The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve are holding a series of local advisory committee meetings during May and June.

Residents and representatives from community organizations, government agencies and nongovernmental partner organizations that sit on the local advisory committees provide staff with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management’s Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve guidance and feedback regarding program activities and management of the state’s 10 reserve sites.

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System is a partnership program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and coastal states that protects and studies estuarine systems.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve is a program of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, a division of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and is the state partner with NOAA.

The Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve this year are opening the application process to identify potential members for each of the reserves. Those sites include: Bird Island Reserve, Bald Head Woods Reserve, Zeke’s Island Reserve, Masonboro Island Reserve, Permuda Island Reserve, Rachel Carson Reserve, Buxton Woods Reserve, Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve, Currituck Banks Reserve and Emily and Preyer Buckridge Reserve.

Applications will be accepted June 1-June 30.

Applicants are encouraged to attend the local advisory committee meeting of their interest this spring.

The meetings are open to the public and will be held as follows: 

• Zeke’s Island Reserve. May 11 at 10 a.m. at the UNCW Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K Moss Lane, Wilmington.
• Masonboro Island Reserve. May 12 at 1 p.m. at the UNCW Center for Marine Science.
• Permuda Island Reserve. May 13 at 10 a.m. at the Onslow County Library, Sneads Ferry Branch, 1330 N.C. Highway 210, Sneads Ferry.
• Rachel Carson Reserve. May 19 at 3 p.m. at the NOAA Administration building, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort.
• Currituck Banks Reserve. June 15 at 1 p.m. at the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, Currituck Heritage Park, 1160 Village Lane, Corolla.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve will hold a series of local advisory committee meetings at different reserve sites and virtually between Nov. 5 and Nov. 18.

Meetings, which are open to the public, are scheduled as follows:

• Buxton Woods Reserve, 1 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Fessenden Center, 46830 Highway 12, Buxton.
• Bird Island Reserve, 1 p.m. Nov. 6 virtually by joining https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?, meeting number 2427 890 9441, password BirdIslandLAC.
• Rachel Carson Reserve, 3 p.m. Nov. 6 in the administration building at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort.
• Zeke’s Island Reserve, 10 a.m. Nov. 7 at the Fort Fisher Recreation Area – Education Room, 1000 Loggerhead Road, Kure Beach.
• Bald Head Woods Reserve, 1 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Bald Head Island Conservancy, 700 Federal Road, Bald Head Island.
• Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve, 1 p.m. Nov. 12 at Kitty Hawk Town Hall, 101 Veterans Memorial Drive, Kitty Hawk.
• Currituck Banks Reserve, 1 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, 1160 Village Lane, Corolla.
• Masonboro Island Reserve, 11 a.m. Nov. 14 in the habitat conference room at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington.
• Permuda Island Reserve, 10 a.m. Nov. 14 in the meeting room at North Topsail Beach Town Hall, 2008 Loggerhead Court, North Topsail Beach.
• Emily and Richardson Preyer Buckridge Reserve, 10 a.m. Nov. 18 at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Reserve main office, 205 S. Ludington Drive, Columbia.

The local advisory committees provide guidance and feedback regarding program activities and management of the reserve sites to the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve staff.

Committees are made up of residents and representatives from community organizations, government agencies, and non-governmental partner organizations.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

After two hours of testimony from county officials and public hearing comments, a visibly frustrated Dare County Commissioners Chair Bob Woodard presented a motion to table any decision on an environmental zone of influence that borders Buxton Woods for 90 days, “so that we can study this and try to iron out exactly what we’ve been discussing.” The motion passed unanimously.

The discussion at the Monday meeting followed a recommendation from the Dare County Planning Board that the zone of influence in the SED-1 district should be removed from the county ordinances “based on consistency with the Dare County Land Use Plan.”

Created in 1988, the zone of influence includes an eight-mile-long area on the soundside of N.C. 12 from Frisco to the north end of Buxton. Written soon after Buxton Woods Reserve was founded in 1988, the zone of influence was an attempt to provide a “buffer to the core area of the forest that was protected under the SED-1 (Special Environmental District),” Derb Carter, Southern Environmental Law Center senior adviser and attorney, said.

The SED-1 “is Dare County’s most restrictive zoning ordinance right as it pertains to the land,” County Planner Noah Gillam told the commissioners.

The controversy over the ordinance originated earlier this year when New Jersey resident Brian Suth, who owns a building in Frisco located in the zone of influence, asked Gillam what would be involved in converting retail space in a building he owned and creating a fourth apartment. At that time, Gillam came across the 1988 language in the SED-1 amendment that defined the zone of influence.

“No multi-family development, townhouses, or condominium project located with ½ mile of any SED-1 zoning district shall exceed a dwelling density of three single family units (whether contained under one or more roofs) per acre,” the amendment reads.

A number of Buxton and Frisco residents recalled the language in the amendment was specifically designed to stop a 40-unit condominium from being developed. The amendment did, in fact, prevent the construction of the condominium. But Gillam pointed out at the meeting that if the intent was to stop intensive development of a lot, it failed.

“It doesn’t apply to a duplex. It doesn’t apply to group developments, where you put ten single family structures on one property,” he said. “You could build a hotel on it.”

That amendment, tacked on to the end of the SED-1 zoning language, was never properly indexed or referenced in county zoning documents, and that has created the dilemma for the county.

The zone of influence was not, it is important to note, a zoning district. Rather it would overlay any zones that were created in the future.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said “There’s law that says that if you don’t properly index it, then it’s not enforceable. And so it’s clear that it was not properly indexed. You can’t go into zoning and look it up.”

What has happened in the 37 years since the zone of influence was established is that the soundside of Hatteras Island parallel to Buxton Woods has been zoned for a number of uses, such as residential, commercial and industrial, and none of those zones reference the zone-of-influence language. Because that has been the case, there are numerous nonconforming land uses in the district.

After identifying the zone of influence amendment, Gillam advised Suth that he could not “continue moving forward creating nonconformities.”

“I advise him that he couldn’t do this,” but he could have “the language (in the amendment) removed so he could have the four dwelling units,” Gillam said.

Much of the discussion at the May 5 meeting focused on whether the amendment is enforceable and whether it does protect Buxton Woods.

Asked by Commissioner Rob Ross to comment on the language prohibiting four living units under one roof, Carter noted the amendment was more comprehensive and had robust protections for land disturbance.

“There’s a pretty substantive requirement, if it were followed, to minimize the disturbance for every type of development that occurs in every zoning district within that influence area, and that’s important,” he said.

Carter also felt the county had met the minimal standard in indexing the amendment.

“The requirement in state law on indexing is you’ve got to have a file ordinance with an index that’s readily available to the public. That’s the basic legal requirement. And in our view, all that’s been met, on indexing a zoning amendment,” he said.

The confusion about what to do was reflected in the public’s comments. Although Hatteras Island residents were overwhelmingly in favor of retaining the protections of the amendment, there was an acknowledgment that it was a complex issue.

“It feels a bit rushed, like every angle has not been fully explored. I’m reminded of the Jodi Mitchell line,” said Buxton resident Aida Havel, paraphrasing the composer’s song Big Yellow Taxi. “They came to paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Complicating any effort to enforce the zone of influence is state law SB 382 passed last year that requires written permission from every property owner in a zoning district if the district is downzoned. Since the zones covered by the zone of influence allow more development than would be permitted by the language of the amendment, it would constitute downzoning, and that Outten said, means the ordinance may not even be relevant any longer.

“You can get rid of it or if you leave it in place, we can’t enforce it,” he said.

After listening to Buxton residents, in particular, voice strong support for keeping the zone of influence in place, Woodard said, “Those (1988) commissioners had a valid reason for doing what they were doing, and they were honoring what the citizens of Hatteras Island wanted. I understand what’s before us, and there’s too much gray there for me, way too much gray for me to say, ‘let’s move forward.’ I would prefer to table it.”

This story is provided courtesy of The Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review partners with The Voice to provide readers with more stories of interest about our coast.

A Frisco-based real estate company is requesting that Dare County remove language in an ordinance that restricts building multifamily dwellings in the half-mile buffer around the 1,007-acre Buxton Woods Reserve on Hatteras Island.

A public hearing on the proposed text amendment is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday as part of the county board of commissioners’ regular meeting taking place in the commissioners meeting room, 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive, Manteo.

Related: Protective zone around Buxton Woods may be unenforceable

The 1,868-acre special environmental district, or SED, called the “zone of influence” in the ordinance is solely in Buxton and Frisco. The district surrounds the Cape Hatteras well fields within the state-protected Buxton Woods Reserve. The Cape Hatteras well fields help supply portions of Hatteras Island with potable water. 

The applicant, OBX Timber Trail LLC, is requesting the county “remove the Zone of Influence Dwelling Density Limitation for multi-family development, townhouses, or condominium projects located within ½ mile of any SED-1 zoning district boundary,” from the ordinance, according to the public hearing notice.

The Coastal Resources Commission, or CRC, adopted rules in 1977 to establish an area of environmental concern, or AEC, around the Cape Hatteras well fields. The AEC boundaries measured 500 feet on either side of the centerline of the existing well field, according to county documents.

The commission in 1987 amended the rules to expand the boundaries from 500 feet to 1,000 feet on either side of existing and future well fields. The commission also established standards for development and the use of groundwater absorption sewage treatment systems within the boundary of the area of environmental concern, and required development proposals to obtain a Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, permit. 

The county adopted the special environmental district language in 1988 to create “additional development standards to further protect lands internal to and outside of the CRC’s AEC to protect the groundwater of the well field and protect the natural resource that is the Buxton Woods.”

Petitioners argue in their zoning amendment application that “Dare County along with the rest of the nation has a housing crisis and limitations to the number of single-family dwelling units within ½ mile of the SED-1 zoning district effectively eliminates the number of housing configurations and density that can be constructed in all of Buxton and most of Frisco.”

Petitioners also argue that the zoning district “targets residential uses but ignores other uses with much higher intensities such as Motels/Hotels, RV Parks, Restaurants, Marinas and boat works, etc.”

The county planning board on April 1 unanimously recommended to remove the zone of influence language in its entirety based on consistency with the Dare County Land Use Plan. County staff requested that the board “act favorably on the proposed amendment as recommended by the Planning Board” following the public hearing, according to agenda documents.

Any person may comment at the hearing or submit written comments by mail to the Dare County Board of Commissioners at P.O. Box 1000 Manteo, NC 27954 or email to dcboc@darenc.gov or noah.gillam@darenc.gov.