Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Those in attendance. Uh, welcome to the May 19th planning board meeting. And, uh, we are officially here. We have a forum. So let's begin. First item that we need to talk about is the approval of the agenda.

Can I make a motion to approve the agenda?

We have a motion. Do we have a second? We have a second. Thank you. The agenda is approved. Um, next item is the public comment audience response. Do we have anybody that wishes to speak today? We do not. All right. Moving right along. Um, next item is the approval of minutes. Everybody's had a chance to review. Do I have a motion? I'd like to make a motion to approve. We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. Thank you. minutes are now approved and we are moving on to section e action items consideration of a special use permit site plan review and we have miss wyatt to speak good morning kelly good morning hope everyone's doing well

So before I get started with this, I'll put the site plan up on the screen so we can navigate through that as I talk through the staff report. So as you noted, this is a special use permit, site plan review request submitted by Mike Robinson on behalf of Tar Hill Motel OBX. And I will say this board looked at this as a sketch plan several months ago. I actually think it was back in December 2025. So it's finally back in a more formal setting. But this is for construction of a new two-story, 26-unit hotel building with the associated site improvements as an expansion to the existing Tar Hill Motel. The expansion is located at 7001 South Croatian Highway, directly across from the existing motel development, which the address for that is 7010 South Virginia Dare Trail. And the property is zoned C2, general commercial, and is located within the hotel overlay. And I did pull up an image of this on Dare County GIS, just to maybe give some perspective. This is the existing Tar Hill Motel. Here is their pool. and this is the property that they are proposing to develop with the new expansion. In this photo I will note this looks low, it looks wet, but in your packet you do have some information from Army Corps of Engineers about the status of the property. So they've done a lot of due diligence here to ensure that everything is good on this site. Looking at the site plan, you're going to have the entrance here off of Virginia Deer Trail. It will kind of weave through here and exit on DeGlidden. And this pool is going to be relocated here. And this area will become the septic area. So I will bump back. to this so you can see how that actually plays out with your entrance winding through the new units over here in this l shape and then over here you have this nice amenity area with pool patio dog run etc so just to give a little bit of perspective so the surrounding area is entirely zoned C2, general commercial, and it's commercial in nature. Like I said, you have the existing hotel to the east, you have a restaurant, The Dunes, to the south, and you have some commercial recreational uses across the street, across 158. The property itself is currently vacant. It is located within an ex-flood zone, but it does have to comply with our local regulatory flood protection elevation of nine. So when you look at these plans, they're showing this lab at about 6.8, and they have parking on grade below. So that first floor of the structure will certainly be above that nine. From a zoning and land use standpoint, hotel is identified as a special use within the C2 zoning district and staff has found the proposal to be compliant with the applicable supplemental regulations that are in 7.12 of the UDO and provided that separately in your packet with some notes so you could see what those supplemental regs were and how it applied. I would say one thing worth noting is that both the existing motel property and the expansion consist of multiple underlying non-conforming lots. So as part of this, there will need to be a recombination prior to any development permits being issued. With respect to dimensional standards, the hotel overlay district does provide a little bit more flexibility than the C2 district does, and you can see that in those supplemental regulations, how it tells you what's allowed in C2 versus what's allowed in the hotel overlay. Standard hotel lot coverage within the C2 is capped at 55%. However, in the overlay, you can go up to 65%, and the combined existing and proposed development of this hotel calculates lot coverage at approximately 56.1%, so it remains compliant. Building height within the overlay district may go up to 60 feet, so that's a big difference between the C2 and the overlay. The C2, you're gonna be capped to 35, and the overlay, you can go all the way up to 60. But what they've proposed here is very modest, two-story, coming in at 42.8 feet in height, so. it's compliant there another area that's important to staff obviously is architectural design and just like i noted as part of the sketch plan you can pull it up there's a larger image in here but you can kind of get an idea just from this inset of some of the architectural elements. This proposal complies very much so with our commercial design standards. You've got varied roof forms. You have a crystal watchtower. You have both shake and board and batten siding. You have residential style windows. You have covered porches. You do have some shutters on here as well. Decorative trim, beauty band. Column trim, just gable bracket, about everything that we speak to in terms of architectural design, they've incorporated. in this hotel development. Parking was another significant component of staff review. The existing motel has 34 guest rooms. The proposed addition adds 18 two-bedroom suites with kitchenettes and eight standard guest rooms. I don't know, some of you may remember we talked about hotel parking not long after the Inn at Wellbone was approved and we tweaked the parking standard there a little bit. to provide for more parking. So based on the town's now adopted parking standards, including employee parking requirements, which it did in prior, the development is required to have 83 parking spaces. And you'll see on the site plan, they propose 84 parking spaces. And that is including employee parking with six employees on their largest shift. In addition, the ordinance requires a minimum of 20% permeable surface material within the new parking and drive aisle, and what they have proposed is approximately 21% of permeable surface, so that is being met as well. Staff also reviewed the project for compliance with buffering, and we do have a buffering plan In here, let's see if I can pull that up easily.

Here we go.

It is still small, but hopefully you can get an idea of the amount of landscaping that's been shown here. We do find that it's in compliance with buffering and landscaping and preservation. The proposal includes compliant parking lot buffers along US 158 and Glidden Street. So you can see here, they have two, if not intermittently, three rows of plantings adjacent to 158. They also have a row of plantings here adjacent to the building for the foundation plantings. They have two rows of plantings here along Glidden with it kind of tapering down for site triangle purposes at the entrance. Again, more proposed landscaping along Glidden. They have some back here as well around their stormwater management. and we scoot over here this is outlined in more detail in your staff report but this property is residential it is a old non-conforming cottage court pull it up you can actually see it right here So because hotel is a high impact use and because it is adjacent to a residential use, they have to have that commercial transition protective yard here. This is still zoned C2. If it were zoned residentially, it would require that larger 25 foot buffer, but because this is zoned C2 as well, it just has to have the 10 foot wide buffer so in addition to this being their septic area they've also proposed a compliant commercial transition protective yard to be proposed along the length of the property line where the proposed hotel and new development is going to border this cottage court and You'll see pockets of interior parking lot vegetation throughout. You can see that here, here, these little pockets through here. All back here around this seating area, around the patio and the dog park. So there's been a significant amount of vegetation proposed. And they've spelled that out down here, what that looks like in terms of preservation. So they're required to either preserve 10% of the lot area in existing vegetation. As you can see, there's really no existing vegetation out there. So they're having to plant that full 15%, and they're planting over 18%. So they're compliant in that regard as well. The town engineer has reviewed the project for compliance with storm water management, traffic circulation, and erosion and sedimentation control, and generally finds compliance there. He did note a few things, and the applicant has already addressed that. Public services also has no concerns related to the water tap and to sanitation. Go back up to the original site plan You can see here's their proposed dumpster and So it's going to be really convenient for a front load sanitation trucks to come in like this pick up back out and then exit off of Glidden. And you can see the pathing plan in there as well for sanitation trucks, EMS, ambulances, so that you can see they have adequate room to maneuver through there. The fire department has requested some additional engineering documentation related to fire flow. and fire suppression infrastructure. That doesn't have to be addressed at this point. It does need to be addressed if this is approved prior to issuing any development permits, but we did want to put that in there so that you were aware of it. And the project is also proposing an engineered onsite wastewater system that will require state approval prior to any development review. It's pretty consistent with what the Inn at Wellbone did as well. Overall, staff finds the request to be consistent with the development and use standards within the UDO and the hotel overlay standards. And of course, as I've stated, it certainly meets their architectural design standards. So with that, staff would recommend approval of the special use site plan as it's been proposed. Happy to answer any questions that you may have. And Mike Robinson is available. He's the engineer on the project. If you have any questions for him.

thank you kelly are there any questions from the board for kelly kelly i have one sure given the proximity of the buffering on towards uh 158 bypass is there a multi-use path or a walkway between the highway and that buffering That line of buffering? Let's see, just to verify.

There currently is not.

There is not, okay. There is on the other side.

Correct, on the west side.

I was just concerned about vegetation growing into a walkway area. Okay, thank you. Sure. I don't have any further questions. Okay. Any questions for the engineer? Thank you for being here. Okay. So, thoughts?

Well, having looked at the sketch plan back in December, we already had a pretty good idea of what was coming and this seems to match that and Kelly's staff has already gone through reviewed and said everything is consistent, so we might be ready to vote.

I think the items that I remember, pedestrian walkways, et cetera, have been kind of had their allowances have been, modifications have been made.

Okay.

So we have ‑‑ A motion we approve as presented.

I was looking for that. Do we have a second? We have a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? The plan carries. Thank you. Well done. Thank you, everybody. Chair Greg Musil.

Hey, Kelly, just a comment. When you did that Derrick County GIS at the beginning and walk us through, that's very helpful.

Okay. Great.

Chair Greg Musil. Appreciate that.

Yes.

It is. I agree.

Thank you. We do that more often then.

All right. So next item is the report on the Board of Commissioners' actions? Kelly?

I think we have too much here. It was kind of interesting. At our last, at the Board of Commissioners' meeting, they actually convened at Dowdy Park to acknowledge the new ADA-accessible WeGoSwing that's been installed there. So it's really, really cool. If you haven't seen it, I would say go buy. And Trillium Health Resources gave us a grant to do that. So it was really nice. A little different.

I remember us talking a lot about that when we were kind of going through those early sketches. And it's good to see the pieces. the final piece is falling into place.

Yeah so the the Liberty Swing having that ADA compliance swing was a requirement of the grant and so the Liberty Swing has been out there and it's been there since Dowdy Park was developed but rust, age, abuse was taking a toll. So to get this one, you don't have to have a key to unlock or operate or anything like that, so it's much more accessible and hopefully easier for everybody. But it's really, really cool to go out there and see it. We had our public hearing for the vested right special use permit submitted by Withers Ravenel for the Outer Banks Hospital Cancer Center site for that additional HVAC to help bring down the humidity within the building, and that was approved as submitted. The board unanimously approved a text amendment establishing the new uses of wine bar and tap room, and the board denied the text amendment to establish the new accessory use of restaurant waiting facility. We gave our monthly report. which that was well accepted as far as appointments and reappointments to the town boards. David Elder was reappointed to the planning board for a three-year term. So highlight that. And I believe that's it.

All right. So, Kelly, on the public hearing for the restaurant waiting facility, that was –

turned down it was yes what what happens now is that is that a dead in the water it is um so the applicant could not bring you really no one can bring back the same amendment within i think it's a one-year time frame but if there's substantial changes to the amendment They can bring it back, but I have not heard from Mr. Overton or the Shields. Okay, thanks. Since the BOC meeting.

Thank you. Okay. Welcome to another term.

I don't remember the oath being as conjunctive and long as that was. There were several repeat after me. What did she just say?

I don't think so.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. All right. Count updates we've taken care of. Okay, so we have discussion items. And Kelly, you may come back up. No sense sitting down. I kind of forgot about that one.

Let's see, by the time we do all of this, there's probably not a whole lot left on here for everyone. So the Septic Health Advisory Committee met April 27th. I think we might have mentioned this before, but we sent out a revised report about our septic health program, and so that's been distributed to everyone within the town. There's still some trickling out, but it's been really, really helpful in terms of participation. That little mailer alone at this point has generated probably 35 to 40 inspections for our initiative, so that's been great. And that division of water infrastructure loan, we are approved, we're good to go, we have access to that $500,000. So next step for us is to, and Basil's aware of this, is to start our education and outreach to vulnerable or high risk properties. And so those are the properties that the Septic Health Advisory Committee and staff went through. And Joe did the heavy lift with identifying those through looking at maintenance, like when those septic systems have last been maintenance. Have they participated in our program at all? adjacent to a water body was one thing that we looked at. And really the biggie was elevation of the property. Because if you're at a low elevation, you're near the sound, a ditch, a water body, and you've not had a recent septic, it could be likely that you're experiencing groundwater elevation and maybe have some issues with your tank. So this loan will be focused on connecting with those people to let them know that this loan is available. So that's gonna be our next step.

Kelly, let me ask you a question up in there. How many people fall into that vulnerable category? Or septic systems?

Yeah, based upon Joe's work, when you added all the layers of adjacency to water, property below, I think two feet was the primary below two feet. We're looking at about 280 properties. If you bump it from two feet to three feet, then we're closer to 600. So we're going to target that 280 originally. You know, obviously we understand that we don't We don't know everybody's individual situation. We can just speak to generalities, and we don't wanna be alarming, obviously. We don't want to assume that somebody has to take advantage of it, but we wanna make sure that they know that if they do have issues, or they are concerned, that it's available, and they have first priority to the money. And the big thing with that is it is no interest. and up to $20,000. So our current loan is $12,000 in low interest. This would be no interest. It's gonna be an exciting initiative that Joe and Connor and myself will jump into head first here soon.

Kelly, I should note this, but how long is that grant good for? Until the money runs out or is there a calendar period on it?

I believe it's pretty much, I think the town has, is it 20 years? 20 years.

Okay.

But the payback on the loan would be five.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Yes.

Thank you, Kelly.

And Amy Miller, I will say, did a lot of work. And they're essentially, because our existing program is sort of a revolving fund, the Division of Water Infrastructure has agreed to allow us to treat this the same way. So as long as it's revolving, even if we go through the 500, as long as it's being paid back, it can continue. It's exciting.

It is, it is. Hopefully there'll be a lot of participation.

Takers, I hope so.

Yes.

Estrin Shoreline Management, Joe's probably the best person to speak to all of this. There's movement in all of these areas. Harvey Soundside Event Site, we're still in permitting on that. They did have to do a revised submittal for wetland delineation and permitting timeline is expected to be in the fall, 2026. with construction expected in early 2027. Villa Dunes Drive, that was one of the original priority sites, and we now have George Wood with environmental professionals connecting with those property owners back there. We were unable to do a large project there. But we do want to help them out and so having George would go speak with those individual property owners learn about Their specific property What they would like to see and see if he can kind of help navigate some type of individual living shoreline that could help them Sounds like roads still moving forward with that and incorporating some stormwater management and

and then the catfish farm and causeway area i think that's if you have any updates on that one but it's continuing to move forward um about to do our sad survey here in early june so water vegetation that will help us figure out

Sand relocation. So our sand relocation program, as of the beginning of the month, is over. So people no longer have access to that program. We're in the total moratorium phase. But we are still continuing to give out money through our dune management cost share program. As anticipated, in previous years we've been allocated $400,000. And we've not really come close to that. We thought we would this year, given the amount of sand movement and the number of people that were on that three year cycle to get that full 3,500. And sure enough, I think we've maxed out Lily's managing that program. she got it I think to three thousand nine hundred and ninety nine yeah so that was very successful this season and Dowdy Park we have everything lined up for the summer season we do have a Paige Griffin, our event coordinator, has a seasonal part-time person helping her through the summer months. So that's gonna be helpful as well. And I would just note that we did get a grant through the Safe Monarch Habitat grant program for $2,000. The aquarium was helping us with this for putting some pollinators back into the pollinator garden at Dowdy Park. So they're growing those plants now in anticipation of planting in fall. That's exciting. That's all I have.

Thank you, Kelly. Does anybody have any questions about any of this?

I have one comment, Kelly. I went to Artrageous, which was a fabulous festival, and they had food trucks and so much for the kids and families to do. But what I did notice that there was a lack of were trash receptacles. They really need to have a few more trash receptacles around that area because people had, they were just putting stuff on the ground, they couldn't find a trash can. I was looking for a trash can at one point. I just think that would be helpful and maybe lessen the cleanup after the event.

So Artrageous is one of those events that are occurring at Doughty Park, but it is not a town sponsored event. So we do have the crowd gathering process where we meet with them in advance. So we'll make a note so that next year when they apply for their crowd gathering, we can make sure that we have that note in there that looking forward to your next event, we may need some more trash receptacles out there.

So thank you for letting us know. And even, I spend a lot of time at Dowdy Park because I've got grandchildren and after school pickup with the kids. And I have noticed, and I've been cleaning it up myself, even over by the basketball court and the pickleball courts, people are leaving their Gatorade bottles, their snacks, you know, just trash, like around the bench, because there's no receptacle over there. So maybe even just having a permanent receptacle over in that area might lessen the amount of litter that's left behind.

I'm going to toss in at Satterfield Landing, it's kind of a similar issue. And it's as similarly, this is a Dare County lease operation over there. everything is kind of right adjacent to the walkway. And whenever, whenever there's something going on there, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty much over parked all the time. So, you know, the trash has become a thing. It's in the woods.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Kelly. So while you're there,

thing right we're going to uh next the strategic plan from the february 26 board of commissioners retreat joe i understand you're gonna enlighten us yes i am hopefully good morning how are you guys doing um today i'm going to present on the strategic plan was recently updated at the um february board retreat and then adopted in april the strategic plan really has its basis in the community survey that was done for three or four years ago the 2023 survey so three years ago The strategic plan, again, is a formal document that basically describes where an organization wants to go and how it's going to get there. It clarifies our mission, our vision, and our values. And I think this little sentence here is important. Goals are broad outcomes. The town wants to achieve objectives or specific areas of focus within each goal. Basically, they define what success looks like. And then action items are concrete steps that will take you to make progress on those objectives. And so I'm not going to read through all of this, but I do want to read through all of the specific goals that really, you know, planning is going to be doing and the action items related to them. Most of our action items are in the first two whole areas of environment and development and a couple in economy and community services. But so our four broad goals here are the environment, We're going to safeguard our critical natural resources and coastal ecosystem. The goal for development is to achieve responsible, adaptive development that aligns with our community vision. Our goal for economy is to promote a sustainable economy that supports residents and visitors. And then community services. We want to maintain an efficient government that provides high quality and cost-effective services. We have our values. which underpin everything we do. And then here, in looking at the objectives, I think this, thinking about objectives, the action items achieve the objectives, the objectives define what success looks like for the goal, that's how you ensure that actions you're doing on a day-to-day are actually achieving the goals that the board has set out and so the objectives within that environmental goal objective one is to maintain the natural resources we have two is mitigate the risk of disasters natural disasters three is educate the public about the natural environment and objective four is to have a comprehensive strategy for clean water And so Kelly already touched on in the director's report, goal 1.2, but it's something I've also given presentations on recently, is implement the estuarine shoreline management plan. That's an action item that's firmly within the planning department's sort of work plan. And I guess let me preface all of this presentation to say strategic plan is basically our rough work plan for the next two years as far as these action items so you know that's what you're going to be seeing over the next two years they're going to align to one or multiple of these action items objectives and goals And so with the estuarine shoreline management plan, we're moving forward with several living shoreline projects to use natural materials to reduce erosion and flooding at key sites with grants, partnerships. Some of the designs are already in progress. We're also considering offering advisory service to property owners that are interested in completing nature-based solutions. And again, you see in the right-hand column there, it's related to objectives one, two, and four. so feel free to read the rest of the document for non-planning related items that i'm not going to go over here because i'm going to skip to 1.5 implement the decentralized wastewater management plan with guidance from the septic health advisory committee the town's working on a plan to better manage septic systems to protect local water quality including preparing a zero interest repair loan program that kelly just just described at the same time we're hoping to increase public awareness, improve system mapping, and gather data to guide future septic improvements. And then 1.6 is related to that same initiative, develop creative strategies to increase participation in the Septic Health Initiative, again our septic health initiative encourages residents to maintain their septic systems through education outreach and incentives such as water bill credits for septic tank pump outs to help protect local water quality staff is expanding our awareness through events media targeted outreach and as we prepare to roll out this new loan we'll also have some more targeted outreach so those are two of the action items we have an environment and then that last Those are really the three main ones. The one water plan is something that will also sort of touch on some of our septic health decentralized wastewater plan. Goal two, development. This is really where most of our action items are and where I think the planning board is, you know, your work is sort of captured the most. So the goal to achieve responsible adaptive development that aligns with our community vision We have four objectives objective one is to proactively balance appropriate types of land use Objective two is to ensure resilient development and infrastructure objective three ensure public spaces are preserved and maintained equitably and Then objective four is to ensure efficient traffic movement and pedestrian safety So feel free to um you know ask questions or chime in as i go through this goal set of action items action item two one is to identify and correct use areas of land use incompatibility within the town and correct inconsistencies between the comp plan and the udo We've begun this, and again in the description it sort of talks about Senate Bill 382, limiting our ability to change property uses. Previously we'd explored revisiting the hotel overlay district. Some of the other things we'd like to do within the court as far as polling uses we don't think really should be allowable are sort of off the table, but there are potentially other things we can look at, and one of those is identifying areas where zoning and existing development patterns are misaligned, such as the Beach Road versus US 158 corridor uses, and then looking at the court for areas, that aren't just repealing, that are sort of adding potential flexibility or uses to get the kind of development that the town desires there. And then goal 2.2, or action item 2.2, excuse me, is review the character areas set forth in the comp plan and suggest strategies for implementation. The town's comp plan describes several planning areas within the town with specific strategies to achieve a desired character. The town is focusing first on improving the Wellbone Junction and core district areas by coordinating several projects such as the shoreline restoration, Southside Boardwalk, park upgrades, efforts to improve walkability and connections to areas and destinations like Jeanette's Pier and the Southside Event Site. This area is a priority because of the multiple related projects underway with plans to review other areas in town as time and resources allow. So we're looking at those areas first, but basically to implement the comprehensive plan as an action item. And if you've looked at the comprehensive plan, it's really organized around those character areas and a lot of great planning work went into it. So, harder work is to follow through and achieve that vision. Action item 2.3 is to develop and present an accessory dwelling unit ordinance. The town has explored creating an ordinance for ADUs, which are smaller secondary homes on the same property as a main house, with public input showing support, especially for long-term rentals and attached units while noting concerns about neighborhood character. The ordinance would include a menu of optional provisions covering zoning districts allowed, minimum lot size, maximum square footage, height limits, deed restrictions, and parking requirements. So ADUs were included as something that the board would like to see action on, again, around this goal of development within the next few years. now 2.4 recommend non-regulatory approaches to minimize residential lighting impacts um chris has done a lot of great work around the dark skies campaign and and so it may include education on dark sky benefits this keep it dark campaign we have the Bright Stars, Dark Skies is what, or Dark Skies, Bright Stars, excuse me, initiative. We have sort of the mapping element that Chris and Ness go out and collect data around sort of the quality of darkness. He has done a lot of outreach to the community and had community events. He's worked with ACE and tried to get lighting in there that is turtle-friendly to be purchased. I know NEST has been working with, I always forget, Outer Banks or Nags Head Pier, I think Outer Banks, Nags Head Pier to get the, and with NEST to update their lighting to look like Jeanette's pier. So there's a lot of really great work being done in that action item and largely to the credit of Chris Tremblay, our planner. Action item 2.4, explore and pursue grant opportunities to leverage town resources for, I feel like we're always getting in grants, and really Amy is fantastic at finding them and applying for them and getting them, but we want to continuously pursue grants to support infrastructure projects for stormwater improvement, shoreline restoration, beach access, conservation initiatives, et cetera. 2.6 is really to advocate the NCDOT for a corridor study of US 158 to improve safety while considering access, function, and efficiency. I don't know if you all have been following the STIP and sort of the bridge, the corridor bridge connection up there, that is still the priority in the STIP for our region. There's a lot of dollars that are sort of tied up in that project, hoping to get the rest of the funding that's needed to construct that. But that's on the highway side, but in the parks and rec side, the three highest scoring projects, or parks and rec, pedestrian, are really the multi-use connections that would basically take that multi-use path along us 158 from the causeway all the way through jockey's ridge and kind of fill in those gaps the number one is really we're already moving forward with but that in between sound side road connection around jockey's ridge then there's sort of the section in front of like the outlets and the village that's not there and then finally there's a connection that would go all the way to the causeway. And those extents are the top three extents for our ARPO region that we've put in the STIP, which is the Secondary Transportation Improvement Program. It's basically our order of how we're gonna ask for money. We're asking for money and this is, we get local priority points in this system and funds are allocated based on somewhat by how our region prioritizes them and then also other factors like how like what the need is or the safety. Are there safety needs? How does it stack up, basically, against other projects? But it's likely that those would receive funding, given that there are priorities, and then NCDOT would be responsible for design and construction right away if necessary. But just the fact that those three projects are on the top of the priority list means in five or six years, hopefully, we could see that constructed. Obviously a lot of road projects in North Carolina have gone over budget. There hasn't been a formal budget in North Carolina. So there's a lot of other factors that might complicate that implementation schedule, but it's a positive because we haven't really historically gotten much money from NCDOT to do these multi-use projects. They've all been grant funded or sort of funded through the tourism board, et cetera, but not from state transportation dollars. So it would be really big if we could see that come to fruition there.

Joe, may I interrupt for a second and ask you a question? Of those top three, what are the priorities? How are they ranked of those top three?

I want to say the Jockey's Ridge, the connection there is listed as the ranked one. And then number two, I believe, is that section that's cut out kind of where it ends, you know, sort of coming... down by where we are to basically the outlets that sort of empty section in front of the village and then the third I believe is the section that would take it along the causeway.

And you said the timeline for this could be five years from now?

Well, they would go in, they're in the prioritization now, so if that is finalized, I think that's at our next ARPO meeting, yeah, that that's finalized, then it would see how much money there is available and then how it's allocated, you know, whether one gets funded or multiple get funded. Okay. Part of that's complicated because there's a ton of money held up here for the bridge, $178 million within ARPO dollars that's sort of being held for that highway project. So how much money outside of that is available and you're competing against other highway projects below that as well as sort of these pedestrian projects So we'll see how much money there is to be allocated But that they are our priority one two threes for our region I'm hopeful that we'll get some and then if they get funded they'll go through design which I think typically takes a year or two and then if there's any right-of-way and allocation that can extend the life of a project and then construction so just a rough estimate of six years but that's dependent on a lot of you know potential variables thank you yes sir and then um sort of back to the list and you know for our goal area development this is our main goal area goal area three and four we only have a couple so we're moving right along Action item 2.7 is to update the town's parks and rec plan. This was actually, if you read through this document, the number one action item priority for the town. So this is something you'll... we'll start working on soon. The town seeks to update its parks and rec plan, replacing the 2012 version to reflect community growth, recent park improvements, and evolving needs. Process will involve a consultant team with coastal expertise, community engagement, and a focus on practical implementable strategies, including ocean and sound access, beach parking, and whalebone park amenities. resulting in a community driven plan that guides future investments and strengthens ability and eligibility for the part of brands. Our last plan, Dowdy, was just an idea. It's very text heavy, had a lot of great ideas, but it definitely needs a refresh and part of grants give you points if you have a new parks and rec plan within the next five that's been developed within five years so basically we're losing out on any potential points that that would give to any other community applying for the same money to do improvements so it's pretty important from a getting funding perspective but it's also important just as a community you know we've had a lot of change in 14 years around parks and rec we have dowdy park Um, huge, you know, and I'm there very regularly as well with, with young kids. And so, um, that was just an idea in this Parson rec lane. So, you know, I'm excited to, to be involved in that update. We also have the sound side boardwalk now that's been developed on, on the, um, sound side event center, uh, property. Um, so.

Yeah well there'll be a committee formed to help do that or is that pretty much you and Kelly.

No, there'll certainly be community involvement. We're going to look to get consultants to help us as well develop a plan. I think Kelly and I will be performing administrative help and sort of helping move the plan along, but we'll have consultants as well. But there'll be certainly community outreach, and I would guess that there would be some sort of steering committee, which is pretty typical of parks and rec plans and updates. Yeah. So that's something that number one priority. Hopefully we'll get keep going on that relatively soon. And then 2.8, this was the number two action item on the priority list is to determine if the board wants to pursue a boardwalk work to implement strategies to activate the court. We spent a lot of time talking about this last year and sort of are running into you know budget realities and just sort of what are the next steps and i think that's what will be continued to be contemplated and so we have some completed and ongoing items there Goal area three is the economy. I think we only have, yeah, this 3.2 for planning. The action item is to create clarity in town code regarding the prohibition of beach commercialization, ensuring the beach remains a free, accessible, and family-friendly resource. So we're reviewing and updating our code to reinforce the long-standing policy of keeping the ocean and estuary and beaches free, family-friendly, non-commercial, staff have completed an internal review of rules on rentals concierge services and other commercial activities with plans to finalize and present proposed amendments to the board so that action item is really all we have for the economy one and then community services where do we have ours 4.9, enhance the arts and culture program to celebrate and promote Nags Head's unique heritage and community identity.

Joe, may I go back to the objectives here? Sure. Objective one, just for clarification, provide workforce housing for town employees. Are we talking about employees? employees of the town of Nags Head? Are we talking about employees that live within the town?

think we're talking about town employees and my recollection of the treat was that we felt we largely had accomplished that with the duplex that we created for lifeguard housing which has I think 16 people can can stay there over by like the free clinic over there. And then this building that we're building right now has eight. So there's 24 spaces that we've been able to provide for town employees. So I think everyone felt like that was a great accomplishment, and that's why that's sort of been completed. Thank you.

May I ask, is that seasonal housing or is that could potentially be year-round housing?

I think at this time it's just seasonal housing. It's really for lifeguards, but I think it could be potentially used in the off-season for if there was a special circumstance. I'm thinking of maybe like CSI people or interns, and I'm just throwing that out there, but I think... It has the potential to be used for offseason housing as well. Whether whether that's been formalized, I don't I don't think yet. And then here's the priority list of all those action items. Board and staff were asked to identify the ones that they considered the most important and most urgent. And these were ranked and so our top Number one and number two are sort of firmly within planning. And then as you go down, number six is as well. So that's really all I have. I just thought it would be valuable for the planning board to hear sort of how We're functioning sort of with the board guidance and a little more clarity on how the goals and objectives and action items sort of work together to ensure that staff is actually implementing the board wants. So I'm happy to answer any questions or look at a specific action item.

I would just like to comment on the pedestrian connectivity, specifically the Jockey's Ridge connectivity, like from Hollowell, it ends at Hollowell, to connect it to Soundside Road on the south side. I live on Soundside Road, and Kitty Hawk Kites does an amazing job of creating events on Jockey's Ridge for visitors and locals with their kite festivals. They've got numerous events, which is wonderful. What I have observed is that a lot of participants are parking at the Nags Head Church as overflow parking because the complex at Jockey's Ridge gets filled up pretty quickly just with people meandering around. And when people want to go to Jockey's Ridge to the festivals that they have, I've noticed that people are parking at the church. And then they quickly realize that parking at the church, they can't get access to the dune to go up to the festival. So now they're parking, and families are walking on the side of the highway closest to the dunes, so on the west side of the highway. They're walking along the highway against traffic, and the sand is spilling out into the roadway, as we all know. It is so dangerous. Because then they can get to the traffic light, and then they go up onto Jockey's Ridge. that area that they are walking against traffic is so dangerous.

And then they're walking with traffic on their return, right? Yes. Even worse. Yes.

Even worse. And the other, um, I notice this all the time is that when families, people are waiting for the crosswalk to go from the dune back over to jockeys Ridge parking lot, formal parking lot, they're spilling out into the road. there's no safe place for them to be standing while they're waiting for that traffic signal to turn. And it just makes me so nervous. And I know people have been hit there before. I know there's been casualties there before. So I would love to see that part of that connectivity, pedestrian connectivity, be of urgency and safe.

Yeah, I believe, you know, we're not waiting on the STIP for that. That segment, I want to say David's already working through design with other grant money. I don't, I'm not aware of the exact timeline, so I don't want to sort of speak out of turn. Of course.

And I know it's a tricky section, you know, with all the dune, you know, the elevation that's going to be needed. Yeah. I know it's tricky. I just wanted to point out that it's really needed.

Yeah. Kind of along that, and this is something that was There's an attempt at an iteration of this in the past. Is there any attention or thought about maybe having walkability, accessibility issues deviating them away from the highways? And one of the areas where this had been a possibility was the area, let's call it from, the area on top of the water infrastructure approaching 8th Street and then moving south through the neighborhoods. It's a well-used area, but there's been really no improvements. But it gets people off it. It's kind of Nags Head adjacent, Nags Head Woods adjacent avenue from, more or less, Barnes Street all the way north. And I was just kind of wondering if that might be something that could be revisited.

Yeah, I'll have to look at the pedestrian plan because we have a lot of those sort of last mile, so to speak, segments of sidewalk in there. I think, you know, the challenge is sort of capacity in that we only have money that we're getting from sort of grant funded sources. We're not getting NCDOT funds for these projects. I think part of that is because of the way the STIP and the ARPA region is designed. We have a lot of rural counties funding is allocated based on population and so when you look at our region of sort of rural eastern counties and comparisons sort of like Wake or Charlotte or some of the larger metro areas I want to say we're either second or third lowest population of the ARPO regions. So we have pretty much very limited funds. And then, you know, all of our projects are competing against sort of like rural intersections and sort of turning lane kind of issues in counties across eastern North Carolina. So those last kind of mile sidewalk extends are pretty difficult to compete for funding. And so, in my understanding, we haven't had any of those pedestrian, a single pedestrian project be funded through the STIP and North Carolina DOT constructed. Um, and I could be wrong, but that's, that's my understanding is since they've developed this sort of state prioritization process, you know, it's really for some of the bigger projects, you know, and, and certainly we, you know, dare county sees a lot of maintenance of NC 12 and some of the larger highway projects. Um, but we're, so we're limited to sort of grant dollars and not state transportation dollars, which is usually a pass through for, um, federal block grants. Um, And so it is a challenge. I've actually brought this up to our ARPO rep and sent to them our pedestrian plan and sort of said, are there other ways we can get some of these funded? Because it really makes the system, but it's difficult to compete for the funds. And so you can only kind of get so many grants and be able to sign and construct them. I know we have a pedestrian plan that we've been implementing. So I'll look at that area specifically, but it's a good point and one I've made.

Any other questions or comments at this point? I do have one, Joe. Plan implementation for each action item the town staff have identified a responsible champion, a staff member who will oversee progress and coordinate these efforts, and then the subsequent progress reporting, which goes to the Board of Commissioners twice a year. Would the planning board also be made aware of who the champions are of the action items and also receive the semi-annual updates are more frequent as appropriate.

Certainly in regard to planning items, I don't see why not. Yeah, I think that as we do that, certainly I would say you can pretty much guess probably who is the champion when reading the individual action items based on It's likely for a lot of these, like complete the water system master plan, develop an implementation plan with a list of capital projects. I'm gonna guess that that's dated. Implement the decentralized wastewater management plan with guidance from the septic health advisory committee, Connor with Kelly and I's help. as you read through these, implement the estuary and shoreline management plan. That would be me largely and Kelly. And many of these development ones are Kelly with my assistance. Yes, but also I think you're looking at it basically.

Okay. I didn't know how far. Okay, thank you. All right, any other comments?

Makes me think of another question. This is just a process question. So you've got champions, and you've got the action items. Are there due dates associated with those? And who do you report all that stuff to? Andy?

Well, we don't really have due dates, Basil, because they have their community processes. There's budgets. So we don't hold ourselves to like, that it's not really something I feel like that's fully controllable. But we take obviously we also have sort of what's what's not in this is any development that's coming in via special use permit or site plan. So that's going to ebb and flow and probably affect our sort of our focus or, you know, our sort of bandwidth. But Yeah, I think, you know, it's a really great document and it has the prioritization list and so that's pretty clear marching orders. on what's most important to look at and then just all these action items um you know have a lot of bullet points some of them are sort of ongoing like that's your intro line management plan you know we have implement the esmp you know we have projects that are going through permitting now we've got some that are in design but we're kind of down that um action item and sort of maybe halfway there and this strategic plan that they kind of caught us there so to speak whereas some of these other ones like implement the parks and rec plan well we haven't even you know we're still kind of developing our we haven't come up with an rfq yet you know we're just trying to we don't even have a budget we have a budget but it hasn't been approved you know so all these action items are different

places um but no we don't have um specific due dates and not to beat the dead horse here but who ultimately owns that stuff and says yeah you're you're meeting the mark or you're not is it andy or is it the board or commissioners or both it's primarily andy okay so from our perspective um we're going to be reporting to andy and then the board of commissioners receive updates from him all right i was just thinking back to my pre-retirement career and how our action items work and all that. And I was just curious. Thank you. No, it's a good point.

And that due date helps it get done. But I also think, you know, some of these things are there, even though they're action items, they, you know, implement the S room trial and management plan is then broken down to, you know, A lot of projects and a lot of community engagement and a lot of sort of sub-steps. And so I think as long as we're moving forward.

I said looking back in my career, it's more like PTSD flashback right now. Yeah, I hear you. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Yeah.

Okay. Moving on to planning board members' agenda. Does anybody have anything that they would like to bring up?

I would like to bring something up. I have been a very strong advocate of a junior lifeguard program for the town of Nags Head. I know there's something similar in Kill Devil Hills, but it's not, to my understanding, I think that's sourced out.

Yeah, it's a little bit, yeah. It's a workaround.

Okay. So when I was in Australia for a month, as you can imagine, surfing, is just a huge culture there. I was so impressed with the lifeguards and their junior lifeguard program.

The Nipper program, yeah.

I took, with their permission, I took videos and on the spot sent it to Chad. Because when I worked for Chad as a lifeguard, it was just my passion. I just feel like if we can start with our local kids at a young age, teaching them ocean safety, beach safety, and groom them to be safe in the water with their families, safe surfers, and then they turn into our future Life Bar employees. And I might also add to this, and I'm very, I'm passionate about it because I raised kids, water kids. I've got, you know, our son's a professional water sport. These kids grow up skimboarding, boogie boarding, surfing. And what happens is they always have a flotation device with them while they're recreating. And then that one day that that leash breaks, These kids, our kids don't have their swimming skills sometimes because they are always on something and they forget how to swim. And I'm taking this, this is a personal experience from us and it happened to our son. And from that moment on, it's like, you know what? Before we go surfing, before we do anything, we swim out into the ocean. We feel the current. We know what's going on. And we know that we have the confidence to get from, the surf break back to the beach if you lose your flotation. And I just feel so strongly that parents would be very interested in a program like this in Nags Head for their kids, for our youth.

There's a couple different things in that. There's the junior lifeguarding program, which has been great, and a reasonably significant amount of our staff presently in Kyoto Falls. comes from that, the largest portion of our staff is a resident population in Quiroga Hills, which is fairly unique in this community. Very unique. The other side of it is there is a larger effort that might need to be taken as well working with adults and post-kids, teens and older, on how to behave on an issue, a rescue. It's not at all uncommon. There was a recent fatality down south where the rescuer becomes a victim. This is not incidental. More people are rescued by surfers on the Outer Banks than lifeguards. There's no doubt about it. And I thank God for the presence of people with flotation and ability and knowledge out there. But that being said, working with emergency services is a little bit of a gap.

I think also it would create opportunities for families to have their children have a safe place to go. We're all looking, when the kids are out of school, everybody's looking for activities for the children to entertain them. The camps fill up so fast, like Jeanette's Pier, Parks and Rec. This would just be also one more avenue of a safe place for our youth to be learning vital, important skills.

And our operation is more than revenue neutral. It does find.

Anyway, I just wanted to make that point.

The main board would like to hear that as well.

I was thinking the same thing. You brought that same little presentation to the board commissioners as a citizen.

Yeah, I just, it's so important. Having worked for Chad, for the town of Knives Head, There's just so much education needs to be done. And I can't believe the number of people that I saved, assisted, helped, and even as surfers, we do it all the time. And it's just really, we have all this ocean, and we just need so much safety.

There isn't a day that I go walking on the beach in Nags Head that I don't.

Oh, I can't even go to the beach and sit and relax.

You've got to hold my dog while I grab your kids.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. I don't have anything to add.

Can I make a motion to adjourn?

You can.

We are now adjourned. Thank you, everybody.