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12-13-06: Commissioners remove lots from conservation, despite pleas
BY CAROL TRAPANI, Staff writer The move paves the way for houses to be built along the rim of a marsh that residents have come to cherish for its open space and its wildlife habitat. Though Sandy Miller was the only commissioner to vote against the rezoning, none of the commissioners said they actually wanted to change the zoning on the property, owned by Holden Beach Enterprises, which also had donated the adjacent marsh it owned to North Carolina State University. “I was elected to do the right thing for the town for all things considered,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Staley. “I cannot put the town at risk,” he said, referring to fears that a lawsuit would result if the property were not rezoned to residential. A lawsuit resulting in a decision against the town could expose the town to punitive damages worth much more than the property, valued now at approximately $1.5 to $2 million. Commissioner Pat Sandifer, whose brother is a one-third principal in Holden Beach Enterprises, told the audience she wanted to recuse herself, even though she had no financial stake in the property. However, Mac Tyson, the town’s new lawyer, said that according to the Institute of Government, Sandifer could recuse herself only if she stood to receive direct pecuniary benefit from the property. At the meeting in Holden Beach Chapel’s Fellowship Hall, several residents asked commissioners to leave the lots in the conservation zone. A representative from the North Carolina Coastal Federation also put in a plea: “These lands are important,” he said. “Ninety percent of commercial fisheries spend time in wetlands.” Funds from the state and elsewhere were available to help protect the property, he said. For months, commissioners and residents alike have been wrestling with the thorny issue of whether to allow the property-four lots among several others bordering the marsh zoned conservation between Greensboro and Scotch Bonnet streets-to revert to its original zoning. Numerous residents at commissioners meetings had pleaded with commissioners to save the property on environmental and aesthetic grounds. For their part, commissioners said they would like the property to remain in conservation but, given the advice of former town attorneys, and the current attorney, said they had no choice, and would not risk plunging the town into a lawsuit the attorneys said the town would most likely lose. In addition, Commissioner Charlie Boyle said the rezoning years ago to conservation from residential was probably illegal, since the town did not compensate Holden Beach Enterprises for the property. Instead, according to town minutes, commissioners said the property could revert to residential zoning if the property ever became buildable. Completion of the Holden Beach sewer system has apparently made the lots buildable. “This is a tough decision for these commissioners,” Mayor Norman Meares said, before the vote. “Thank goodness I do not have to break a tie.” Miller, who seconds later voted against the rezoning, said that according to the town’s minutes, the property could revert to residential, not would. “We have a definition of wetlands…our own ordinance says this a wetland.” “The property should have stayed R-1,” said Boyle, who was a commissioner when the property was zoned conservation. “We kind of illegally changed it to conservation without giving the owners compensation,” he said. “If we had paid for it at the time we wouldn’t be in this fix.” Commissioner John Heimlich also cited the lawyers’ opinions, saying he was loath to open the town to a lawsuit it was not likely to win. After the vote commissioners approved Boyle’s suggestion that the town investigate ways it could buy the property, through a combination of money from the town, grants and private donations. In other business, commissioners approved a resolution supporting the planned Coastal Events Center, after a presentation by events center chairwoman Martha Warner; approved the 2007 meeting dates and scheduled a planning workshop Jan. 16. |
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