Unapproved
Town of Emerald Isle
Minutes of Regular Meeting
Monday, January 27, 2003 The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M. by Chairman, Art Daniel. Members present were: Pat Patteson, Anne Erikson, Frank Erwin, Ed Dowling, Pam Minnick and Brad Fischer. Carol Angus, Secretary; Frank Rush, Town Manager were also in attendance.

Minutes of Special meeting of December 09, 2002 – These minutes were not included with the packets, referred to the February meeting for consideration.

Minutes of Regular Meeting of December 16, 2002 – Motion to approve the minutes was made by Pat Patteson, second by Ed Dowling with unanimous approval in favor of the motion.

Report from Town Manager – Mr. Rush gave the members a brief summary of the issues discussed at the town board meeting of January 14, 2003. He specifically addressed the Dunes and Vegetation Ordinance status and some additional amendments to be considered. Several scenarios were discussed by the members of what may or may not be allowed. There was then a (1)consensus among the members that the intent of the committee and the members was that the portion of the ordinance related to violations was that the violation will be for each individual tree that is cut, not for the instance of violation as in the past. Also, that the property owner and the contractor/agent will also be responsible for violation. Mr. Rush will work on wording this clarification, (2) to allow vegetation to be added to a natural area and (3) to allow a permit be obtained to do the groundwork for a public or private park where no building permit would be necessary.

Chairman Daniel asked about the status on the widening of Hwy 58 at Lee Ave. Mr. Rush said he has had two DOT correspondences in the last two months to stress to them that this needs to be done before Easter weekend (April 20). They have responded it will be completed. Mr. Rush also advised that he had asked DOT to look at the Coast Guard Rd/Hwy 58 intersection and make some suggestions for traffic signalization time patterns, turn lanes, whatever they felt appropriate. So far there has been no response from DOT.

Mr. Rush asked the members if they are inclined to have a Town Board/Planning Board workshop to discuss things in general at some point. The consensus was that the board would like to have the workshop, possibly in late February or early March.

Report from Planning Director – Carol Angus referred to the information that was submitted to the members of the information resulting from the Land Use Plan Workshop January 08, 2003.

Ms. Minnick commented that one of the items on the lists that had been compiled was to retain clean beaches. She asked for some guidance on how to restrict fireworks debris from being set off then left on the beach for those persons walking the beach to police. She wanted to put some information in the rental brochures through the rental agencies to the fact that fireworks are not permitted. Mr. Rush said he will follow up on this for enforcement, however, this is a difficult one to enforce. Mr. Rush reiterated it is a state law that fireworks are prohibited, there is no need for the town to regulate such use.

The Inspections Department had been quite active in December with 11 new construction permits for an estimated value of $2,060,000.

Citizens to be Heard

Mr. Bill Reist, 8520 Woodcliff Drive, gave a day-by-day observation of a violation that he had witnessed at 8517 Sound Drive from January 11 through 18^thregarding some tree cutting and removal. Mr. Reist reiterated that he felt the contractor should be held accountable for any violations. He went on to ask that some additional changes/modifications be made on page 5 to include existing property and new development to comply with the regulations; page 16 that the violations be considered per tree (as discussed earlier in this meeting) and replacement required; doing this type of work on a Sunday to be prohibited; he did not feel a limb or tree possibly jeopardizing a homeowners insurance should be grounds for allowing the tree to be removed. A homeowner can shop for insurance through another agency. A beetle infested tree should be determined by the Dunes and Vegetation Officer prior to the cutting, not after the tree is down. He felt that the cutting of the trees is where the focus needs to be placed, not revegetation after the cutting has been completed. To wrap up his comments he asked that monitoring be done in each violation to be sure that the revegetation be carried out in the manner agreed upon.

Chairman Daniel advised Mr. Reist that he had perhaps presented his comments in the wrong forum and should be addressing the Town Board of commissioners at the public hearing on February 11. This board had already made their recommendations to the Town Board.

Yoga and other similar uses as Permitted Use in B-2, B-3 commercial zoning. Mr. Mike Harvey, consulting planner, had submitted a written statement to the members that he ultimately felt there are two options that could be considered for these uses.

The first option is to allow the planning staff to continue to interpret specific “personal services” to cover yoga, karate, dance studio, etc. He felt the interpretation was acceptable. If there were an applicant that felt the staff interpretation was in error, to not allow the use, they had presented it can go before the Board of Adjustment.

The second option is that if the planning board felt it is appropriate to specify each individual use under a heading in the Permitted/Special Use table in order to address each use it can make such amendments.

He personally feels that the staff has made a correct interpretation with “personal services” and to list each use would be unnecessary. In this case there is no right or wrong answer; whichever method the board would like to pursue will be correct.

Frank Erwin said he is comfortable with the approach that Mr. Harvey has to allow the staff to make these interpretations. After more consideration the consensus, with the exception of Chairman Daniel, was that the staff be able to continue to make the interpretation for such requests. Mr. Rush said he was more comfortable with the specifics being in the ordinance, but he is comfortable with this approach as well.

Rezoning Request for portion of Block 41, 4.03 acres, oceanfront, from B-3 to RMH. This property is located between Daisywood S/D and Boardwalk RV Park. The request is made on behalf of Larry Spell, Page Partners, Inc., and Randy Campbell. Mr. Campbell was representing all parties. Ms. Angus reminded the members that there can be no action taken on the request at this meeting, it must be considered for not less than 30 days, possibly to be reviewed at Review Committee.

Mr. Dowling said he would rather hear from Mr. Campbell at this meeting. It was then decided to consider the request and not make it necessary to proceed to Review Committee.

Chairman Daniel said the only thing he saw that is lacking in this agenda item is the report from the Planner, Mr. Harvey. Mr. Harvey was not aware that rezoning requests were a part of his purview when hired for consulting.

Mr. Campbell said he had no interest in B-3 uses, only in residential or multi-family nature. The only reason he had requested RMH was that if someone “a whole lot smarter than I am” was able to do a project with four acres that RMH might work. He realizes that residential is a more feasible course of action.

Chairman Daniel asked Mr. Campbell would have a problem with changing his request to RMF (Residential Multi-Family)?

Before a response, Mr. Harvey advised that may not be advisable. He then advised that it could be construed as spot zoning since there was no contiguous RMF zoning. However, if there would be no challenge made to this rezoning there should be no issue with such rezoning. The property is presently contiguous to B-3 and RMH zoning.

Ms. Angus commented that when the request was submitted at the end of January, the prospect of rezoning was brought before the technical review (in house staff) has expressed no objection to the proposal as RMH.

Mr. Rush advised that there are very few areas that are zoned RMH that have multi-family on them. One of his goals for the Land Use Planning Process is for eventual amendments to the zoning map and ordinances to do away with the multi-family allowance in the RMH zone. If this goal is shared by the Planning Board, and this rezoning be considered as RMF it will be consistent with an eventual change. He would then like to see the RMH rezoned to R-2, which will allow only one and two-family dwellings. This is after the Land Use Plan process is completed.

Mr. Patteson asked the applicant to consider RMF? Mr. Campbell said he had no objection to this change in his application.

Mr. Harvey made a further statement regarding spot zoning. If a zoning request is not contiguous with similar property or is not somehow referenced in the Land Use Plan then you may have spot zoning. If the rezoning is not challenged within 60 days it is a mute point.

He went on to add that what could happen, there could be some fairly intense changes in the philosophical underpinning of this ordinance when the Land Use Plan is done. If there is a goal to eliminate districts that no longer represent the need or interests of the community. The planning board will take a preemptive strike which will be considered by some legal, to say they will be recommending elimination of a district in the near future, based on policies already approved in the Land Use Plan. You may not want to create a nonconformity by rezoning to RMH, to rezone otherwise you can give your justification to do it. Courts would consider this as good rationale.

Mr. Erwin asked who might challenge it, that would be his position.

As Mr. Campbell had no objection to the change in his request from RMH to RMF, the application was changed to reflect RMF (Residential Multi-family). He said he would eventually like to do something with the property like what he has done with previous subdivisions.

Chairman then advised Mr. Campbell this request will appear before the Planning Board on Monday, February 24, 2003 for possible recommendation to the Town Board.

Comments from Members:

Pam Minnick said she had heard there had been a request, since withdrawn, to put an RV sales lot into the permitted use table. As a result of this issue, she saw there are new and used car lots in B-3 zones. She asked if the members might agree with her to take this use out of the table. Is this something the members would like to have?

Mr. Rush said the board could ask the staff to do a report to consider this recommendation; or make the decision that you don’t believe this is an acceptable use within the district and suggest that the board of commissioners amend the zoning ordinance to not allow the use. Because it is a zoning amendment, it would require a Public Hearing held to make the amendment.

Chairman Daniel asked for a motion to amend the agenda to add this item. Pat Patteson made the motion to amend the agenda to add the used and new car sales lots discussion, second by Ed Dowling, with unanimous approval.

Ms. Minnick then made the motion to delete the in list of permitted use table the allowance in B-3 for new and used car sales lots. Mr. Rush cautioned that this request being “off the cuff” that some research might need to be done to be sure no other portion of the ordinances have been affected by this change. He does not believe there would be any other issue, but it would be helpful to make this search. Discussion ensued that this task be done and make the information available to the planning board for further consideration. There was unanimous vote in favor of the motion for further consideration of the amendment.

Ms. Erickson commended Mr. Rush on the wonderful job he did on the solid waste issue that has been before the town board for some time. It was put together very well.

Chairman Daniel reiterated his views on the solid waste issue and the different methods presented to handle the issue.

Planning Director, Carol Angus, informed the members of an overview of the Joint Land Use Study presented by the Technical Advisory Committee at the Town Board meeting on Tuesday March 11, 2003, at 7:00 PM and the Planning Board members are encouraged to attend. Members will be notified if the date should change.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45, motion by Pat Patteson, Brad Fischer second, with unanimous approval.

Respectfully submitted by:

Carol Angus, Planning Director
Town of Emerald Isle