Tell the public about a contract to buy land?
This isn’t business as usual for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.
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But this time around, the prospective buy is a 150-acre tract of barrier island that has been written about in media outlets across the state and, on occasion, in national publications on and off for years. And it’s going to take some very public fundraising efforts to make the purchase possible.
So, pursuing the pristine, undeveloped expanse of land at the southern tip of Topsail Island affectionally named “The Point” has the Wilmington-based nonprofit established in 1992 breaking precedent.
“Our normal approach is we work privately with the sellers and we go through all our work and then, when it’s all done, we announce a deal. So, this is very different for us,” said Harrison Marks, the trust’s executive director. “This is a tight budget year for the state and we depend on state funds typically for projects. We don’t have a formula (for public fundraising) because this isn’t something we normally do.”
He’s hoping the state will come through on giving at least some money toward the purchase.
The Coastal Land Trust has a little less than a year to seal the deal. It has to close on the land on or before March 31, 2025.
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Marks declined to reveal the actual price tag of the land, but said the appraisal is “somewhat more” than the purchase price.
All told, the organization expects to spend about $8 million on various expenses, surveys and title searches, and the land itself.
A little more than a week has passed since the trust announced that it had a contract with the four families who own different chunks of the land.
As of Thursday, more than 100 online donations approaching $50,000 in total had been made, Marks said. Substantial pledges, some in the range of six figures, have also been made.
Roy Costa, founder of the more-recently formed nonprofit, Conserve the Point-Topsail, said his organization is working with the Coastal Land Trust to figure out how to best support the fundraising efforts.
Costa said the contributions Conserve the Point has received have to date covered the organization’s operational costs.
“We really see that the Coastal Land Trust is a good place to do, in particular, major donations,” he said.
Conserve the Point was born out of a grassroots effort to raise public and private funds to buy the land at the south end of Topsail Beach, an opportunity that arose when a young, wealthy couple backed out of plans last November to build a family compound on the land.
Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Raleigh-based software company Pendo, and his wife Laura spent months trying to persuade Topsail Beach officials to rezone fewer than 30 acres of the property from C4: Conservation — Inlet Area to conditional use. The change would have allowed about a half dozen homes, a private marina, pool and beach and sound accesses to be built.
The property has steadily accreted over the years as the southern end of the island at New Topsail Inlet has gained sand, making it a favorite spot for island property owners and tourists who enjoy walking its beaches.
The Olsons’ proposal was met with fierce opposition from other area property owners, regular vacationers to the town, and environmentalists.
Thousands signed an online petition urging town officials to reject the rezoning request. People passionate about keeping the land as-is flooded town meetings whenever the request was up for discussion.
Months before pulling the plug on their contract with the property owners, a deal that was contingent upon getting their rezoning request approved, the Olsons signed a letter of intent with the Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the land.
Attempts to buy the land, including those by the town to keep it free from development, have yet to pan out. Around 2005, the Coastal Land Trust tried to buy roughly 45 acres of the property, but a deal was not reached at the time.
This time around, supporters of conserving the land are hopeful the signed purchase and sales agreement between the Coastal Land Trust and the property owners will come through and end the threat of development.
“Everybody’s quite excited, including a lot of people in our community,” Costa said. “This is perfect timing, the perfect opportunity. I think there’s a groundswell of support for conservation efforts, particularly here in North Carolina, and so I think with all the conservation efforts that are going on that this is definitely something that can quite easily happen with the help of everybody.”
The Coastal Land Trust is looking to host a meeting in May in Topsail Beach to discuss its plans with town officials and answer questions from the public.
“We just are very grateful that (the property owners) gave us an opportunity to talk with them and I feel fairly confident that they could have done something with other people who had an intent to develop some of the property and, ultimately, think that would have occurred,” Marks said. “They were will to sell us the property at the price that they did because I think they care about seeing the property conserved as well.”
Once the Coastal Land Trust buys the land, it will be transferred to state ownership and managed by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. That agency said it hopes to partner with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, which would help manage and monitor shorebird nesting areas.
Details about the upcoming public meeting are to be announced on the Coastal Land Trust’s website. Donations may be made online.
