The Dare County Housing Task Force, which has significantly picked up the pace of its work, will meet for the third time in two weeks when it convenes at the Dare County Administration Building on April 30.
Among the items on the agenda is an effort to set up a future meeting schedule, select a chairperson, and look at ways of possibly retaining the $35 million that the state had awarded Dare County for affordable housing development.
The election of a chair appears related to a suggestion to rethink and reconfigure the Task Force that was made at its April 16 meeting. At that meeting, County Manager Bobby Outten said that “maybe it’s time to make [the Task Force] a more community-led group”—something members agreed with.
One sentiment that surfaced from Task Force members at that April 16 meeting was that the county should reconsider its decision to give back the $35 million of state affordable housing money. That money came with a provision that generated a lawsuit from the county’s six municipalities–one that conditioned the funding on restricting the ability of municipalities to regulate affordable housing developments in their communities.
A week earlier, at their April 9 meeting, the Dare County Commissioners unanimously approved a motion ending their housing partnership with Coastal Affordable Housing, LLC and they asked County Manager Bobby Outten to talk to state officials about returning the $35 million allocated for affordable housing that had triggered the controversy.
During the April 16 Housing Task Force meeting, Outten explained that the county had cut its ties with private housing partner Coastal Affordable Housing, LLC, adding that “in my view, once we give the [$35 million] back, the legislation awarding it “becomes moot.”
Still, several Task Force members suggested looking for ways to try and hang on to that money, including Manteo Mayor Sherry Wickstrom, who asked if the county could change the legislation that provided the $35 million, “which we absolutely do need for housing.”
At that same meeting, the Task Force decided to reach out to its state legislators and invite them to a meeting to discuss that legislation and the $35 million. That occurred at a special April 22 Task Force meeting with State Senators Bobby Hanig and Norman Sanderson.
