Dare County’s Commissioners were briefed by county manager Bobby Outten at their board meeting on Monday about creating a special tax district to pay for restoring the beach in north Buxton.
Outten presented only information — facts, figures, and legal requirements — and made no proposals or recommendations for how the county should pay for nourishing about 2.5 miles of beach to protect Highway 12 from the encroaching Atlantic Ocean.
The county is awaiting a special use permit from the National Park Service, which is expected to be granted in time to get sand pumped this summer, and the project is expected to cost somewhere between $20 to $27 million.
The Buxton project is one of four scheduled for 2016 that will be paid for partly from the county’s Shoreline Management Fund, which includes collections from a 2 percent occupancy tax.
The other projects are in Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Duck, and in those towns, taxpayers will also contribute to paying the bill for nourishment, as they did in Nags Head a few years ago.
The towns created special tax districts that included a combination of oceanfront and town-wide properties — with oceanfront owners paying the most.
At the time the Buxton project was proposed and designed, Democrats controlled the county Board of Commissioners. Warren Judge was chairman during that time, and Allen Burrus, Hatteras Island’s representative to the board, was vice-chairman.
The board never said exactly how the Buxton nourishment project would be paid for or if property owners would be asked to contribute. At a public meeting in August of 2014, Judge was asked, and he answered that the issue would be addressed when the project consultants “had a better handle on the cost.”
Republicans swept state and county races in the general election just months after that meeting, and the Dare Board ended up under GOP control for the first time in decades. Burrus and Judge were the only two remaining Democrats on the seven-member board.
Bob Woodard was elected chairman last December, and Wally Overman is vice-chairman.
At a commissioners’ retreat on Feb. 20, the Buxton beach restoration project was discussed and the issue of fairness was raised. According to published reports at the time, three commissioners said they favored some financial participation by Hatteras islanders.
So now, the Board of Commissioners must decide if taxpayers will also share the cost of restoring the beach in Buxton, and, if so, who should pay and how much.
Woodard made it clear at last Monday’s meeting that the board will take its time pondering this decision. He mentioned 45 to 60 days and said he was sure that the issue would be a topic for discussion at many future meetings.
For sure, who pays and how much is a very complicated issue — and one that has even more complicated implications down the road.
Some of the figures that Outten presented Monday included examples of how much money could be raised by taxing property owners in Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras village. He said he chose those because that’s part of what he was asked to do by the board.
But, he reiterated that the board could include just about any combination of villages or areas it wants in a special tax district, so long as it can be shown that taxpayers in the district will receive benefits from the project that others in the county will not.
And then some think the board needs to consider the fact that other areas of Hatteras Island also need nourishment now or soon will.
For instance, we already know that the area between Frisco and Hatteras village, where Hurricane Isabel cut an inlet in 2003, is at risk for another breach.
And two speakers at Monday’s meeting put Avon into the mix.
Ron Tasso and Pat Weston, both presidents of property owners’ associations in Avon, spoke during public comment and addressed the severe erosion on the south Avon beach caused by recent storms.
“I feel personally that Avon should be part of this discussion,” Tasso said. “It’s time to be proactive, not reactive — or we’ll be have another Mirlo Beach on our hands.”
Both noted that the area is also close to Highway 12 — at the Avon Pier, they noted, only “a parking lot” separates the ocean and the road.
Weston agreed that the commissioners needed to consider all of Hatteras Island.
Burrus asked Outten during the meeting if it was possible to look at “a nourishment program for all of Hatteras Island, one that would move from project to project.”
Outten said that the board could indeed consider a nourishment program for all of Hatteras but that it could not be part of the discussion of a special district to pay for Buxton sand.
The county, he said, is limited to one year between the time it creates a district and when it signs a contract for the project. Therefore, special tax districts would need to be decided project by project.
What it will come down to is what is fair — or what is perceived as fair by a majority of the commissioners.
If the board decides not to ask taxpayers to chip in for Buxton nourishment, its members will have to be able to explain that decision to other county taxpayers who are helping fund projects in their towns.
Yes, it’s a big, complicated, confusing issue. But the board has made it clear that it wants to debate and decide this issue of formation of a special tax district.
Of course, the board can’t do it without a plan and a public hearing — one that requires at least four weeks notice to property owners.
But Hatteras Island property owners shouldn’t be waiting until there is a plan. We need to make our views clear to the commissioners early rather than later in the process.
You will need to be informed to make your case.
You can watch the video of the Nov. 16 meeting. Go to the Dare County website, www.darenc.com, scroll down on the left hand side under Board of Commissioners and click on “view archived meetings.”
You can read my report on the discussion of the special district at the Nov. 16 meeting. Click here for that article.
You can click here to see the information that Outten presented to the commissioners from the agenda packet.
You can click here to read my Nov. 6 blog on the case to be made that there should not be a special district for Buxton nourishment.
You can e-mail your commissioners with your thoughts, opinions, and questions. The email address DCBOC@darenc.com will get your e-mail delivered to all of the commissioners. Or you can find their individual addresses and other contact information on the county website.
What the board decides will have an impact not only on your pocketbook, but also on your life and livelihood as we consider other issues of keeping our beaches wide, open, and off Highway 12.
Stay tuned. Stay informed. And let your voice be heard.
