Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the August 3rd, 2026 Kitty Hawk town council meeting. And if you are able to stand, we'd like to have a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Council, do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

So moved. Second.

Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Melody, you have a presentation on the trail, please?

Yes. Yes, and Leilani Baker, our firefighter that was on the agenda, she is not available tonight. Evidently, a new member of the family has been born.

We gave her a pass.

Good evening council, good evening audience. I'm glad so many of you are here. Tonight I'm going to talk a little bit about a regional trail grant application and council on their consent agenda has a resolution that they are going to hopefully, going to pass to support us as we apply for this grant. The other part of this is we're bringing it up in the public because we need public support. So in the end of this, I will say how you can show your support for this project. So the Regional Trails Grant Program, we call it the RTP, is a federal grant administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The funding for development, improvement, and maintenance of recreational trails. And that's one of the things that we feel makes Kitty Hall special is the trails and our coastal reserve, our maritime forest, and access to that is very important to the town. This grant supports both non-motorized and, excuse me, unmotorized trail projects. It's $1.5 million that's available to North Carolina. The applications are reviewed by the NC Trails Committee, and the NC Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources makes the final determination. We really started this project back in 2019, 2020. We received an RTP grant in 2020 for what we consider phase one. And you will see on your screen, the green line is what we call the Birch Lane Trail. Birch Lane Trail runs from Kitty Hawk Estates to basically push through the bypass all the way to Kitty Hawk Park, which is Kitty Hawk Road. So it pretty much cuts along the main portion of the town. The initial phase was to connect Birch Lane to Dare County Park and we accomplished that in 2021 and it was completed and opened and we've had some good feedback and good success with that. The next part is what we call phase two. We are now hoping to connect Sandy Run Park, which is probably by far our most popular park in Kitty Hawk, to the Birch Lane Connector. So essentially you could go from Birch Lane or Kitty Hawk Estates to Sandy Run Park, cut back, go to Kitty Hawk Park or the Deer County Park, and you would just have a lot more access This trail will span from Kitty Hawk Park to the West Kitty Hawk Road to Birch Lane and Kitty Hawk Estate. We want to construct a multi-use trail and elevated boardwalk to create a safe, accessible connection between Standing Room Park and the Birch Lane Trail. Because this is part of the Coastal Reserve, you do have to have state approval, and the state has already given their approval, so we're hoping that will be in our favor. Again, it's to establish a non-motorized route within the Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserve, and also to increase safe connectivity within the town without using the roadways. So, Again, phase two will start at the Natural Surface Trail in Sandy Run Park and extend about 400 linear feet across low-lying wetlands using an elevated boardwalk. It opens back directly to the higher ground of the Birch Lane Trail. The grant is due, the application is due September 4th. We are asking for the maximum grant of $100,000. The town match is 25%. and tonight the town council, if they approve the resolution, would be agreeing to that 25% match and that the project is completed in three years. We have also applied for other grants, so the PARTIC grant, and we'll probably also apply for a Tourism Board grant, and all of these things can be used together, and one can be the match and the other one doesn't have to be the match, and so we feel like we have a pretty good chance of getting the funds that we need to do this. My purpose for doing this presentation tonight is we need public support. We need council support. If you are still on, you still haven't had public comment yet, you would like to provide verbal support for this project, we appreciate it. Email us at info at kittyhawknc.gov with support. And we also have a post on our Facebook, the town of Kitty Hawk. You can put support there. Or you can call us, 252-261-3552. So, John, anybody in council have any questions? Okay, thank you.

Would Willie Midgett please come forward? We have a special award for you tonight. On August 14th, Willie will have served the town of Kitty Hawk for 20 years.

So this is a resolution recognizing the service of Public Works Director Willie Midgett on his 20th anniversary of employment and declaring August 14, 2026 as Public Works Director Willie Midgett Day in the town of Kitty Hawk. Whereas Willie Midgett was employed by the town of Kitty Hawk on August 14th, 2026, beginning a distinguished career of public service dedicated to the maintenance, improvement, and stewardship of the town's public infrastructure. And whereas throughout 20 years of faithful service, Willie Midgett has consistently demonstrated professionalism, integrity, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to the residents of the town. And whereas public director Public Works Director Willie Midgett has overseen the planning, construction, maintenance, and operation of the town's streets, utilities, parks, facilities, equipment, and other essential public assets, ensuring the safety, health, and quality of life of our community. And whereas Willie Midgett has earned the respect and admiration of elected officials, fellow employees, contractors, and citizens alike throughout his exceptional work ethic, sound judgment, and commitment to excellence in public service, and whereas the town council finds it fitting and proper to recognize the significant contributions of Willie Mitchett and to commemorate his 20 years of exemplary service to the town. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Town Council of Kitty Hawk hereby expresses its sincere appreciation and gratitude to Willie Midgett, Public Works Director, for 20 years of outstanding, dedicated, and faithful service to the Town of Kitty Hawk. The Town Council hereby declares August 14th the anniversary of his date of hire as Public Works Director Willie Midgett Day in the Town of Kitty Hawk in recognition of his enduring commitment to the citizens and the lasting impact of his service to the community. The Town Council encourages all citizens and town employees to join in recognizing and celebrating the invaluable contributions made by Willie Midgett in honor of his professionalism, dedication, and spirit of public service exemplified throughout his career, adopted this third day of August 2014.

If anybody in the audience knows Willie, he is our go-to guy for the town. People ask me questions, I say, I don't know, let's call Willie.

Pretend like you like each other.

However, we have learned he's gonna be off that day.

It's his day.

We didn't give him the day off, but I heard that.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

It's now time for public comment.

Madam Clark, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?

Hi, I'm Laura Strickland, and I just wanted to come and say thank you so much for working on the grant. I walk at the park every single day, and it's wonderful that we have a park that our town keeps in such great condition. So whoever does that work, I say thank you. The only concern that I had was when the email came out, it said for biking. And right now, there is no biking allowed at Sandy Run Park. And I would like to make sure that we keep it that way when we open the trail to connect. because the trail is too small, and we right now have no biking, and I think that's a really big concern, that we would have bikes on that trail. It's too small, and occasionally we do get someone who does ride a bike, even though the signs say no biking, and when they come around the corner, it's really dangerous to try to get out of the way, especially as we get more mature. So thank you so much, and I really hope you get the grant.

Thank you very much, Laura.

Anyone else?

All right.

Council, do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

So moved, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. The consent agenda. Oh, I said, did I say agenda? Just tonight's agenda. Consent agenda, excuse me. Let's see, there be no items removed from the public hearing. We'll move to the public hearing. We need to go into public hearing to consider a zoning text amendment, section 42-528, on the side setback requirement for accessory dwelling units. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Second. Were you going to present? So, okay. Well, why don't we wait? After. Just going into the public hearing. Okay. Good. Thank you. All in favor? All in favor? Aye. Thank you.

amendments deal with age use first came in front of you. There are several being addressed due to some kind of just vagueness in the existing ordinance, just trying to clean it up, get some kind of fine direction in it. Those were, as recommended by the planning board, removing the 50% of the primary residence limit on the ADU size, so it would be capped at 800 square feet. It does specify that it's 800 square feet of condition space. Additionally, there was going to be a 15 foot, just a standard 15 foot side yard setback applied to detached ADUs. And one of the recommendations from the planning board was that there was no, not to be any specific limit on unconditioned space. That was the one that it seemed the council had concerns with and kicked it back to the planning board to take another look at it. We recently did that and the planning board, they did spend a good amount of time discussing it, went over a few different options. They still determined that their recommendation was to not put any specific limit on it. Reason being that the existing development regulations, like lot coverage, setbacks, height, septic capacity, already put practical limits on how big the structure itself can be, especially on the smaller lots in town. They were also worried that a hard cap would unfairly penalize owners of larger lots who might want to build an ADU or a larger garage or workshop or storage space. So that was kind of the basis for their recommendation of not having a specific limit on unheated space. They did kind of in their motion create a fallback, I guess, that if council does not agree with that stance, that they would recommend 800 square foot to be the limit of unconditioned space as well. So it would be 800 unconditioned, 800 conditioned space. Two things I do want to kind of highlight, I guess, that just came in. It's not in the staff report because it just came in today. One, I had an owner, a property owner, who's got a storage unit or storage shed at the 10-foot sub-outline, and they are considering rebuilding an ADU above that. proposal that had 15 foot side yard setbacks went into place, that would create some challenges for them trying to make that compliant. So there could be a way to potentially create like a carve out or exemption for ADUs built on existing accessory structures that could stay within that 10 foot. That might be something to hash out. Like I said, that just came in front of me today, so I haven't really had time to think that one through so much. And another one that came through a phone call, is owners that are currently in the design phases, planning around the current regulations, like the 10-foot setback. If we change it to 15-foot tonight, they have to go back to the drawing board and revise their plans. The person I spoke to today, it sounds like it would set them back quite a bit. POSSIBILITY I WAS THINKING WITH THAT CONSIDERATION WOULD BE IF COUNCIL DECIDES TO ADOPT IT, IF YOU WANTED TO SET AN EFFECTIVE DATE SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE TO GIVE THOSE FOLKS WHO ARE ALREADY IN THE PLANNING PHASES TIME TO GET THEIR STUFF FINISHED BEFORE IT COMES IN. WITH THAT, THAT'S KIND OF REALLY ALL I HAVE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR ME, I THINK THERE'S A LOT OF TIME TO SEND IT UP.

Rob, I got a question for you. So you mentioned those people that reached out talking about the 10-foot setback. I'm assuming that's a side yard setback? Yes. Okay. And then this would make what's proposed is a 10-foot front, sides, and rear setback.

The 25 front and rear would not change.

That still remains.

Yeah, you get a standard 15. And the reason we came, or we started discussing this, is our side and rear setbacks are dependent on dwelling size. Size, correct. And it was not really addressed at, if you've got a primary dwelling and an accessory dwelling, does that ADU square footage contribute to that next higher setback? signer and setback. As the planning board discussed it, they felt they recommended that it would be easier to track just by having a set standard signer and setback rather than some of the other options that were brought forward to them.

So the ADU size is also So it regulates the side yard setback, not just the primary dwelling.

That's what's not defined.

OK. Right.

In practice, we hadn't been doing it just because.

You had not?

Right. Because they didn't specifically call it out to count those into the calculations. Right. We didn't want to take the more strict approach.

In practice, what have we been doing? What's that? If we haven't been using the size regulation or size differences for the side setbacks, what have we been doing in practice?

Whatever the side setback as dictated by the primary dwelling size would be the same setback for the ADU. So if the primary dwelling was 3,200 square feet, the side setback would be 12.5, regardless of how many, you know, if it was 800 square foot ADU, it would trip it over to that 15, but we weren't.

Okay. And if we changed the... the proposed tonight to take out the 15-foot side yard setbacks and keep doing what we've been doing in practice, that would satisfy what these folks are calling in about?

Yeah, I would probably recommend that we specifically put it in so it's not left up to interpretation in the future. Just come up with a line saying that the side yard setback, as determined by the dwelling size,

as determined by the primary dwelling size. Okay.

Okay.

I have a comment. Here we go again on the ADUs. I agree with the planning board and their decision on the setback staying the same, 10 feet. That's what I'm in favor of. Then you have other areas too, like if you have a low density stormwater permit you have to get, that changes a lot of coverage calculations in and of itself too, right? For an ADU?

Don't know that we typically deal with that for single-family residential, though.

Okay. So you don't know that any of that's existing? I don't. Okay. As far as the unconditioned space, I mean, don't you think that, I mean, I think that kind of takes care of itself. I don't think there needs to be a restriction on that.

That was kind of where the planning board came to, thinking on some of the smaller lots that we have in town that their footprint of that ADU is going to be limited anyway because of the size of the lot. But then, in fact, in the village area where we have these larger lots, if somebody wants to put a three-car garage or a workshop and have a little ADU above it, they felt that that would be unfairly penalizing. It would be limiting how much they would be able to do under that ADU.

Well, I tend to agree. The way it sits now is half the square footage is what our ordinance is now for the ADUs.

It's either 50% or 800 square feet, whichever is smaller. And they've written to take out the 50% part, so it's just 800 square feet regardless of what the size of the primary going is.

Okay. All right. That's it for me.

Is there anyone else which is to speak on this? Okay. Thank you, Madam Clark.

My name is Duke Garrity. I'm from the Outer Banks Home Builders Association. I'm the Governor Affairs Director. I got an email Friday night. I didn't look at it until today. I'm from Raleigh. The Senate passed their ADU bill last week. It passed 37 to nothing. It's very similar to what Robert proposed. I looked at it. It's just a couple of small things. The 800 square foot is the minimum It's as small as you're allowed to regulate under this bill that hasn't gone through the House yet, so I don't know if it'll change again. If the House changes it, they'll have to go through concurrence. They've been working on it two years. I don't know what's taking so long. But 800 square feet for the ADU is the minimum that you're allowed to regulate. Also, the setbacks. the way it's written in here, has to be the same as the zoning district that it's in. You can't make special setbacks just for the ADU or the accessory structure. I looked at the accessory structure, and I feel there's been a lot of talk, but like the planning board said, the accessory structure is sometimes not just a garage, it's a barn. A lot of people have horses here, have car collectors here. These are used more now than used to be, or just a storage room. It's a little bit more, and there's people who do more. I have a 900-square-foot garage attached, and that's the highlight of my house. I love that 900-foot garage. I live out there. I put a TV in there, and it's a refrigerator, and I'm set. The other thing was, and I don't know if I agree with this, but there can be no parking restrictions. I don't understand why they put that in there. Why? But they like to get away from restrictions in... in Raleigh. They are having a hard time, just like the town's here with ADUs, and I always think about Kitty Hawk when you were the first ones to put the accessory dwelling units into your ordinances and allow it. It is something that we need. It's long overdue. But sometimes 800 square feet is small. Single parent or any parent who have a child, they want a two-bedroom ADU. They need a separate bedroom for the child. 800 feet is too small for two bedrooms. You take the stairway out of it and all go into it. We're trying to have a place that people can rent and live. and you're uncomfortable. If it's too small or it's not comfortable, they're gonna find, just keep looking for another place and move out and become transient. It makes me think hard about that. Just a little bit more of that. And the county's just 1,200 square foot. 800 foot's just a little bit too small to be, you don't want to live in there, to make it permanent. So it'd be nice to be able to put a two bedroom in there, it would solve a lot of things. I don't know how that would work out with your ordinance with the short term rentals. Most of the towns in the county have not allowed the short term rentals in the ADUs. They're just to solve some of the crisis in some of our workforce to have a place to live. So I'm asking you to think about that a little bit more before you pass it. I was at the hearings for the planning board too. They discussed it just like you've discussed it at a meeting two months ago. So it's a good one. It matches everything here. It's done a good job. Rob sent it to me last week after we took a sabbatical. And I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to look at it earlier. I would have gotten back to him today. All right. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Susan Nelson. Okay.

So Rob pretty much said... I was one of the people that called him today. I'm in the middle of the design phase of an ADU and so basically I have it to the 10 foot setback and we would have to start all the way over. We've been doing this for like six months so just having that little extra window would really help. so that I could, or just having a 10-foot side setback would be the ultimate. But I think you said it all, so that's what I was here for. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do you have her address and her phone number and everything? Okay, good. Thank you. All right. Anyone else want to speak? Okay. Okay. Counsel, did anybody else have questions?

I did have one more comment. I forgot to add in there.

Is this a comment or a question? Because you can save it for discussion.

Well, it's a little bit of both, but I can wait. Okay. I'll wait, though.

Just up to you if you need to talk to Rob or any of the folks who spoke.

It's a little bit of both, so I can wait, though. Okay.

Okay, I need a motion to go out of public hearing.

So moved. Second. Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Right now, is there any further discussion?

So, I'll tell you, I'll shorten mine down a little bit. I have a hard time being restrictive on people's personal property rights. And I feel like the more we try to add a 15-foot setback versus a 10, when our ordinance is already at 10, I think it's under 3,000 square feet as a dwelling. It really bothers me to be over-restrictive on property. Again, if we're going to have ADUs, I'm not saying they should be able to build a 3,000 square foot one, I'm just saying I don't want to get too tick tacky with it. Tell us what they can and cannot do with their real estate. That's all I have.

I agree a lot with what David's saying. I put a lot of thought to this. Pete and I have had a lot of conversations about this. The more I thought about it, the more I felt Kitty Hawk's history, wood building, boat building, Sort of large sheds are some of our history. You can go through the whole village and I can name off at least five different large shops that probably had a little apartment up top or a little hangout spot. I'm not comfortable capping an unconditioned floor area on the ADUs. If these people... You can apply for a... I'm starting to ramble now. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.

All right. Are you sure?

Now, I do think that we need to change it to the side yard setbacks as based on the primary dwelling size. Concur. Okay.

Any other questions or comments?

I've got one comment, Madam Mayor. So I guess I've got a little bit of a different take on this. To me, it seems non-congruent to cap at 800 square feet for a primary dwelling, but allow unconditioned space as large as you want. And I understand the discussion of a large-sized barn and that sort of thing, but people have the right to build as much barn as they want anywhere, but when it comes to an ADU, the concept of an ADU is for housing. And so if you cap it at 800 feet, some people are saying 800 feet is not big enough, but we let them have a tremendous amount of unconditioned space. My experience from living in different towns all over the country, being in the military, coming and going, ADUs have been a real big thing in many cities, and I've seen it out of control. I've seen complete neighborhoods change, places where I lived and moved back to. just because everybody was trying to get on top of affordable housing and stuff, but I've seen neighborhoods that I've lived in completely change in front of my eyes as the ADU policies got so loose and so out there that next thing you know there's ADUs everywhere. So it can significantly change the culture and the way things look for sure. I've seen it firsthand many times. So I'm a little bit, I just can't understand why you would allow a structure to be 800 feet, but then say you can build whatever else you want next to it. And I know some people have large properties, but there's a lot of people that have small properties. And it's going to change the look of some of those properties big time. So I just, it just doesn't seem congruent to me. I'm with 800 square foot cap on unconditioned space. And I'm also, I agree with the setback, as Councilman Tillett just said, and Councilman

Do I have a motion for this text? Are we sure this is what we want to do or are we going to table it again? Or do we have a motion?

I don't think it needs to be tabled again. I think it needs to be decided on tonight.

Right.

Is there a motion in here?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And I see a recommended a motion, but action.

I'll go ahead. Go ahead. I move to approve the proposed text amendment to section 42-528 of the Kitty Hawk zoning ordinance. Town Council has found this proposal to be consistent with the town's adopted use plan.

I'll second that.

Do we have to add? Yeah, what are we voting on?

Spell out the setback. Issue with the setback, right. If you wanted to be congruent with the size of the house and what applies to the primary dwelling, just specify that, Jeff. I think just say to include provisions on setbacks relative to primary dwelling.

Well, and also with the unconditioned space. Are we capping the unconditioned space at 800 feet, or are we saying it's unlimited? Unlimited.

Yeah, that was the motion, is unlimited.

Because there were kind of some options, I guess. That's what I'm saying.

There were. Yeah, that's why I'm asking to clear it up. How about this, Rob?

You've heard them speak. You pronounce what you think you're hearing as far as what the motion should be. So you're going to be the one administering.

Right. So motion to approve with changes to the side yard setback to align them to be primary and to not have a limit on unconditioned space.

I make a motion as Rob's discussed.

I adopt Rob's comments. I turn that to a motion. And is Council, everyone on the same page now? I'm going to second that. Okay.

All in favor? Aye.

Opposed?

You got all those? Okay, opposed?

Aye. 4-1.

4-1. Okay.

Thank you. Lauren, did you get all of that? OK, good. Thank you.

Thank you, Casey.

Rob, do you have a site plan you'd like to review with us?

This one is 109 West Tateway. But the way our ordinance is written out is multifamily as well as follow this commercial site plan review process. So existing on the site right now, there is a duplex. The proposal is to construct two more dwelling units on the south side. And then there's a 12 by 25 storage area connecting the two areas that contain the dwelling units. So it would create one singular multi-canyon dwelling. It's in the BR2 district. Multi-canyon dwellings are permitted by right. The planning board reviewed this last week unanimously recommended approval going through all the different zoning requirements it appears that all the zoning is met. The maximum density in that area is four dwellings per acre and the parcel is like 1.06 acres I think so it's compliant with the density requirements. Building height's not shown in the site plan, but we'll confirm that when the building permit comes in that it's not exceeding 35 feet in height. That's really about it. It's fairly straightforward and simple. speak with Councilman Tillett earlier this morning, I guess. He had a question about whether the drive aisle is sufficient for fire safety protection. I had Deputy Chief Rogers, I have not gotten a response back yet. You may not have seen it at this point, but my suggestion to Councilman Tilly was if Council agrees that it meets the zoning requirements, that it just be a condition of approval that that gets verified that it's compliant with the fire requirements before it's filled with permits.

Do we have a sufficient buffer?

And Rob, just to add on a little bit more, it was emergency service access and vehicle turnaround. Correct. Yep.

Does anybody have any other questions?

I move to approve the commercial site plan for a multi-family dwelling at 109 West Tateway Road and find that the proposal is consistent with the BR2 district standards.

with the condition that the fire department has reviewed and approves the vehicle access and vehicle turnaround. I'll second.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

Thank you, Rob. Willie, would you like to come back up and talk to us about the... The 25% plan? The 25% plan.

25%. It's hard to see. That's all we got.

All right. This is about the multi-use path for 158 that has been in the works since 2011. We finally got a 25% plan from the engineer that the state has hired, and they're requesting our input on the pathway as it goes around the Hickok Brown Center, which is the Welcome Center in Kitty Hawk. There's a couple of options. One is for it to... So one is for it to curve around the Welcome Center, as the road does. And the path will just continue right down the bypass. The other option is... And the other option is for it to come into the Welcome Center and then utilize the existing sidewalk that goes around the welcome center and it would come back out in front of the police department. And that's if you see the open area there, that is where the gas regulators are. So it really depends on what we prefer. If we want to keep people away from the road or worry about being safe walking through there after hours of the, when the welcome center is closed. I will say the welcome center is well lit, so it wouldn't be in the dark. And that's really what they're looking for.

That's quite a hill there, isn't it, Willie?

Yeah, I wish they had provided us if there's a cost savings or advantages of either, but they did not give that to us.

I did speak with the engineers that are working on the, what do they call it, the Gateway beautification project, and they have looked it over and they do believe that it all works together. There's no issue with those two projects interfering with one another. So I guess we have to provide this feedback By the 5th, I believe. So is there a preference among the town council? What you'd like to see or what you'd like to do?

What would your feedback be to DOT?

How well do you think they would take the third option?

It's always a possibility. Third option just cuts in a little more, which is what Rob, for everybody in the audience, Rob drew that, sketched that real quick. So... And y'all have a copy of that in your packet, but it just, instead of going more with the road, it cuts in a little bit and connects.

That kind of follows the existing road around the Welcome Center, not 158, but the service road, if you will.

Our concern is if you have people going around the visitor center, that some people are just going to make their own path and go in front of the visitor center anyway. So... It's an effort. Obviously, going around is the safest option. But whether people will do that is a whole other question.

And we don't have any indication on how folks would know that the path is supposed to go around the backside. Would it be labeled or signed? I'm sure it would be.

Uh-huh.

I'm sure they probably marked the crosswalk too across the parking lot for a safety piece too.

And everybody would find out about Icarus. That's a very underutilized.

If I don't know anything about that sidewalk and I'm going down the highway following the bike path and I see part of it going into the welcome center, I'm not going to know that it exits as well and goes back into the highway.

Right.

But I like the idea of walking around the Welcome Center for multiple reasons. We talked about there's a better crossing on that merge lane, further inside.

There are restrooms there.

Restrooms there. Melody's points of parking for folks who want to park and exercise.

And you go from three crossings with the original plan to basically none. You've got to cross over in the parking lot, which is a little bit safer, but there's actually three crossing points. The two, the merging in, the acceleration lane out, and then the red light stop in the middle. So the current plan would have you hitting all three of those.

There is some question about people wanting to walk up that hill to go around and behind it. It's just not that high. I don't think so, but it was brought up to me, Willie.

And it's not like they're missing out on anything along the road if they have to go around. There's not an intersection that they miss. There's not a crossing that they miss.

If anything, it keeps them away from the intersection.

The only thing I see is, you know, if you've got people going to work and stuff like that, it's just, you know, they're going to... Instead of A to B, we're kind of taking more of a...

It's like, what's the use of the path? Is it to get somewhere? Yeah. Or is it just for...

If you're going to take them to our Icarus and all that, you know, the main thing is to try to get them to food line work and all that. So, you know, when we did the bike path on the woods road, we tried real hard. You know, it took a lot of effort to let the state have the property. I even gave property away on Twyford Street to get it off the road. Getting it off the road, I think if we could go with Rob's plan once again. But I'm good with any of them, but I personally would like to see it off the road, but not really that far out of the way. Because I do agree with the days of the bike set. They're going to connect the dots here. They're not going to do the loop.

You can see it on the ledge over there.

They're going to straight line it. But I think if you get them off a little bit, because that's fairly straight. The woods road is different because they're kind of hard to go around there at 70 on a bicycle.

Okay, so as far off from the road as possible, please consider our third option that we've asked about. and go from there. And there'll be, this is only 25%, so there'll be more opportunities coming. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank y'all.

Melody, could you please review our town priorities for everyone tonight?

Hello again everyone.

I got Willie to do the traffic thing because I didn't want it to be the whole melody show. Planning for success are strategic priorities and our council has been working really hard during their workshops and budget planning and so forth to develop strategic priorities for our town. So this sets priorities. It represents the commitment the town council has to the thoughtful, transparent, and proactive government. It establishes a shared vision, provides clear direction for staff. It creates accountability. We're all on the same page and we know where we're going. It guides our budget and resource allocation decisions. It strengthens the public trust because you know what we're trying to do and why we're trying to do it. It positions us for funding opportunities such as grants and so forth. It encourages organizational alignment. Again, we're all on the same page singing from the same song. And it focuses on long-term success and provides a framework for our next step, which is to formulate a strategic plan. So, council has come up with this draft strategic mission. The town of Kitty Hawk is dedicated to sustaining a community-focused, family-oriented coastal community that values stewardship, natural resources, and heritage. We work to enhance public safety and preparedness, practice transparent and effective governance, and actively engage our community in shaping the town's future. By protecting our natural resources, strengthening environmental resiliency, and preserving our unique cultural history, we support a vibrant coastal lifestyle through collaboration, thoughtful planning, balancing the needs of residents and visitors, and continually enhancing the quality of life in our Outer Banks community. The priorities, in short, that the town council has come up with are public safety, coastal resiliency, investment in our community, financial responsibility, responsible development, and our cultural heritage in serving that. So just a little bit of a roadmap. We've done the first step. We've got our core vision and our priorities. Next, we're going to kind of analyze where we are on those priorities and determine where we can best have impact. Step three, we're going to start setting goals and action plans with a strategy, and they will be measurable, and we'll have a step-by-step action plan to go with them. And then last, we will continually evaluate our plan, how we're doing on our goals, making corrections if we need to, and sharing that with everyone in our community. Council, tonight I ask you to formally approve the strategic vision and priorities you have defined at your previous meetings. Do you have any questions?

There's not a priority on these. They're all equally – they're just – the way they're listed is just the – That is my understanding.

Okay.

Mine as well. Okay.

Do I have a motion to approve the town priorities?

Madam Mayor, I make a motion to move to adopt the Town Council's strategic priorities as a guiding framework for development of Town's strategic plan and direct the Town Manager to prepare a comprehensive strategic plan including measurable goals, implementation strategies, performance metrics, and recommended timelines for Council consideration.

Second.

Thank you. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you, guys. Thank you.

So I think my job is fairly clear. I'll get on this. Okay. All right. Council, we need to point two applicants to the Recreation Committee. Do I have any nominations?

Yes, Madam Mayor. I would like to nominate Katie Jo Walker for a position on the Recreation Committee. I'd like to second that.

Thank you. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

And I'm going to abstain from that vote. I'm very close to her.

Madam Mayor, I make a motion to appoint Mr. Derek Wineland as a member of the Recreation Committee with a term of office to expire on June 30th, 2028. I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, we have it.

Do I need to amend Katie Jo's to have a term to expire June 30th, 2028?

That would be her term limit.

All right.

That's fine.

Yeah, I mean.

I didn't specify that on the nomination.

If you want to redo it, you can. But otherwise, Lauren's got it, I mean, taken down. But it's as presented. Yep. As presented in the materials.

Thank you, Dylan. Town Manager, do you have anything for us tonight?

Yes, I wanted to report to Town Council that we had a very productive discussion this morning with the Town of Duck and Southern Shores about enhancing our collaboration and providing fire services. Chief Talley did an outstanding job leading the group, presenting an overview of our current services, and also options and suggestions for improvement. The towns have committed to move forward in identifying ways that we can improve this process. Next week, the town managers and I are going to meet and establish a framework so that the chiefs can then work on ways and have suggestions to deliver more consistent fire response, improve firefighter safety, standardize operating procedures and training activities, and promote better fiscal management through a regionalized model. So we are starting the process.

That was an exciting meeting.

That is exciting. And again, thanks to Chief Talley for doing such a nice job. Three Oaks Engineering has been working with the steering committee and the staff to develop a plan, a multimodal plan as we call it, to better connect the town with safe pedestrian and bicycle access. We expect to see their recommendations in the next several weeks. After the recommendations have been vetted, We will have a public forum where everybody can see the recommendations and invited to provide their input on the options and suggestions provided. We think that will probably happen in early fall, that public forum, as they hope to have the plan completed and adopted by December. And this will provide a plan and then the town can pick projects and tackle things, you know, as we go forward. It'll be a long-term process. Tomorrow is National Night Out. It will be held at Lowe's in Killdouble Hills. Our public safety staff will be out there. And it's a nice family-friendly event, a lot of fun usually. And it's between 5 and 8 o'clock. So if you have kids or want to go check out all their gadgets and things that they have, you're welcome to do so. I'm also happy to announce that LabCorp is coming to Kitty Hawk. We leased them a space several months ago, and they are now getting ready to... upfit their space for their uses. It will be in the medical building next to the police department. So we hope that they will be open soon, maybe September, we hope. The hurricane form that we had here last week was very well attended. I think the best attended of any of the ones that they have. So it was a great success. It was actually fun and informational. They discussed advancements in forecasting, emphasized the importance of relying on trusted sources and not all the Facebook weather people out there and so forth, and outlined the risk associated with being unprepared or disregarding the information that's given. And last but not least, if you would like to provide support for the Connector Trail, and I appreciate Ms. Strickland doing that in public comment. Thank you. And you can do it at info at kittyhawknc.gov, Kitty Hawk Facebook page, or call us 252-261-3552.

That's it. Thank you, Melody. David, do you have anything to say?

No, I don't think so. Not tonight. Thank you. No, well, congratulations to Willie. I do want to acknowledge that. Okay, there you go. That's why I asked for the new vehicle, by the way.

We're going to let Willie ask for all of our vehicles.

Yes, ma'am. I just want to very quickly thank Melody and team, all the hard work on the vision statement, the strategic goals. Those are significant in that they help this body create a feasible roadmap forward, especially with a time of limited resources. For instance, the Berks Lane Sanity Run Connector Trail That's a prime example, and it can be made an argument that they hit every one of the six strategic objects, goals and objectives. So that's a perfect alignment, and I can't thank you and team enough also for your alignment of not only the goals, but the boards and workshops. I think it's going to make us much more efficient and effective in our decision-making process, and that's like stuff behind the scenes that never gets noticed, but you guys are doing a great job on that, so thank you.

Okay, Dylan, do you have something?

I have nothing else to add other than thank you, Willie.

Congratulations. Yeah, I'd like to thank Ms. Strickland for coming tonight. Thank you for your input about the Sandy Run Park. I appreciate that. Chief Talley, thank you for trying to help out with the fire department situation. It's long overdue, and I'm glad that you're a part of it. Willie? Willie? We rode out of many a storm together. There's no better man to do the job. There's no way the town could ever repay Willie for what he's done for this town. We've had a lot of storms. There's been a lot of branches on these trails. Every time we build a new connector, Willie's got more work. He's done a fantastic job for this town, and I can't imagine anybody better to have done that job. Thank you very much, Willie. I'd also like to introduce my great nephew Sean. He's John Pruitt. He's in town. He came earlier back for the summer and he wrote a paper on the Outer Banks. He's going to Texas A&M San Antonio, and this was his paper. And I hope that he'll let me bring it here and have it for display for people to read. And thank you for choosing our area. He interviewed a lot of really educated people, Clark Twitty, too, my Aunt Meb, and people that have been here for quite a while and knew. And the paper's very well done. And so I just wanted to welcome Sean, and that's all I have.

Casey, do you have anything tonight?

One quick thing. I hate it because Duke left. The bill, I've been following it. The old ADU bill actually died. That referenced coastal communities, referenced the 800 square foot requirement. A new insertion into the Regulatory Reform Act did come forward. It did pass Senate reading. It is at the House. All of that is true. But I don't think it applies to coastal communities. I think coastal communities are carved out. So it will not have any effect on zoning from the ADU perspective for coastal communities. Rob and I will look more into it and confirm it, but that's what I was digging on my phone for. If anybody wondered what I was doing. As soon as he mentioned it, I was like, I don't know how I missed that. But I don't think what Duke's talking about actually will apply to us.

Mayor Ben Caffoon was very... involved in getting the coastal counties exempt from those things. Cut him out of that. Very good. He did. Well, if that's all that you have, I wanted you to know that Melody and I attended the senior leadership preparation meeting, and we hope to be more well-informed to handle emergencies appropriately. Not just hurricanes, there's lots of other emergencies that we would be dealing with, could be. And also Eric Hayden from Moorhead, National Weather Service and Drew Pearson from Dare County Emergency Management came and did the hurricane preparedness in here. And we had, what, 50-plus people at 10 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday morning. So that was quite something to have that big a crowd. And he did say that we were the largest one. So I encourage everybody to sign up for the smart alert so that you get messages on your phone. And you'll create a profile, and they can contact you. And you can even give them your garage door opener, you know, your code, so that if something were to happen in your house... They could get into your house without breaking your door down, and that's kind of important sometimes. It's a service that they offer, and everybody should take advantage of that. So that's all I have tonight. Anything else? Everybody good? All right. Then I need a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.