million gallons of total flow capacity. COMMITTEE REPORTS: BEACH NOURISHMENT- DICK MACARTNEY: Our town has had a good month and a good week. We have had many visitors all drawn here because of the ocean and the chance to enjoy our beaches. With the movie “Nights of Rodanthe” now finished shooting it won’t be long before our beach will show up on the silver screen. This week a record number of beach goers are enjoying a perfect beach vacation with wide beaches, beautiful sunshine and even nighttime fireworks in the sky. Our responsibility as a beach nourishment committee is to ensure that scenes such as I just described will be repeated in the years to come. Although much of our NTB shoreline is in good shape there are at least thirty buildings that do not have much protection against the next eroding tide. The most glaring examples are on the north end and the most severe is building eight of Topsail Reef. I toured there last week with Steve Dye, our Washington DC based lobbyist with Marlowe and Company. He addressed the Topsail Island Shore Protection Commission last Tuesday night and gave a favorable although not conclusive report regarding the funding for our federal beach nourishment project that is still in the feasibility stage. He gave us some expectations as to how the budget process might work and the hurdles that lay ahead in getting the construction phase funded once the study phase is over. The time line for this project to be started is still 2012 and beyond. Regarding the CRBA section of our town where we will need non federal funding to complete beach nourishment, there is also some news to report. Tuesday of this week, Shelia Cox, Brad Smith and I had a conference call with Doug Huggett, the state CAMA official in charge of our permits. He admitted that he had not done anything regarding our permits based on the referendum vote of last November. He explained that there are many other beaches also trying to get permits and that ours was no longer on top of his stack. At the last Project Development meeting April 25th he had made some comments about needing mitigation for waiving the requirements for a 500 meter buffer for offshore sand borrowing sites. The purpose of this call was to clarify was he meant by these comments and what the possible financial impact to our project might be. He started out by mentioning reef balls, an artificial means of establishing fish habitat, which is projected to cost $1,000,000 per acre of affected hard bottom. To put this into perspective our offshore sand borrow area is 640 acres. After some discussion helped along by our consultant, Craig Kimmel, of CP&E and by my recounting of some earlier positions that Mr. Huggett had taken in earlier PDT meetings that we both attended, we came to an understanding that our preliminary Environmental Impact Statement will contain “Conditional Mitigation” which will only be triggered if unlikely and unforeseen effects cause harm to either the offshore and the near shore hard bottoms. Our consultants feel confident based on experiences in Florida and with other projects similar to ours that such events are not very probable based on the state of engineering models they have been using. So that is good, but because of the setback of our referendum vote we are still probably a year away from getting our permits. That rules out any BN project until the winter of 2008-2009. There has been recent progress on finding outside funding from the state and from the county according to Manger Smith. Although not granting any money in this year’s budget it does appear that when permits are in hand that Onslow county will share costs for any project that involves re positioning and widening the New River Inlet. The Commissioners did stipulate that they would need positive proof of taxpayer support before making funds available. Our committee then will be looking at ways to generate the proof that our town is willing to support a phased in beach nourishment plan with a combination of outside (state and county) funding in conjunction with local funding (sand tax, accommodations tax, and perhaps capital reserve funds). We will be discussing at our next meeting how to survey the taxpayers and what questions to ask and when. However, this county guidance should assure many of the critics that before any beach nourishment construction projects are contracted that there will be plenty of education about the plan and a method to engage the opinions of all taxpayers both resident and non resident. The next meeting of the Beach Nourishment Committee will be Wednesday July 20, at 6:30 PM right here in town hall. Thank you Dick Macartney PLANNING BOARD- MIKE YAWN: Mr. Yawn came forward and read his report as follows: The Planning Board held our regular meeting on Thursday June 14, 2007. The most important topics were three appeals on our newly adopted zoning maps. We spent a great deal of time and accessed the Board of Aldermen minutes from the past.
The next Planning Board meeting is Thursday 7/12/2007 at 6:30 pm. We held the LUP meeting on Wednesday 6/27/2007. Worked through the remaining Policy sections. Still have a few more pages to add then a full review. I anticipate the full draft will be to the Aldermen in September for review/input; then it goes to CAMA for review. Our next LUP meeting is Wednesday 7/25/2007 at 5pm. Alderman Peters asked Mr. Yawn how these properties were discovered. Mr. Yawn stated they were discovered by the property owners. Alderman Peters asked Mr. Yawn how many more are out there like these. Mr. Yawn stated he has discovered a few more but they need to be researched which they are across the street from Mr. Swantek. MANAGER’S REPORT: 1. Deb Hill and I are working on scheduling the workshop on pools, parking, and garbage issues with Ginger Booker. We are trying to work with everyone’s vacation schedule. We need this workshop before the zoning ordinance is finished and presented. 2. I made a presentation before the County Commissioners requesting funds for beach nourishment. They are hesitant in this budget to commit tourism funds for beach nourishment. They requested that the Town have the permits in hand, a defined project, and demonstrated support of the majority of the citizens before they would commit any funds to beach nourishment. They also reinforced one of their reasons for changing the sales tax distribution method was to give the coastal communities a revenue source for such infrastructure funding. 3. The swimming alert that was issued last week for one day at County Beach Access #4 was due to bacteria levels in the water above normal limits. The NC Recreational Water Quality Program was responsible for the testing and issuing the alert. If we had had a higher concentration of bacteria, then they would have issued a swimming advisory and posted signs. They state that it could have been caused due to an increase in gull activity in the area, people not cleaning up after their pets. Since the high bacteria count only lasted one day, they are no longer concerned. 4. Lydia and I met with representatives from BB&T Banking. The purpose was to inform the Town of the products that BB&T offers and that they are very competitive with other financial institutions. 5. The subdivision and illegal lot workshop will have to be scheduled in August since Mr. Kilroy is out of Town for the month of July. Deb will be in touch to schedule this vital workshop. 6. The Beach Nourishment Finance Committee met last Friday. We have tentatively worked out the financing for the first phase of beach nourishment. This plan calls for doing beach nourishment in phases and we pay as we go. This plan needs to be endorsed by the Beach Nourishment Committee and then the Town Board. Also, the committee unanimously agreed that a survey or referendum of the citizens be conducted before any action or money is spent except for obtaining permits. OPEN FORUM: Mr. Swantek 3772 Island Dr. came forward to speak; he stated he had a suggestion on the three Public Access that the Town owns. He is getting tired of watching people squatting over and using the bathroom. He stated these belong to the Town and the Town should supply a porta potty for three months out of the year at least. Mr. Swantek stated that around where he lives off of Myrtle Drive they removed a fire hydrant over a year ago and never replaced it. They are telling the property owner from where they removed it from that he is responsible for paying to have it put back in. He stated that he thought it would be the Town’s Fire Department’s responsibility to get the fire hydrant back in place. Mr. Smith stated that he would talk to ONWASA and get back with Mr. Swantek. CONSENT AGENDA: Board Minutes Department Heat Reports Benefit Accrual Report Alderman Farley suggested pulling Budget vs. Actual under the consent agenda and moving it to Old Business (b). Under Budget vs. Actual Alderman Peters made a suggestion to consider comparison of the Police and Fire Department statistics as they were presented a year ago. Mr. Smith stated he could put them in an historical prospective. Alderman Handy moved to approve the Consent Agenda as amended. Alderman Peters seconded the motion, motion passed unanimously. OLD BUSINESS: a) Public Hearing and Rezoning of Property Tax ID # 763-1.4 case # R-07-01: Mayor Knowles stated the Public Hearing has been postponed until August. b) Budget vs. Actual: Alderman Tuman stated the Town can’t keep the budget open until August. Mr. Smith agreed you can’t do that. Alderman Tuman asked why keep the books open until August. Mr. Smith stated everyone keeps their books open, you can’t close the books, and there are payments coming in and sales tax. He stated it is standard across the state of North Carolina to keep the books open until August or September. Mr. Smith stated the Town has to take in its last revenues then it can close the books, and then have the audit done. Alderman Tuman stated the Town just raised taxpayer’s tax rate by .03 per $100.00 and he looked at the Beach Nourishment fund and according to the Budget vs. Actual the Town is going to run over a half a million dollars surplus. Mr. Smith stated that is correct. Alderman Tuman stated that is the .03 the Town raised taxes by. He stated the Town is taking people’s money just to save it and he does not believe it is necessary. Mr. Smith stated when he presented the Budget there were options for a compromise. NEW BUSINESS: a) Appeal of Rezoning of Tax ID# 763-1.3 by Mr.Currin Ms. Hill stated this is one of the appeals Mr. Yawn spoke of earlier. This property is at the end of 23rd St. She stated the Planning Board reviewed this at their June 14th meeting and recommended unanimously that the property be zoned in accordance with the October 1993 motion that was approved by the Board of Aldermen and be corrected to R-20. Alderman Tuman asked if the information supplied in the package in support of making the change was reflected in the minutes. Mr. Yawn stated that the minute’s state rezoning part of Con-D and part of the MHR to R-20. He stated the motion was made by Mayor Pro-Tem Tripp and seconded by Alderman Stackleather to rezone Hunters Cove tract located off Hwy 210 at the end of 23rd Ave from Con-D and MHR to R-20 and passed 2-1. Alderman Tuman stated when he went on GIS and looked for that particular piece of property, he saw no record of that being Hunters Cove Tract. He stated that property is in the name of Ccam Land Associates and ownership was obtained on December 3, 1991. He stated in the forth quarter of the year in 2004 there was an activity in the Town involving the Planning Board, Zoning Officer and a hired consultant that basically tried to recreate an accurate Zoning Map for the Town and they went back through the entire history of the Town and identified all of the zoning actions that were taken and then established what they thought to be a correct Zoning Map. He presumes that this was not identified by that activity and that bothers him unless in fact the map is correct and some other action was taken afterwards that basically established that land as Con-D or in fact perhaps the people have the same problem that he has which is being reminded by the Town Attorney that they are bound by the minutes of the actions adopted at meetings that Hunters Cove Tract might not be that land name. He
stated normally when the Town has a rezoning it specifically
identifies the property by tax ID or a pen number. He stated the
package provided to him also address two other lots and for all he
knows that could be Hunters Cove. He stated 763-1.3 has always been
Con-D. Mr. Yawn stated he would go and look it up in the Minute
book again. Mr. Yawn stated the Planning Board felt the motion did match the piece of property and Mr. Riggs had maps that he provided from that point and time that showed one MHR lot and that seemed to match the motion that was made in 1993. Mr. Currin came forward to speak he stated when this property was purchased in 1991; it came from the Hunter Tract. He stated there were two lots set up as mobile home lots, one of them was wetlands and the second one 801-60 is still a decent lot. He stated the good property is all the uplands property that is R-20 and has always been R-20 and it was R-20 in 2002 when the Corps of Engineers went in there and designated the wetlands out of it. Mr. Currin stated this property was R-20 up until the new Zoning Map was done, he stated this is just a misprint on the map and that is the only thing that is wrong with this property. Alderman Tuman stated the map the Town adopted in 1990 had that property as Con-D. He stated it had to be otherwise this action would not have been necessary. Mr. Currin stated the property was R-20 in 1992, 1993 and in 2007 it’s still R-20 and it’s just a misprint on the map and according to the Town Manager when he talked to him two months ago. Alderman Tuman stated if in fact it was R-20 then the action taken and assuming it was appropriate action and refers to the right property would not have been taken. Mr. Yawn stated he didn’t think it was R-20 in 1992, he thinks it was Con-D. He stated looking at the 1982 map it is Con-D and it looks like after 1993 someone colored in with yellow pencil on the hand drawn map and it does show that as being as being R-20. He stated the Planning Board did look at the motion and after reading the motion the Planning Board felt like this did point to this particular piece of property and the motion from the Board of Aldermen in 1993 did change it from Con-D to R-20 and there was one lot of MHR that is 809-60 that went from MHR to R-20 and the Planning Board unanimously said yes it looks like they made a coloring mistake on this map. Alderman Tuman made a motion to send the rezoning of property tax ID # 763-1.3 back to the Planning Board and be very specific of what the decision of the Board of Aldermen was at the time. Mayor Pro-Tem Hardison seconded the motion, motion passed unanimously. OPEN FORUM: Aaron Perkins 1263 New River Inlet Road came forward to speak. He stated there is a public cross over in front of his house and since April the garbage cans that used to be maintained by the Town are no longer there. He stated there is quite a bit of contaminants around that cross over and that may have contributed to some of the beach contamination. Alderman Peters stated he has walked that part of the beach and he has talked to the Town’s Public Works about three weeks ago and asked them to put additional garbage cans out. He stated they did put two or three out there but still need about four more cans out in that area. ALDERMANS REPORT: Mayor Pro-Tem Hardison thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Alderman Farley stated there is a proposal in the North Carolina Legislature to implement a property transfer tax on sales tax on individual homes, it could be very expensive and those of you who live in North Topsail Beach could potentially not pay any income tax on the sale of your house but still pay Onslow County one percent of the value. He suggests the citizens contact the legislatures and tell them you are not in favor of the home tax. ADJOURNMENT: Alderman Tuman made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 p.m. Alderman Peters seconded the motion, motion passed unanimously. Minutes prepared and submitted by Terrie Woodle, Permit Specialist. |