On Monday, Dec. 16, the Dare County Board of Commissioners will hear the county Planning Board’s recommendation that no change be made to the S-1 zoning in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo.
The Planning Board voted unanimously on the recommendation at its meeting on Monday, Nov. 9, after board members traveled to the tri-villages in late October for a public meeting on proposed changes to the current S-1 zoning that would have established a stricter plan for land use in the tri-villages.
That the meeting did not go well is an understatement. It has been described as raucous, loud, contentious, mean-spirited, and threatening.
The bottom line is that residents of Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo made it very clear to the Planning Board that they are not interested in site-specific zoning, and it’s almost a sure thing that the commissioners will agree on at their meeting on Monday.
Zoning in the tri-villages will remain as it is, for better or worse — at least for some time to come.
Here’s a little of the background.
All of Hatteras Island was zoned S-1 in 1987. The S-1 zoning addresses setbacks and building heights but not site-specific uses for property. Basically, all uses are allowed on all properties.
The tri-villages and Frisco remain the only two communities in all of unincorporated Dare with the S-1 zoning only. The other communities have all adopted some form of site-specific zoning.
The impetus to look at stricter zoning in the tri-villages began in the spring of 2014 when the Planning Board recommended that the Board of Commissioners approve a controversial plan to construct a concrete plan in Waves because zoning permitted it. The Commissioners approved the concrete plant with as many restrictions as they legally could in terms of such things as hours of operation, setbacks and buffers, and the like.
However, some villagers remained upset and unhappy about the effect the concrete plant would have on the “coastal village atmosphere” of the area — such things as appearance, traffic, congestion, air quality, and lighting.
Late last summer, the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Civic Association, wrote to the county, asking it to start the planning process for use-specific zoning in the tri-villages.
Civic association president Mark Dingman said at the time that there had been discussions among residents about zoning since the hot debate about the concrete plant, so the group moved ahead to ask the county to begin looking at the issue.
Dingman said that the civic association was very careful to say that it does not “favor” or endorse zoning, but instead sees its role as assuring “the best treatment” for all villagers if the process does proceed.
In September 2014, the Board of Commissioners instructed county planning director Donna Creef to gauge the interest in and support for site-specific zoning.
In November of last year, property owners and businesses in the tri-villages got a letter in the mail, which was signed by seven residents, non-resident property owners, and/or owners of businesses.
The letter urged all who got it to petition the Dare County Planning Department to “initiate the process to improve current zoning” of the villages. In the letter, the signers made reference to the concrete plant and said that “the time has come to develop a positive growth plan for our villages.”
The letter also stated that “the community must initiate the process for zoning improvements. With our demonstrated support, the Planning Board will develop a zoning plan consistent with our desires. There will be due process and your voice will be heard. Once drafted, the proposal will require approval from the Dare Commissioners.”
Creef said that in February that she had 266 responses from the tri-villages about starting the zoning initiative — 264 were in favor and two were opposed. The commissioners gave her the go-ahead to start the process with community meetings. The hope was that new zoning maps would be developed through consensus.
About 70 people attended the first community meeting in March, which was an informal open house at which folks could talk to Creef and planning department staff about the zoning process and pick up a form to fill out with their thoughts on the process.
Through the spring and summer, the planning staff and the board worked on coming up with proposed zoning maps and ordinances for the villages, which were presented at a meeting in late September that was well attended by the community. Members of the Planning Board also attended to listen.
Creef urged everyone to review the documents and contact her with questions or concerns. She said another meeting would be held in early November to get the community?s feedback. After that, she said she hoped to be able to schedule a public hearing with the county Planning Board. Based on the hearing, the planning board would make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners, which would then vote to approve or disapprove of the zoning.
Before the meeting ended, Elmer Midgett, Planning Board chairman, pleaded with the public to come to board with their input, even if they?re opposed, rather than stay silent.
Creef said she didn’t want to nail down a timeline to finish the process because ?We may come down here in November and hear we?re way off the mark,? she said.
As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. The next meeting was on Oct. 28 — and the Planning Board members who attended did hear from many members of the community that they were way off the mark.
During the first two meetings, comments about site specific zoning were somewhat mixed, but no clear opposition developed. The people that the Planning Department continued to hear from were generally positive.
At the October meeting, opponents came out in force to shout down the zoning proposals.
Creef was presented with a petition with signatures of 216 opponents, and 24 of the 33 people who spoke at the meeting opposed zoning. Nine spoke in favor, and a few have commented since the meeting that they intended to speak in favor but were too discouraged or intimidated by the tone of the meeting to do so.
Commissioners Wally Overman, Warren Judge, and Allen Burrus attended the meeting and mentioned it during commissioner comments at the board meeting on Nov. 2.
All of three of them mentioned the tone of the meeting and all of them praised Donna Creef for way she conducted the meeting in the face of ugly opposition.
Burrus of Hatteras village, while praising the planning staff, said the effort, in retrospect, was “a huge mistake that we don’t need to revisit anytime soon.
“We need cooling off time,” he said.
At its next meeting, the Planning Board voted unanimously on a motion by Beth Midgett, who represents Hatteras Island, to make no changes to the current S-1 zoning.
A small group of community members who opposed zoning attended the meeting, and seven of them spoke against the proposals — again.
“I felt like there was not an overwhelming consensus within the community to move forward,” Midgett said after the meeting. “And I do believe there has to be an overwhelming consensus.”
Midgett, who also praised the planning staff and noted that the board has spent many hours working on the maps and wording of ordinances, added that she felt that some folks who spoke had “unreasonable fears” and misconceptions.
She added that she when she first moved to Hatteras Island, she lived in Frisco, which does not have site-specific zoning, and had lived now for some time in Hatteras village, which does have it.
Hatteras village zoning is “more stringent,” she said, but she had not seen, as some people fear, that the “zoning police” come around and tell folks to clean up crab pots or fish nets in their yards.
“Everyone wanted to keep the coastal village feel of Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo,” Midgett said of the speakers at the meeting. However, in many cases, they had opposing views of how that can best be accomplished.
“I do have concerns that perhaps they don’t have the best protection,” Midgett said of the villages and their future development.
Burrus says that there are “certainly good aspects of zoning” and “some advantages.” And he agrees that there is “a lot of misinformation” out there.
“However,” he said, “I understand where these folks (who oppose it) are coming from. They feel like they are being pushed.
“I wouldn’t want it forced on me, and I would not force it on them,” he added. “As time goes by, maybe people will work things out.”
Burrus and Midgett both used the example of site-specific zoning in Wanchese, which was passed in 2008.
“They took their sweet time,” Midgett said of the process that went on for several years.
Burrus and Midgett noted that some community leaders who favored site-specific zoning took on the cause and went “neighborhood by neighborhood and street by street” to reach a consensus.
That could happen in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo — or not.
It’s obvious right now there are a lot of bitter feelings.
As those who opposed change noted, the new plan would not have necessarily stopped the concrete plant, but it might have offered more protections. And one proposed ordinance might have given some more legal powers to those who want to see Waterfall Park repaired or torn down.
Perhaps the process did move too quickly, but it certainly would have helped if those who were opposed to change had turned out for one of the first meetings or made comments to the planning department. As it happened, the Planning Department and the Planning Board were hearing only from those who supported the changes for far too long.
Maybe it would also make sense not to lump the villages together, which Creef noted in the beginning was an option. Some folks apparently resent the “tri-villages” moniker and see each as separate and distinct, and maybe dealing with smaller areas and number of property owners would work better.
“As time goes by, maybe people can work things out,” Burrus said.
“Next time — if there is a next time,” Midgett said she hopes people will take time to talk to us about their concerns” sooner in the process to prevent unjustified fears and misconceptions.
“If a community can guide us on what their vision is, that is the best case scenario,” she said.
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