Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone and welcome this the Wednesday March 4th 2026 regular meeting of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners is hereby call to order. I'll ask you to please join me in first in a few moments of silence. And now, if you'll please stand as you're able to join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next item is the adoption of the agenda and the motion would be in order.

So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed. Thank you. That brings us to uh recognitions and we will start with Nancy. Good morning, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. I would like to introduce public services new employee in sanitation, Terrace Whitley. He has a class A CDL and 16 years with CDL experience. He drove for White Cap Linen for 10 years and the last six years he would worked with FedEx. His route with FedEx was in the town of Nags Head, so he was already familiar with the town, so he had little problem learning the sanitation routes.

Terrence and Kendra live in Plymouth with their three children, Cameron, Ka, and Kelani. In his in his spare time, Terrence enjoys weekend vacations with his family. We look forward to many years working with Terrence. Thank you. Thank you.

Good luck to you. Next we have a presentation from uh Nest and Tony Pereizy. Good morning.

Good good morning, Mr. Mayor, rest of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about NASA, the network for endangered sea turtle and the lighting initiative we have going. The next one, please. Uh, this is our mission. Basically, we protect and conserve sea turtles on the 50 miles of beach from Naget up to the Virginia line. Uh, we also do a lot of education off the beach. uh other things to make sure people understand more about sea turtles and we try to have fun along the way. Next one, please. All the sea turtles that nest here on the Outer Banks are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Sea Species Act. We operate under a permit from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission which restricts what we can do, what we can't do. And currently we have well over 300 active volunteers. So we're we're very lucky in that regard. Next one, please. These are the things we do. Uh crawl patrols every morning. uh once the season starts uh for us it's typically about miday uh once a nest is found uh mark it uh do some other things make sure it's protected for throughout the incubation period which is typically about two months and then we do responses to strandings whether the turtles are alive or dead they're alive we take them to the star center at the aquarium on ro island where they're rehabbed. Uh if they're dead, we just document that and that contributes to the overall science about sea turtles.

Next one, please. Uh this is a history of all the nests for the last 10, 11 years. You can see the number of nests here in Nags Head. Uh and it varies considerably. And you know, people ask, well, why is that? And the answer is we really don't know. It just happens. Next one, please. Uh beach nourishment, which I know is going to happen this year in uh in Nagad, uh complicates our our our duties considerably. We do morning checks in the areas that are going to be nourished that day uh to make sure there are no new nests. If a nest is laid in an area that's scheduled to be nourished, we have to relocate it. So, we're moving anywhere from 80 to 120 130 eggs uh to other areas that aren't uh that aren't going to be nourished. And once an area is nourished, we have to uh wait until WRC clears that area and says it's okay for nest to be there. and we assist all the towns, NXT included, we make sure uh we're everybody's in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Next one.

Okay, I want to talk about lighting and in preservation of dark spaces is important. It's just as important, if not more so, than what we do on the beach for nest management. It basically uh preserves the habitat for nesting sea turtles. Next one, please. So, these are the impacts that artificial lighting has on sea turtle nesting behavior. Sea turtle mothers may reject the beach and not come out of the water. Uh there's a higher incidence of false pearls where the turtles actually come out of the water but then decide they're not going to lay eggs. Uh if there are lights on while a female turtle is laying eggs, uh she may stop doing that. Uh she she may stop, you know, digging. she may stop uh covering up. It all depends on the timing of that. Uh lighting also will drive sea turtles to less than optimal sites. Uh there's evidence that they may drop their eggs in the in the ocean and not even come ashore. When hatchlings emerge from the nest, lighting definitely disorients them. So instead of heading to the ocean, they head away from the ocean towards wherever the light is, which typically is going to be west instead of, you know, to the ocean. And the and the bottom line is if you can see a light when standing on a beach, it's bad for sea turtles.

And moving lights are worse than those that are stationary. Next one, please. So this is our plan and we started this well lighting has always been an issue but we started this major initiative last year trying to change the culture on the outer banks and that includes our own volunteers. Uh we identified Nags Head as the best place to start because the town was already interested in dark skies initiative and it was open to the partnership with us and it's also adjacent to the public lands the Cape Hatteris National Seashore which obviously has very little or or no lights. So, we have worked the dark sky program for over a year. As I said, we've collected data. We've completed surveys. Uh we've mapped problem areas. We've mapped bad lights along along with nests and false crawls for the past 10 years. And we found that some of the most degraded sites in terms of nesting habitat uh by light from uh affected by light pollution uh is near the peers. Next one. And you can see some of the pictures there on what it looks like at night. So how can you manage lighting? You one the obvious one turn them off. Motion detectors uh and timers certainly help. Using long long wavelength light, basically lights with a wavelength of 560 nanometers or or higher, which is really true amber, you know, not red,

you know, not not other colors. They're really amber lights. And this helps a lot. But the bottom line is any lights, even the the true amber lights, uh are going to impact sea turtles, but the amber certainly a lot less impact than other lights. Low wattage, low height, low heights help shielded lights so that the lights don't uh don't emit beyond the horizontal plane. You can see the the lower picture uh the difference in uh in shielding dune vegetation helps and then retrofits uh with this window film because what we've seen is interior lights can be just as bad as exterior lights. You know, people live on the ocean, have houses on the ocean. They want to see the you they pay a lot of money for the view. Turn their lights on at night. U you large areas of glass. That's is just as bad as an exterior light. Next one, please. So, as I said, peers are problematic. Uh there are three in Nagad. Uh and there is a growth we've seen in pure restaurants. Again, you see in that upper uh that upper picture uh what one of the peers looks like. Uh they're out in the ocean. They require a lot of lights typically and there aren't any specific regulations. They're partly on state land. They're partly in the ocean. Another issue which, you know, most people wouldn't think about is ghost crab hunting.

The lights that are being used are getting brighter and brighter. If you've seen them on the beach, they almost look like they're well just as bad as headlights on the beach. Uh, and as I said before, moving lights are worse than lights that are stationary. So that that's an issue as well. Next one. They talked about the the impact on uh on nesting habitat. When we looked at the last 10 years of data, there's a half mile around the Outer Banks fishing pier that has had no nest or false crawls in the last 10 years, you know, and that and that's true in other areas as well. Um, so we have uh negotiated a an agreement with the Outer Banks Fishing Pier uh where we're providing money to retrofit uh their lights with amber lights. Uh and if you uh remember Janette's Pier uh did that finished it last year and it does make a significant difference. So, we're we're trying to do the same thing with the Outer Banks Fishing Pier. Next one. So, what what are we doing to meet to meet these goals? Uh identifying community partners. We've met with the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and and they have expressed significant support for what we're doing. Uh we've collaborated with the town on dark sky monitoring and sharing cost on lighting clings that uh can be can be put in houses and

businesses uh to alert people to to uh the issue with lighting and sea turtles. You know, we've got a, you know, a publicity campaign through press brochures, signage, mailers that we're uh we're engaged in. And we're approaching oceanfront land owners, both commercial and residential, about lighting, uh, trying to educate primarily, but also, uh, if possible to take some action. Next one. Okay. Lastly, uh we have anou with the town uh to put up these signs at beach accesses. Uh we're proposing an addition uh which you can read there which would uh give the uh the plan your planning folks the ability to collaborate with us on you know any new signs related to lighting. We completely understand and support the town the town's position about trying to minimize signs. Uh but this will give the uh give the planning folks the opportunity to ne you know to approve uh some small signs uh related to lighting. and we're asking for approval of this addition to theou. And with that, that's all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you very much for your presentation and we appreciate the work of you and your your big team of volunteers out there very much. Uh board members, any questions or

comments? Not right now. Thank you. But thanks for coming. Yeah, it's very interesting. Thank you. Great report. Um Andy, should we uh proceed to at this point to go ahead and address the revised memorandum of understanding and sign? Yes, please. And he had the language in his presentation, right? It it was up there the last slide and it's also it's in our packet. Yes. Um so a motion would be in order to approve the modifi modifications to theou um including the the signage that you saw on the last slide. So moved. Is there a second? I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Great. Thank you all very much. Uh that brings us now to a presentation from the Arts and Culture Committee and Paige. Good morning, mayor, commissioners.

Um, today I'd like to share with you what the activities we did in 2005 and then looking forward and focus on 2006. Um, 2026, not six. Um, and there's a lot of information on these slides. I am aware you've already had it. Uh, I will probably just highlight instead of read through completely. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Just to give you a just uh for those who you who are not aware, we hold three markets. There is one in the summer, one in the um holiday time and then also one in uh the winter time. The winter time we focus mainly on food. Uh the summer is where we do most of our perishables and then holidays we consider our gifts. Thank you. Uh during the summer it we've pretty much stayed the same. We have about 55 vendors. We do not have the room um nor infrastructure to grow and so we keep it uh a curated market. It is highly competitive to get into. And so we take a little bit of pride in the fact that um the people that we work with, we've worked with them for several years. And so that posed a problem a couple of years ago. How do we include new faces? Because we've seen more people move to the Outer Banks. And so what we decided to do with the arts and culture, they came up with the idea of having rotating vendors. Uh rotating vendors are those three spots and we are able to serve 12 people within those vendor spots, meaning they get four to five spots uh over the summer as opposed to 11 spots. These were some of the new ones that we had. If we can go back to that picture real fast.

Yeah, Sea Level Coffee came and represented the coffee culture, which is very important in the mornings in the markets because they are a certified kitchen. They actually were also able to bring um burritos and things like that that they cooked off site. Next, again, this next year we'll have 11 markets. It runs June 11th through the 20th. We're driven by the school calendar. We've already gotten approval from the school for their parking lot and h continue to have a good relationship with them. We are looking forward to doing the same with rotating vendors this next year. Last year, had 12 performances. This next year, we're keeping the same schedule, but going all the way to September. Uh we are having 14 bands performed this year, so increasing it by two. Um in those 14, six of those are local bands and then the remaining will come from other places. One of the things we added last year was um the kids family fun. So we do two events uh in the mornings on Tuesdays and Fridays. There's a family fun event and then there is a kids move more. Tuesday seems to be more of our educational and then Friday is just activity. In this picture you'll see uh Kathy with Ascension Music. She does a drumming circle uh the first of each month and then we introduce new um instruments each week. The other people that we work with is are sorry, Corala, Wild Horse Funds, Ascension Music, Jeff who's the variety show in the uh upper corner, and then we

also did a storytelling and uh magician show last year. We will continue to work with these this next year and again have the kids back to school night which is end of August which I could not do without the fire and uh police of Nexad. Some of the other uh additions in 2025 was uh we grew the market considerably. Uh we were at 40, we increased it to 60 and it truly became a locals market this past year. We did drop the night market and just focused on three Saturday markets which proved to be um successful and the crowd still came which was uh pleasant and people sold out vendors which is what we want. The tree lighting this last year we added sprinkles the elf. The police brought her in. Uh the fire brought Santa in. We also partnered with uh the Mantio Ensemble and their string uh group and coral group. Uh and then the town also gifted people who attended a keepsake ornament. It was a wooden ornament. Um very well done. That was very well received. The flashlight candy cane hunt this year was off the chart. It had 170ome people. We did split them up into two age categories, but we literally hid 750 candy canes. Uh the commissioner um Harrison helped me with that. She came an hour before and we hid candy canes for an hour and a half. So, and then the winter markets, which is what we are in right now. Uh it's the second Saturday January through April, and it continues to be just kind of a homecoming.

We will continue all this into um this next year 2026. Continue with the commemorative uh keepsake ornament. And then also adding in since public services has so graciously um completed the Wellbone Park, we now have bathrooms. We have um a facility there. We will probably include our holiday decorations there. and then also plan fall activities. So this is all of us in a nutshell and it looks like a lot of words but it truly is eight events in four in four days. We start at 7:30 in the morning and some nights we go till 9:30 at night. Uh in the past we've had two activities as far as exercise in the morning. Uh thankfully we're adding a third. So we will have exercise Tuesday, Wednesdays and Fridays. All of these are sponsored uh and we thoroughly appreciate the sponsorship and the partnership that they come in with us. The terrific Tuesdays will remain the same as well as kids move more. We will have Wagging Wednesdays again this year at the dog park. And then the movies because of scheduling and I can only do so much. Um we're moving to the fall. Uh because if I start a movie in the summer, it has to start 8 n o'clock at night and then that goes on. So it just makes sense for the fall. And so our fall movies will be in September, October, and possibly November when we start our holiday markets. We continue to um explore the art mass project. This past year was Brent and Noah. This upcoming year is Dawn Red

Dawn Designs and Carol Hennessy. Uh both of those I picked up one yesterday and the other one is coming um in two weeks. So once the spring hits and public services puts the banners back up, we'll have four new ones. Um, also the nature loom, the free art gallery, and the free uh little library continue to thrive. I don't know if you've seen the art gallery, but it's just so sweet. Um, yeah, it's a great idea. I um am happy that it's a dowy. thinking about another crosswalk project looking at a couple of different streets. And then lastly is trying to figure out um how we are going to uh add activities at at Whale Bone Park, but also looking back at Dowy Park to honor um Carrie Oat Smith Sanders. Um Andy, do you want to speak to that? Yeah, I just want to um give the board a heads up about something. The art arts and culture committee has been working on a project and uh if if you remember back to when Dowy Park was first designed, there was a sidewalk that was being shown around the western field. Um and that was never installed. Um we're thinking about ways to better utilize that space. It's sort of a wild field at this point. Um, we are going to irrigate that field coming up in the next few months and David Ryan has been working on the next round of sidewalk projects for the town. Um, there's several going in in various locations. U, but we went ahead and took the plans for that original sidewalk and put it out to bid as an ad alternate um, with this with this round of of sidewalk projects. And depending on the bid pricing that we receive and also our ability to possibly

identify funds, um we would probably present that project to the board for consideration at your midmon meeting. And if we can find the ability to to do that, um the idea would be we would work with the arts and culture committee um to incorporate um some something into the sidewalk, possibly mosaic work um that would uh sort of be reflective of Carrie and also do some other things uh to sort of illustrate what that sidewalk represents. So I just want to give folks a heads up on that. that's coming um your way soon.

Okay. Thank you. Next. We always need sponsorships, but thankfully we have a good solid group. Uh Coastal Carolina Vacation and Sales supports our yoga. OBX Health uh does they come to the markets and do Eat the Rainbow and then they also sponsor a movie. Uh, Tortugas Lie does the uh, first uh, fitness Fridays. Uh, this year we're adding uh, the studio and then uh, Beach Glow OBX. They're picking up the other um, wellness day on Wednesdays. We're always looking for more, but um, thankful for what we have. And then as far as volunteers, you know, I'm always looking for volunteers. Uh we have a great core group and I do not see them here this morning but um I could not do it without them. Absolutely. And then thank you to um to you. you heard the people when we did the survey how many years ago that I was hired and uh followed through and just wanted to say thank you um to you as the board to the members of the arts and cultural committee. Um I see Peggy Sappero is here this morning. Thank you Peggy. She's our chair. Um but they come up with the best ideas and give great support and for that I could not be uh and do my job like I do also without um fire and our police department. Uh they're not always a phone call away because they're usually on site and so for that I appreciate and I think That is all I've got.

Do you have any questions? Thank you, Paige. Um, I do want to say we're we're very proud of Dowy and all of the things that happen here. I think it's the envy of the Outer Banks community at large. Um, and it and it's exciting um to see all the the great stuff that happens there and appreciate the incorporation also of um of Whale Bone Park. And so, u board members, any questions, comments? No, you're doing a great job. I know that uh market is very hard to wrangle and I think you handled it really well. Thank you. No questions. Thank you for all your hard work.

No questions. No, it's just amazing what you guys are doing and to see this grow year after year and just the support and just a sense of community that it brings. It's just really nice. Thank you. Very true. Thanks, Paige, for everything and for the comprehensive report this morning. It's good to be brought up to speed on everything you've got planned. Thank you. look forward to it. All right. And and I do want to note we look forward to seeing uh more on honoring uh Carrie um in her role as she was she was instrumental in the early planning of the park. She was a member of arts and culture committee for a long time and she was a leader in community wellness and so we look forward to honoring all of those aspects.

Yeah, the uh addition of the uh Wednesday is kind of a non to her uh in the fact that We have three three days, which is what she always wanted. Anyway, so we've gotten there. She wants five. She wants seven days. She's Thank you. Thank you, Paige. Uh, that brings us now to public comment, and I will turn this over to Mr. Lighty.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, u, the board of commissioners welcomes members of the public to provide public comment to the board. Uh, this is an opportunity for people to provide, uh, comments regarding matters of interest or concern to the public. um to the board, but it is not an opportunity for dialogue and the board rarely responds to public comment. I'd also like to point out that if you are here for one of the two public hearings that we have on the agenda for today, you should hold your comments until the public hearing itself is actually called. Also, if you are here because of the appeal hearing um that's set for uh 11:15 this morning on the application by GarageBand Charities, uh that is not a public hearing and public comment will not be welcome or allowed at that time. That will be an opportunity for witnesses to testify only. And so if you have comment relating to that, this would be the opportunity to provide those comments. Um, but with those instructions and that guidance, um, at this time, anybody who wishes to address the board, if you would please go to the podium and start by telling us who you are and where you live, and I will let you know when your five minutes is just about up.

Good morning. Morning.

Good morning. My name is Courtney Gallup. I'm here today representing the League of Women Voters of Dare County. I'm also here to present the 2026 Citizens Guide. Your guide to community services. Complimentary copies of the guide published by the League of Women Voters since 1988 are distributed annually to government and business offices throughout Dair County. It contains contact information for local, state, and national governmental agencies. Contains voting information, emergency numbers, and a great deal more. Our guide is published under the opices of the legal women voters of Dare County Education Foundation. On the back you'll find acknowledgement of the municipalities and local businesses that donated gen generously towards publication expenses. Town and ash head is on here. Thank you. Thank you and thanks to all staff members who helped us update the information for this year's version. League members are now distributing 6,400 copies of the guide from Duck to Hatteris Village. Rono Island and mainland air included. You'll find them in libraries, post offices, the bomb and pheasant centers, as well as town and county offices. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Publishing this guide is part of our continued commitment to provide pertinent information to voters. Membership in the league is open to anyone of voting age, male or female. Thank you for your support. We know you'll find the guides useful. I'm going to now present the copies to the town clerk. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Galla.

Uh does anybody else? Yes, sir. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. My name is Randy Cartwright. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. At your February 4th meeting, I raised several concerns about the town's regulations on demonstrations. On February 22nd, I followed up with a detailed email outlining how another North Carolina municipality, Chapel Hill, handles political demonstrations using an impactbased approach rather than a numerical threshold. I appreciate the mayor's acknowledgement of that email on February 23rd. I'm here today mainly to keep the conversation moving and to respectfully request followth through on questions I raised a month ago. I haven't yet received answers and I believe the board and the public would benefit from clarity on those points as you continue reviewing your ordinance to briefly restate these questions. First, has the town attorney issued a written opinion concluding that criminalizing participation in an unpermitted sidewalk demonstration complies with the First Amendment? Second, does the town's ordinance contain or does the town interpret to it to contain an exception for spontaneous demonstrations responding to breaking news or unforeseen events? Third, what specific objective criteria govern approval or denial of a demonstration permit? And what is the

guaranteed timeline for that decision? It may be worth noting that no court has ever upheld a 72-hour delay for normal political demonstration that takes place on sidewalks or rideways. And fourth, how does the town reconcile our current ordinance with federal decisions that permit requirements cannot function as a prior restraint on on protected political speech? I asked these questions not in an adversarial spirit, but because understanding the town's existing legal foundation is essential before anyone can discuss appropriate revisions. I want to emphasize again, and this is consistent with what I said in February, that political demonstrations are fundamentally different from festivals, races, or commercial events. Attendance at political gatherings is inherently unpredictable. People show up because they are moved by events, not because they registered or bought a ticket. A numerical threshold by itself does not reliably reflect public safety impact. Last June, for example, the Dough Kings rally near Dowy Park reached an estimated 900 people. Despite that size, the demonstration stayed within the right of way, did not block traffic, and require no town support. That real world example shows that crowd size and public impact are not the same thing. This is why Chapel Hill and several

other jurisdictions rely on a simpler and more constitutional approach. A demonstration only needs a permit when it actually occupies streets, blocks access, or requires town managed parking or traffic control. When people stand on sidewalks and in public rights of way without obstructing anything, no permit is required. regardless of the number. I believe that model would serve Nag's head well. It is clear, easy to administer, respectful of the First Amendment, and fair to residents who wish to express themselves without fear of technical violations. I'm not here to criticize the town or assume bad intentions. I simply believe that this is an opportunity for Nags Head to lead not only locally but regionally in adopting a modern constitutionally sound ordinance that fits the realities of peaceful political expression. Thank you again for your time for considering my earlier remarks and email and for your continued review of this ordinance. I respectfully ask that my four original questions be answered and I look forward to participating constructively as this process moves along.

Got you. Thank you very much, Mr. Cartwright. Does anybody else wish to address the board? If not, at this time we will conclude the public comment session. Thank you, John. Um, that brings us now to the consent agenda which you have before you and a motion would be in order. I make that motion. Second. I have a motion in a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Thank you. Uh, that brings us now to item F, public hearings. And our first is um, Bluewater Capital and Kelly. Mr. Mayor, if I may uh Yes, sir.

open this public hearing for you all at this time.

Um at this time, we'll open the public hearing to consider a special use permit site plan review that has been submitted by Almor Associates Limited on behalf of Coastal Bluewater Capital and TNW's Bait and Tackle for a group development to be located at 2230 South Croatin Highway. Uh on this matter, the board sits as a quai judicial body. uh and therefore there are certain requirements and procedures that must be followed as part of this hearing. First, um the board's decision here must be based solely on the evidence that is presented during this hearing. Uh if anybody has received any contact or had communications with anyone prior to this hearing in which the particulars of this application were discussed or if you've received letters, email messages, phone calls, or other contact from anyone concerning this matter prior to this hearing, you must disclose those communications. You must base your decision on this application entirely on the facts presented during this hearing and disregard the particulars discussed with uh the applicant or any other party. Additionally, uh because a member must base his or her decision on the evidence presented during this hearing, any member who has developed a predetermined opinion or bias on the outcome of this application before the hearing must not participate in the decision on this application. Also, your decision must be based on competent, substantial, and material evidence properly entered into the record of this hearing. Crucial facts to determine the outcome of this hearing must be based on sworn statements made by witnesses during the hearing. While you may be presented before or during this hearing with copies of unsworn statements contained in letters, emails, and the like, such unsworn evidence can only be used to corroborate or supplement other sworn evidence that is presented during the hearing. Unsworn evidence such as

letters or emails can never be used as the sole basis for your decision. Uh, also in conducting this hearing, there will be certain safeguards that must be instituted to ensure that the applicant is given a fair hearing. The applicant has the right to cross-examine witnesses and offer rebuttal evidence. Board members may question any witness at any time during this hearing. Questions from the floor will not be permitted except by cross-examination from one of the sworn witnesses who has been recognized to speak. So at this time if anybody needs to disclose a communication that they have received about this hearing uh whether it was a hearing a communication that you received from one of the applicants or another person prior to this hearing now is the opportunity for you to disclose such communication.

Uh John prior to the development of this plan that was subsequently went to the planning board and through this process I was party to a meeting with the applicant and the town manager. uh and not since. Okay. Well, uh will you still be able to base your decision based solely on the evidence that is presented during this hearing and not based on any of those prior communications? I will.

Okay. Thank you. Does anybody else have anything to disclose? All right. Also, um uh does any member of the board uh have have to explain them sorry have to recuse themselves because of any potential financial interest or uh financial conflict that they may have in this matter? Okay. Um so at this time we will begin the uh presentation of evidence so that um uh we can have this presented properly through this qua judicial proceeding. Anyone who is going to present evidence on this application if you will please approach the town clerk so that she may administer the oath. All right. At this time, we'll begin the presentation of evidence with uh the town's anal the staff's analysis presented by the planning and development director, Kelly Wyatt.

Thank you so much. Uh good morning, mayor and commissioners. Um, I thought it might be best to just project the site plan up here um, as I go through the staff report um, quickly and please feel free to stop if you have any questions along the way. Um, as stated before you this morning is a request for a special use permit um, and site plan review submitted by Albamaral and Associates on behalf of Coastal Bluewater Capital and TWW's Bait and Tackle for a commercial mixeduse group development to be located at 2230 South Croatan Highway. Um, and as you can see from the site plan, um, this is a corner lot. Um that's at the corner of US 158 and Satderfield Landing. Uh the property is zoned C2, general commercial. Currently there's the principal use which is um TWW's Bait and Tackle retail shop um and some accessory storage. Um this request builds upon prior approvals and it expands the overall development footprint in a um unified group development format. At a high level, uh the proposal includes converting previously approved storage space um in between the two existing buildings. If you can see my cursor, but I'll try to highlight it. Um this area um converting that storage into retail. constructing a new detached building um divided between retail and accessory storage. When you look at your plans, that is labeled as building BC, which is

this building here. And constructing a separate 30,000 foot building for an art gallery with accessory storage. That's labeled as building A. and that is this building here um along the rear boundary to the west. So ultimately uh this is a multi-building commercial site functioning under one unified development plan. Um I will note that the planning board first reviewed this request um in January on January 20th. At that meeting the planning board was generally comfortable with all the dimensional standards um meaning coverage, height, buffering, etc. But they did have some concerns about the architectural design um and how it aligned with our commercial design standards. The planning board asked that the applicant um and his team coordinate with staff to revisit the architectural design, but they did want to keep it on track for public hearing. Um so it has been advertised properly to stay on that track for public hearing. Um the architect um worked with staff um during that month to bring back revised architectural design, which is what you have in your packet today. Um and I just want to thank everyone for all the effort that they went through. Um because what is in there today, what you're seeing today does reflect um a lot of communication among staff and the applicant to get to where it is. Um so the planning board saw this again in February. Um and as you'll see in your packet, they uh did recommend approval of the architectural design as well. Um so wanted to discuss that from a use standpoint. Um commercial mixeduse group

development is a special use in the C2 district. Um all of the proposed uses, retail, art gallery, and accessory storage, they're all permitted within that framework. Um the storage component um is needs to remain accessory in nature meaning that it is subordinate to and supportive of the primary retail uses as part of this request. Um I want to speak a little bit more specifically about that storage component. Um, I laid it out in your staff report, but I did just want to say that under the UDO, accessory storage is defined as storage that is incidental and support and subordinate to the principal use. It must serve the needs and convenience of that principal use. So, in this case, the storage will be serving the retail and the art gallery. Um, accessory storage in a retail context would typically function as back of the house inventory storage. It's probably probably you're most familiar with. Um, and it's going to be goods that support the on-site retail operation. It does not function as an independent warehouse or an independent distribution center. Um, so when staff reviewed this application, we evaluated the storage area specifically through that lens. Is it subordinate in scale and purpose to the retail operation? Is it accessory to and supportive of the on-site retail and the on-site art gallery? And does it function as a group development as defined in the ordinance um based upon communications with staff based upon what's been represented um in the application on the renderings and previous communications with the applicant and his design team. It does appear that the accessory storage is supportive of the principal uses and compliant with the code in that

fashion. Um, as far as dimensional standards go for this project, uh, lot coverage, they can have 55% lot coverage. They are at 54.3. Um, so they are compliant in that regard. it is close and of course we'll be looking for an asbuilt survey prior to any approvals um to ensure that lot coverage is met. Um height is a maximum of 35 ft and they're compliant in that regard. Um this property is located in a in a X flood zone but it does have to meet our local elevation standard of nine. um all the new structures um and the um structure between the two existing buildings, they all have a proposed first floor elevation of 11 ft or greater. So, it's compliant in that regard. Um and again, architecturally, um it was really at the heart of what the planning board discussed uh and the revised designs that you have today eliminates uh previously proposed gamrell roof form. Um, it introduces much steeper uh roof pitches. There's a broken up roof plane, which is what we desire. It adds porch articulations. It incorporates dormers, gable brackets, um, even shutters. Uh, they have variable siding, horizontal lap siding on the bottom, vertical board and back on top. Um, and the use of residential double hung windows throughout. Um so that being said, staff as well as the planning board did find that the revised architectural design um did meet the uh intent of our commercial design standards. Um with regard to parking, um retail uses must have one space per 250

square foot um of area. Art galleries require one space per 300 square feet. Um and accessory storage does not have uh when it's compliant uh as accessory uh there isn't a parking standard associated with that. So that in mind the total parking requirement um after taking into consideration existing bike racks which um they have a reduced they have already gone through a special use approval for parking reduction for bicycle racks. Um they are required to have 77 parking spaces. They have 79 on site. So, um, parking is compliant. Um, buffering and landscaping. There's a separate plan in your packet that shows this. Um, but, uh, we do need to take care with the residential uses to the south. They've shown a compliant 25- foot commercial transitional protective yard in that area. That buffer yard includes three rows of plantings as that is what's required. Um they've shown interior parking lot landscaping that meets their minimum requirements. Um and they have exceeded the required vegetation um in terms of preservation or planting new. They've shown that um and that exceeds the requirement as well. Um for engineering and other staff review um storm water management has been reviewed and approved by the town engineer. traffic circulation was also approved by the town engineer. Um wastewater improvement, you have that approval from Dare County in your packet. Um fire and public services also reviewed and approved this and would note that um the buildings are now proposed to be sprinkle protected. So um that is an important piece as well. Um

the 2022 land use plan designates this property as general commercial. Um so it we do find that it is consistent um with that. Uh staff would say that with the revised architectural drawings, our analysis of dimensional standards um that we do find that it is in compliance with the code and would recommend approval as it's been proposed. Um and as I stated earlier, the planning board reviewed this at their January and February meetings um and also found compliance. Um, as I was running through the staff report, I realized I wasn't scrolling very much. Um, but I will go ahead for the everybody's um Oops, my computer is hung up. I was trying to show you some architectural renderings um because I I realize that is an important piece. There we go. Okay. So, here we go. This is um building A. You can see we have articulated roof here, two stories. Um we have a pitched roof. We have the dormers that are elevated and we have um double hung windows incorporated into these dormers. Um you have uh these larger columns here accentuate accentuating um this porch roof um which gives the appearance of of porch which is highly desired in our commercial design standards. Um they've incorporated column trim um gable brackets. You can see over here um we do have some gable brackets. They've also uh proposed shutters um along all these windows.

Um and the same really follows with um building BC, which is what you see here. Um it doesn't have that two level as building A did. But they've incorporated uh various roof articulations, a shed dormer, um uh the two other dormers again, double hung windows, uh it gives the feel of that wraparound porch, um larger columns, column trim, shutters. Um so they have incorporated um many of the design elements that our commercial design standard um l lends itself to as well as what the planning board and staff had recommended. Um so with that happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um, and we do have um the applicant, the property owner, Chris Greening, available as well as his team, Mark Casten, um, and John Deluchia.

All right. Does the board have any questions for Miss Wyatt? Kelly, you mentioned the sprinklers. Is that required or that's just a bonus? It it would be required. Mr. Deluchia might be Oh, I'm sorry. They they might be better suited for that, but Okay. Before you get to that point, any other questions for Miss Wyatt? I have one quick question. If um if this whole property was ever to sell, you know, in down the road in the future, um does the town have any regulation for what how the buildings are used, assuming they're used in the same purposes they're being allowed for now for storage and

Yeah. So, if it were to sell, um they any new property owner or tenant would have to go through the change of tenant process. Okay. So we would be aware of it if they were changing the use. That's a different process where um being that parking is so tight on this site and it is um really designed to accommodate the uses that they have now. Retail and art gallery, they would any new use would have to show um that the areas for any new uses also complied with the parking that's on site. we would not be able to approve any um future use that required more parking than what's currently there.

Okay, that that answers my question. Thank you. And keeping the balance of principal and accessory is also going to be key. Any other questions for Miss Wyatt? Does the applicant have any questions for Miss Wyatt? All right. Anything else, Kelly? No, sir. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right. At this time, we will receive uh evidence from the applicant. Good morning. Good morning.

I'm John Deluchia from Elmor Associates representing the applicant. Um to answer the question about the the sprinkler system, the when we got the connection building between the original retail and the storage there that put that building over the square footage. So that building will be sprinkle protected. The the shop and and the new building that's being built right now. The storage that was that was behind or west of the new building is still going to remain storage and then some of the BC building will be storage also for them. Thank you.

Um I'll answer any question that you have. I think Kelly did a good job. Um we're compliant. We're waiting on a storm water permit from the state. storm water has been transferred over to the new owner's name and um we should have that if we don't have it we should have that any day. All right. Any questions for Mr. Deluchia? No questions.

All right. Anything further from the applicant? Any other evidence from the applicant? Does the board wish to receive any other uh evidence on this application before you begin your deliberations? Any other questions or other information at all? All right. At this time, we will conclude the public hearing and the evidentiary presentation and the board may begin its deliberations on the application. Okay. Great. Great. Thank you, John. Thank you um to everybody. Um so, let's try um getting a motion on the floor then. Um and any discussion can can follow. Is there is there a motion?

Well, I'll make a motion to approve this as presented. All right. Great. Do I have a second? Second. Have a motion and a second. Then any further discussion? No. Meets all the requirements. Yeah. All right. Appreciate everybody's effort to get this to this point. Yeah. I would also point out that after that if this motion uh passes, the board will also need to make a motion to approve the required findings for the application. All right. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Uh hearing no further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I opposed. All right. Thank you. And um we also need then a motion for the findings of fact. So I'll make that motion. Go ahead. Second. I have a motion and a second. Um any further discussion on that? No. Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Great. All right. Thank you very much. Uh let's see. That brings us then to um our next public hearing uh which is um an amendment to the unified development ordinance. And John, turn it over to you and Kelly again.

All right. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. Uh at this time, we will begin the public hearing to consider a text amendment to the unified development ordinance that was submitted by Alamar and Associates Limited on behalf of Dair County to amend the lighting ordinance for publiclyowned and publicly accessible pickle ball courts. On this matter, the uh the board sits as a legislative body and therefore sworn testimony is not needed. Um but we will begin this hearing by receiving the staff's analysis presented by the planning and development director, Kelly Wyatt.

Thank you. Um as noted, this is a public hearing for proposed text amendment to the UDO um related to outdoor pickle ball court lighting. The request was submitted by Albam Marl and Associates on behalf of Der County in connection with um the proposed publiclyowned and publicly accessible pickle ball courts uh with the tourism bureau. Uh they had a site plan approved for that about a year ago. I put a little excerpt of that in your um packet just as information. Um I would say it is important to note that text amendments are not sight specific. So, if adopted, um the change would apply townwide to any publiclyowned, publicly accessible pickle ball court. Um currently, our ordinance limits outdoor recreational courts to 15 foot candles. We use foot candles for our lighting measurement. Um that has historically covered tennis courts, um handball courts, and by interpretation when I started looking at this um extended that to pickle ball. Um those standards were intentionally written to be very conservative um focusing on limiting the glare, light trespass and offsite lighting impacts. Um even though the town hasn't formally pursued dark skylighting certification, um the ordinance already reflects many of the principles and aligns with our dark skies bright stars initiative which we heard a lot about during the nest presentation earlier. Um so with this request, the applicant had um asked for the ability to increase lighting from our 15oot candles to 30 foot candles for recreational play and to take that 30ft candles um up to 50ft candles for

competitive or tournament play. Um those levels, those requested levels um were recommended based on guidance from the illuminating engineering society, IEES, um which provides technical lighting recommendations for sports facilities. And I will say, um I said this at the planning board and I will say it to the board of commissioners. Um, I was really surprised and I absolutely learned something new because when this application came in, um, I kind of just had that gut feeling of, oo, this is excessive. I'm not sure that this is going to align with our lighting code. Um but as I started looking into it, what I realized is that um Dark Sky International and Dark Sky Practices and their certification, it's really less about a foot candle measurement. It's it's less about the number of the foot candle and more about the fixture um and the type of fixture that you're using. Um it's really focused on um shielding your light fixture um aiming it having the appropriate angle um having glare control and limiting light trespass from what you're just from the area that you're trying to light um specifically. So um I I learned that higher illumination levels um can be compatible with the dark sky principles um if the fixtures are appropriate and the design um is as such that it meets these requirements. So um that is what really led staff's recommendation on this item. um the higher illumination levels that the IEES um had cited th those are intended for

peak conditions um for peak play things like uh tournaments, competitive play um and the reality is that the the whether it's the pickle ball courts at the tourism bureau um the pickle ball courts at Downey Park or the pickle ball courts that um we recently approved at the Outerbank Sports Center, those are predominantly going to be used for recreational play. Um and while there may be tournaments, while there may be other um activities going on there, by and large it will be recreational. So sticking to that 30 uh foot candles would be key. Um that in mind though, staff did propose a tiered approach. Um and that is in the ordinance which I will show on the screen um the new elements highlighted in red. Um but with this we proposed um that uh we retain the 15 foot candles for private courts um HOAs, neighborhood courts, um things of that nature. Um but then you can increase that 15 to 30 if it is a publicly owned, publicly accessible court. Um, and provided that the enhanced lighting performance standards um, and the supplemental standards are um, met, that 30 could be um, increased to 50 foot candles um, when there's competitive or tournament play, but it has to be part of an approved C crowd gathering permit. Um and that lighting automatically will return to the 30-foot candles after that approved crowd gathering permit um after that event has ceased.

Um staff also recognizes that pickle ball has a unique acoustic sound or noise associated with it. Um you've got your hard paddle, got the plastic ball, and it is just a repetitive sound. And if you're familiar with it, you know what I'm talking about. Um while it's not specific. This was brought to us by the deer county um tourism board. Those ports are um right adjacent to our southside to the estrn shoreline. So thinking about that acoustic noise um being right there adjacent to the water and how noise travels um we at least wanted to write something in here about noise attenuation. Um, so because of that, we included language in here that would give us the ability to mitigate that noise if we have substantiated noise complaints or if we go out there and do a noise audit and find that it's necessary. Um, so this gives us the ability to um require acoustic fence wraps, sound panels, or other types of noise attenuating measures um should we find that it is needed. Um, additionally, well, let me scroll. Uh, so what you have on the screen now is, um, speaks to the foot candles. Um, there was a proposed new section for pickle ball courts. Um, talking about enhanced lighting options. Um, I won't read through everything, um, but essentially the light fixtures shall be full cut off fixtures. They shall have additional shielding, glare control measures to prevent light trespass onto adjacent properties. Um, to the ocean beach, um, and to other public trust

areas, which is where we'll talk about that Estrin shoreline. Um, no light trespass shall occur on the Estrin shoreline or the ocean beach. Um, light fixtures shall be limited to a maximum pole height of 25 ft um with fixtures aimed so that their beams are directed and fall primarily within the playing area and away from sensitive areas. It goes back to one of the um visuals that Nest had. The higher the pole, the more the lighting angle. Um so this lower pole hopefully allows more directed lighting. Um The fixtures would be dimmable or multi-level lighting system so that they can um provide for that flexibility between the 30 and the 50 appropriately. And all pickle ball lighting um shall operate on on demand basis only utilizing a system such as push button timers or motion activation. Um and in talking with Mr. Deluchia um as well as Dustin Peele with Dare County um they have other recreational facilities that are already using these push button um lighting and it's uh been successful there. And uh the next section of the ordinance that's proposed would be additional language for competitive or tournament play. And this just really speaks to um they would be able to increase it from 30 to 50 foot candles if they had an approved crowd gathering permit in place to do so. Um and that as soon as the event were over, um it would have to go back to the recreational play standards. Um and then there is our noise mitigation language. Um as well, I'll say that when we presented this to the planning board, um there was a lot of

really good communication. Um one of the things is that our current ordinance speaks to a curfew of 900 p.m. um for all recreational facilities that are municipally owned. Um, there was a conversation about how in the summer it's really just getting dark by 900 p.m. it's really hot. Like a lot of people would like to go play pickle ball later in the evening. So, moving that 900 p.m. to 1000 p.m. um would be beneficial. Um staff and the planning board were all agreeable to that. um that there was a desire to make sure that the language was um clear that the fields, the soccer fields at Satderfield Landing kept that 900 p.m. curfew. They have much taller poles, much taller than 25 ft. Um and the lighting is much more substantial. Um, so wanted to keep that at 9ine and not just do a blanket um 10 p.m. Um, so that's uh that's what I have for you this morning in terms of uh the request. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have and um John Deluchia is here um representing the applicant for this and can answer any questions as well.

All right. Are there any questions for Miss Wyatt? When we say um extending the times to 10 p.m., is that only for pickle ball or is that on other courts as well? Um so let me scroll up here. Um that would be for any publiclyowned publicly accessible court or for any court that has um gone through a commercial site plan review. So, in terms of what it means today,

it would be any court um it would mean the the proposed courts at the soundside event site. Um those that we have at Dowy Park are municipal and publicly accessible. And then the courts um that we recently approved at the Outer Bank Sports Center, that was a site plan review, a commercial site plan review, so it would extend to them as well. Um But it but it keeps um the uh the recreational field at Satderfield Landing at the 9 at the 900 pm.

Okay. I I just had people mention to me that they would like to see the facilities at Dowy Park stay open a little tiny bit later for their kids to play basketball later into the night and that kind of thing. So it seems a little unfair to allow pickle ball to be till 10:00 and not the basketball court until 10. the way this is written in here, um, it really does speak specifically to public recreation pickle ball courts. Um, but if that's something that we want to continue the conversation on, we can make this amendment more more broad. Um, if that's the desire that Okay. I mean, should we approve pickle ball now and then down the road look at the thing that

basketball or somewhere else? That would be my recommendation so we don't change the character of the U text amendment that's before you all today. Okay. So, I assume there's some other type of lighting out there. If you're out there at 10 o'clock at night and all the lights cut off and you need to get back to your car, there's there is. So, there's um and I did not go into that. I'm sorry. But the ordinance does allow for security lighting. Okay. Um, it's just a lowlevel minimal security lighting for maintenance and to to make sure you can get safely off the court. Lights out. All right. Any other questions for Miss Wyatt?

One other question. Have you ever had um noise complaints about pickle ball from Dowy Park or Well, I guess just from Dy Park. I haven't. Okay. Um I'm not aware of any. I don't know if anyone else has, but but I have not. Okay. All right, that's it. I'm done. That's okay. Anything else, Kelly? That's it. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Any any um any presentation from the applicant, Mr. Deluchia?

Good morning again. I'm John Deluchia. I just want to thank Kelly for I mean, we went through iterations of this and And we want it to work for everybody. The pickle ball folks here on the Outer Banks, this might mean want the courts to be able to be used in accordance with the recommendation of lighting levels. And the recommendation for lighting levels for them for pickle ball was 30 foot candles and 50 to 80 foot candles for competitions. Well, there's going to be 10 courts down there at at the event site and there may be some competition that that goes on. We've talked with the manufacturers of the lighting um as far as can we dim them and the answer was absolutely we can dim them. Um we can put them on a dimmer. Um what Kelly discussed about the timer the at Wreck Park in Kill Devil Hills, those tennis courts and pickle ball courts, they can play on those courts until I think about 10 o'lock. Um, and it's an on demand. If you show up and the lights aren't on, you push a button, the lights come on. At 10:00 or whatever time they have them set for, you can't push that button anymore. It won't turn on. Um, so we'll have the same type of controllers at um at here and at at the sports club. Um, and the sports club was good with 10 o'clock because they close by 10 o'clock.

So that that works well, I think. All right. Any questions for Mr. Deluchia. No questions. All right. Anything else? No, sir. All right. Does any member of the public wish to comment on this proposed text amendment? If so, this is your opportunity. Does the board wish to receive any other information regarding this proposed text amendment? At this time, we will conclude the public hearing on this and the board may begin its deliberations. Okay. Board. Um, what is your pleasure? Would someone like to put a motion on the floor? I make a motion that we amend the UDO for to accept this text amendment. Okay. Is there a second?

Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, then all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. All right. John, do we need to make findings a fact? No, sir. Not on this. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Um, we do have a timespecific item for 10:30. It's 10:20. Kelly, can we squeeze in your update? Okay. Yes.

Um, I'll be really brief. Uh, at the last planning board meeting, we had, uh, the two items that, uh, TWWs, which we just talked about, and then we'll be talking about Dear County EMS. Um next, um the next planning board meeting is scheduled for March 17th. We have one item we're going to be looking at. It's a special use for uh consideration of a parking reduction of three parking spaces so that the um Outerbanks Cancer Center can um put some additional HVAC equipment out there to help with the humidity inside the building. Their humidity was too high for what they need to do there. the compounding. Um so there has to be some additional mitigating equipment. Um but it's going to it's going to impose on a couple parking spaces. So um the septic health committee, they met February 24th. Um and our environmental planner gave an update on where we're at to date. Um 87 inspections have been completed. Uh we have seven loans issued, which um is uh more usual for this time of year. And um 83 properties have taken advantage of the pumpout credit. Um and then I think we have some good news on the DWI loan. Uh we've got an email that they're composing our approval letter. So it makes me think we've been approved. Um

but we haven't got the letter yet. As soon as we get that, we'll get the ball rolling with implementation. Very good.

Um sand relocation, it continues to be strong. Um 166 applications, 75 people taking advantage of the cost share, and we've used about 215,000 of the 400. Um, our deputy planning director, Joe Costello, is going to update on the Estrin shoreline management plan, so won't go into that. Um, lastly, I think we have art and culture, which you received their committee update um on that as well. So, That's it. Good. Thank you. Anything for Kelly? Great. All right. Thank you, Kelly.

Thank you. Um, and so I think her consultant is here for the 10:30. She she's getting set up. Okay. And so, you know, one of the suggest Could I suggest something? Yes, sir. You certainly may. Please do. I know I know that the next item um is something that the board's heard previously. Yep. And so maybe there's time to get that in and then let her get set up. Okay. And that way the applicant can be done. Okay. All right. Very good. Then let's proceed to item G2. Kelly, you're right there. So this is the site plan for the new EMS station.

Yes. And Andy was spot on. I am happy to go into great detail about all of this, but you've seen it already. Uh you saw it a little over a year ago. Um, and the way our code reads, if you don't pull a building permit within 12 months of your site plan approval, your site plan approval expires. And, um, they were unable to do that, but um, they're back. So, essentially, this is a reapproval. Nothing has changed in terms of the site. the um the site plan, the lot coverage is still compliant. They're actually reducing lot coverage on this site. It's across the street, by the way. It's 105C Chase. Um it's where the bank used to be. Uh town has owns that um or owned that was using it as a fitness facility. Now it's owned by the county. Um lot coverage is actually going to be reduced on that site. Um so the covered area that's there now is going to be less um when they develop it with um this EMS facility. Um architecturally it's compliant um pitched roof, coastal watchtower um residential style windows um gable bracket etc. This uh structure is also in the village. So it has to go through the village architectural control committee. The only change in this from when you saw it last time and now is last time they had a metal roof proposed. Um this time the village architectural really wanted to see that se uh cedar shingle roof. So that's what is on there now. And that is honestly

the only change between the last submitt and this submitt. Um there's some elevations on the screen so you can see what that looks like. Um Carolina Water, they're served by um Carolina Water for their sewer. We do have a letter from them saying that they have the capacity and the ability um to accommodate this new use for EMS. So, um, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Planning staff continues to recommend approval, and the planning board also, um, when they saw this at their last meeting, um, voted unanimously to recommend approval of the site plan review. And we do have Mike Robinson here. Um, he's the engineer on the job if you have any questions. questions.

All right. Hearing no questions and a motion would be in order. I'll make a motion to approve. Okay. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the site plan as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Great. All right. Thank you, Kelly. Appreciate that. And uh I think we're I think we're just about ready. If anybody needs a cup of coffee. Yeah. Quick, very quick break.

All right. So, the board has returned from this uh sort of unofficial recess here and um so we we are we are back in action and um happy to welcome Whitney Campbell Christensen this morning. Good morning. And uh welcome. And um I'll turn Andy, is there an introduction to this topic here? Reviewing your agenda?

Uh sure, mayor. Yes. Uh you know, we started this last year where we were working with a lobbyist, Warden Smith, uh to develop the town's legislative agenda. You know, we had the opportunity to go to Raleigh a few times last year and speak to our delegation about our agenda. Um led by Whitney Campbell Christensen, who's at the podium, and Marley Peterson, who's also here in the audience. And a wealth of knowledge in navigating the landscape in Raleigh. And we found the meetings very valuable. And so this year we've updated the legislative agenda sort of internally and we circulated that to the board. And Whitney's here to not only talk about that agenda and sort of get gain the approval from the board, but also to talk about what to expect for the coming season and how we might navigate that. And then finally talk about what are the hot button issues that we really want to focus on. And With that said, um, welcome, Whitney, and thank you for being here. I know they made a quick drive from Raleigh this morning. So, really appreciate that.

Yes, we do. Thank you very much.

Good morning. Thank you all for having us. And the drive was so quick. The exit was so quick before the sunrise, I forgot my suit jacket. Um, so this is the first time I think my elbows have ever seen me speak to a client or give a presentation. And, um, as Marley said, at least I didn't forget my shoes or the pants. Um, but I usually drive with it on a hanger to keep it crisp, especially for long trips like this. Anyway, that it's hanging beautifully in my foyer and here we are without it. Um, this was a first for all of us. But jokes aside, uh, really appreciate the invitation to come speak with you all and the partnership. Um, we represent local governments across North Carolina, also some corporate clients and nonprofit clients too at the North Carolina General Assembly. Um, but the partnership with the town of Nags Head has been fantastic. And what I mean by that is just the engagement from the mayor, from Andy, um, from the board in participating in Raleigh. I mean, so many times there were hot button issues and we would notify Andy or the mayor and within minutes we'd have a reply offering to drive up to Raleigh to participate in meetings. Um the mayor spent and Andy I mean I think weekends um providing really detailed letters about some of these land use and zoning bills and how they would uniquely impact um destination communities like Nag said. Anyway, um not just being flattering here when I say that you all have been one of our most engaged and most active clients in terms of working with the general assembly in a proactive way and in sometimes in a reactive way. Um and so all compliments to you for that good work. Um and we've seen results from that. We can talk about this later on, but um there were some really nasty bills as you know related to land use and zoning um and local authority to make permitting decisions, etc. And um we had some real changes to those thanks to actions by the mayor, the board, Andy, um and some changes to those that I think are very meaningful

to you all. And so um your work, your hard work has paid off. will continue to do those good things. But Andy asked me to open with an update on um what the general assembly did in 2025, what we can expect for 2026, how you can be engaged, and I think um we would be remiss not to talk about the very timely uh primary election results from last night, which frankly I've been doing this for I think 16 years now, and I've never seen an election um outcome like what we saw uh in some of the races last night. And so we'll touch on that a bit too. Um but really timely to to speak about those things. So looking back at the 2025 long session, um it was a new bienium. North Carolina operates on a two-year bienium schedule, at least for the legislative branch. And so elections take place in the fall of evenumbered years, and new legislators are seated in the beginning of the oddnumbered year. And so legislation that's introduced is technically eligible for the entire two-year period. And 2025, January of 2025 was the beginning of that new bienium. We had new leadership in 2025 in both the executive branch with Governor Stein. Um, obviously, Governor Cooper was term limited and has gone on to bigger and better things. Um, but also new leadership in the House. So, uh, Speaker of the House Tim Moore served, I think, for eight years, four terms, um, but recently was elected to Congress. And so, House Republicans elected a new speaker. That's Dustin Hall. Um, he finished his first year and is halfway through his first bianium. Um, we also had uh the main purpose of the long session, I should say, is to enact a new comprehensive state budget for North Carolina. They didn't do that in 2025, as we know. And for the town, we had several really good and what we felt like were very viable legislative goals on the appropriation side. Um, but unfortunately, if no budget isn't enacted, there's no way to pass those. And so really disappointing there because I think a few of them

particularly the asbestous water lines, the mobile command center, um several of your goals were very actionable and I felt like um very realistic requests considering legislative precedent and recent budget cycles, but unfortunately no budget and so um you know there was no mechanism for getting those done. The long session is also open session for bill filing. And so it's the least restrictive period in the two-year cycle for bill introductions, particularly January to March of the oddnumbered years. And so you'll see a large volume of bill filings. And one of our roles as your lobbyists is to read those bills each night um before we go to bed. Lovely light bedtime reading um and notify you immediately of anything that's you know life or death like House Bill 765, which the mayor and Andy quickly pounced on. Um, but the things that are important but less time sensitive, we just add to your bill tracking list and you receive that each Friday. And if you're not receiving that and you would like a copy, you can ask Andy. He receives it each Friday that they're in session and um could probably get that to you. Um, but that list is created manually, but then the software generates automatic updates um based on what those bills are doing. All right. Uh, so session began on January 25th, ended in late June um, which was relatively efficient for them. We've had some sessions go into October, November, December. Um so at least they're to be applauded on the speed of it.

A quick look at the political dynamics in the general assembly for this bianium. Um obviously we have a Democrat in the governor's mansion that has been pretty steady for the majority of my career with the exception of um Governor McCrory's term for four years. In the Senate we have a Republican supermajority. What we mean by that is that there's the requisite three-fifths of um one party to override a gubernatorial veto without securing support from the other party. So you can see they have exactly that. So Republicans have 60 um% of the chamber, Democrats have 40%. What that means is that Senate leadership does not need to recruit any Democrats to override a gubernatorial veto there. If everyone is present that day, they can override any veto from the governor without um seeking any additional support. In the House, we have a Republican simple majority or as Speaker Dustin Hall calls it um a working supermajority. And I when he said that early in session, I I was a little skeptical, but I think that's a fair characterization of what ultimately they had in that chamber. What he meant by that was there were three to five Democrats that he could reliably depend upon to cross the aisle and vote with Republicans to override a guminatorial veto. So practical effect of this is Governor Stein able to veto whatever he would like. um he has been less heavy with the veto pin or the veto stamp than Governor Cooper. Um but there have been a number of significant um vetos there in the House and the Senate. They can override those if they need to. Um but especially in the House heavily dependent on attendance and who's there and who they're able to recruit. Um themes from the long session. First and foremost, intraparty gridlock. Um intraparty tension. And what we mean by that is just a significant amount of infighting between Republican leadership in the House and Republican leadership in the Senate. Now, House Republicans all get along for the most part. Senate Republicans all get along for the most part, but between the two chambers, there was significant tension. And what a lot of that came down to was very

fundamental diff disagreements over tax policy. Um, both chambers have agreed for many years now um on stairstep reductions to corporate and personal income tax rates in North Carolina. I'm sure you've seen those on your taxes. Um, and we have a few more of those set in statute that are supposed to take place if certain state revenue thresholds are hit. Um, and a disagreement began to emerge early last year, maybe even late 2024. Um, no, I think it was around January of 25 when the state's economist, who's nonpartisan, um, brilliant, does a really great job of forecasting state revenue each year, usually within a couple, um, tens or maybe hundred million dollars. So, really accurate projections. He gave an update in early 2025, a forecast where he said that if the state continued with the current tax cuts that are already in statute, they're already law, we only need to hit revenue um triggers for them to take effect, that we could afford to um continue with the 2027 tax cuts, but if we continued with the 2028 tax cut that's scheduled in law already, um the state would be operating at a deficit. And I know we hear Congress operating at a deficit all the time and you know they print money and we owe trillions to China. North Carolina doesn't operate like that. We've never had a deficit in my career. Um we have a balanced budget. We usually have a really healthy surplus and save that. Put a lot of that away in rainy day each year and then use that rainy day fund for Helen and other emergencies like that. Florence Matthew um and so the idea of a deficit is really startling um to everyone in North Carolina politics. And so, um, Senate Democrats, House Democrats, and House Republicans really quickly came together behind the idea that we need to pause that tax cut. Um, not increase taxes, not remove it from statute all together, but just raise the revenue threshold that needed to be hit in order for that to take effect, effectively stalling it two or so years depending on how much revenue the state collects. Um, but

Senate Republicans really burger because we've spoken with several Senate Republicans. Um, and I don't want to out anyone in particular, but some who may be your friends um, who don't necessarily agree with Burger's position about um, holding the line there, but President Burgerer said, you know, we are not going to talk about a budget. We're not going to pass your legislation. We're not going to do anything unless you agree to allow these tax cuts to proceed. And House Republicans said, we're not going to do anything unless you agree to pause the tax cuts. And the result was they did nothing. We filed um over 1,800 bills, which is pretty normal for a long session. And the by the last week or the second to last week of session, they had passed 44. Um, we'd been in session for about five months at that point. So, that's really low output session. Usually, they pass about 300 bills. So, um, really gridlocked and I probably spent too long on that point. Um, but they also did achieve a Helm relief package. There was a $500 million Helm relief package in March and then a $700 million one in June. and we worked on those. Um, and really glad to see that they were able to get that done and set aside differences to do that.

Thank you. Um, so I got ahead of myself a little bit, but um, over 1,800 bills introduced. Um, only and I can't, my vision's really bad. Should probably get some glasses. Um, but I think we had in the 40s by the third week of session. And then, um, in that last week they got up to about I think the mid to high 70s. I can't see it. Y'all could probably see. 77.

Okay. um and then did maybe 20 or so more over the special sessions throughout the fall. Um and I think we have 97 session laws for the bienium as of now, which again significantly trails the 300 or 400 or so we would usually have. Um they did authorize their uh the ability to return for special sessions throughout the fall. Um they did this in the adjournment resolution. So when they adjourned in June, rather than adjourning um to return. They adjourned to a date certain and these were the dates certain. So this allowed them to come back into town for limited reasons. Um take up conference reports and those are bills that basically had almost made it to the finish line and were being negotiated by a few designated conferees from the House and Senate. Um so that's a big umbrella that gets a lot of things in. They always allow themselves to come back for constitutional amendments and to respond to litigation. Um but really these sessions were pretty fruitless. there was um pretty ma major uh redistricting in your district um in October really redrrew um that US congre congressional district one um there was Ireina's law which made some um pretty significant changes to pre-trial release and bond setting in response to the Charlotte light rail stabbing we also had two mini budgets but um mini budget is not a term I coined but it's appropriate the typical state budget is 700 or so pages and then the money report that goes along with which is the spreadsheet with all the numbers in it and they call it the money report is 1,100 pages. So you've got almost 2,000 pages of budget document and a full comprehensive budget. These mini budgets sometimes were four pages, 20 pages. They were very many um bite-sized budgets. So they did a few of those only to handle true crises. Um but they left several big important things on the table including um funding Medicaid rebates. So each year Medicaid becomes more and more expensive for the state to um pay for and even their projections

always fall short and there's about $300 million shortfall on Medicaid right now that's unfunded because we haven't had a budget and so unless they do something about that um the state Medicaid office will run out of money in April of this year in the fiscal year doesn't end till the end of June and so several things like that left on the table. Also a very um high-profile law enforcement raises bill the house put together the senate um had something very similar. They were almost identical, but they refused to pass them because they disliked each other so much. And so, a lot left on the table. They were supposed to convene in November, didn't come together because they were so upset with each other. Same case in December. So, really gridlocked, tense environment now.

Okay. Thank you. Um, these are the pieces of legislation that have been vetoed and are still awaiting veto override in one or both chambers. Um, I think three of them relate to DEI and either local government, state government, or higher education. Most of these are awaiting veto override in the House instead of the Senate. Again, it's harder to um achieve those veto overrides in the House because they don't automatically have the supermajority. Um but also constitutional carry Senate Bill 50 is also awaiting veto. Um so each of these are what we call riding the calendar which means they're sitting on the calendar in perpetuity and when the day comes that the bill sponsors have the right amount of people present to achieve that 60% they will schedule the vote for that day and take the vote. Um a quick look at state fiscal health and revenue because it does impact the budget. Um, in 2025, North Carolina's GDP growth was fourth in the nation, which is really impressive. Um, North Carolina also was ranked the number one state for economic development by business facilities magazine, um, which is the like leading, um, body for those, you know, those accolades. Um, we added a significant amount of jobs and, um, new capital investment in 2025 as well. Um, we also had more domestic immigration than any other state in North Carolina. I don't think we were, and again, I can't see it, but um, I don't think we were number one by um by uh rate. Maybe we were number one by rate, but not by population, or it was reversed. But on one of those two metrics, we were the number one state for domestic immigration. Um but we are also in a low hire um low fire environment and you'll hear several economists tossing that around which basically means um and some people will call it a hiring recession. People are moving from job to job less. So looking at the state fiscal health um

we did have a really healthy increase to individual income tax in 2025 was a few hundred million um which is a decent increase. the corporate income tax uh increase was relatively small. I think what was it like 38?

Okay. Thank y'all for helping me read this. Um which was really low. And when you consider the fact that the state budget is about $30 billion, that's pennies to lawmakers and doesn't make much of a difference. Um and isn't really what's driving the state's ability to increase its spending. Um but with that said, we do have a really low corporate income tax rate. I think we're the lowest in the nation of states that still have one. Um And so even, you know, big changes with corporate growth in North Carolina won't have a huge impact in terms of total dollars just because that rate is so low. Um, and then income tax was also up. But when um income tax is up but spending growth isn't up, that's always kind of a an early warning sign of economic cooling. All right, so sneak peek of the 2026 short session. Um, it will begin in late April. Um, very limited bill eligibility and this isn't that's unique to 2026. This is um the rule for all short sessions. So again, conference reports um but they can bend that rule a lot. They can put just about anything they want in conference and then suddenly it can come out in a conference report local bills. So that's um good news for folks like us who might have something like that. And in the North Carolina constitution, anything that's fewer that impacts um fewer than 14 counties is a local bill. So those are always eligible. Study committee recommendations. Some years we have a lot of study committee activity in the interim. Some years we don't. This year I would say is the former. Um we've been keeping you all updated on a really active um and meaningful uh process in the house. They formed a house select committee on property tax reform. And I've been doing deep dives on um ways to evaluate property tax in North Carolina uh since December. They've had one meeting a month. And these meetings have been surprisingly robust. You know, three or four hours long each time. They've heard from every staff expert in the general assembly on local government revenue, um, local government taxation,

etc. Um, and so they've had some really good presentations, which I appreciate, but it is very scary for them to tackle a topic like this because we all know um, property tax is the number one source of revenue uh, for local governments, the most stable, most predictable. And so the idea that they would want to, you know, kind of tinker with that is alarming and something to keep a close eye on. But we have been pleasantly surprised with um the amount of thoughtfulness that they've put into that process. And what we've shared with Andy and Mayor Kahune is, you know, with this um House Select Committee, that's a real body. It's bipartisan. Um they have been charged by the general assembly to recommend something by April, and we think they will recommend something. The Senate didn't form a committee. The Senate created a nonpartisan um no a partisan working group of six Republican senators, told them to go to a room somewhere and figure something out and bring it back. Last week when I was out of town, we learned that they did come up with a recommendation and and that they plan to file it in April and that that recommendation is a 12-month um moratorium on any revaluations, property tax revaluations. um we think they might want to look at making that retroactive because Burger is really the one behind the charge and he's very upset about the Guilford County um evaluation. So, uh I think that'll be interesting to watch and potentially constitutionally messy to have a look back period on evaluation that's already taken place. Um anyway, we're watching that closely, but as we've told um Andy and the mayor, the House will have their recommendations. The Senate has released theirs. I think they're going to look pretty different. They can't agree on a thing. They haven't agreed on much this entire bienium. And um you know, even if the House is able to get their proposal out and the Senate is able to get their proposal out, it's just like the law enforcement salaries bill. Unless you know, one chamber approves what the

other chamber has sent over, it doesn't become law. So the House can approve one thing, Senate can approve something different, you don't have a law. Um and so they need to come together behind this idea. I don't know if they're capable of that at this point. Um, but more on that in a minute when we talk about the election results from last night. Um, but property tax reform, as we discussed, uh, they've promised us one more Helen relief package. Our sources are telling us it'll be about 500 million and that's all they have left to spend. Um, it's obviously a recordsized disaster in North Carolina, but um, the two billion or so that the state spending doesn't even begin to touch the 50 billion or so in damage that was done from that storm. Um, also obviously they're going to attempt a state budget again or pretend to attempt a state budget again. We are now in the longest period in state, well, at least in my career and in modern history that we haven't had a state budget. Um, you know, first eight or so years of my career, we had one every year. Long before that, consistently everyone every year, it was unthinkable to not have one. Um, 2023, we had a good budget, had a good surplus, put a lot of money away. 2024, they had stalemate. Um, and they'd had one in 2022 and I think they had had one two years before that. Um, but what really became historic was in 2025 when they agreed to have a second year without a state budget. That's the longest period that we've ever gone. Um, you know, and it's not like Washington where if they fail to reach a deal, there's government shutdown and government spending stops and workers are furoughed. It's not that dramatic here because um we have a provision in state law that allows if there is an estate budget in place by June 30th at midnight the end of the fiscal year, the state will just continue funding itself on the prior year's budget, which sounds nice and works a lot better than Washington. Um, but when you see the growth that we're having as a state, both in population, in revenue, the demographic shifts from some areas to others, it is kind of wild to continue

to fund the state like we did in 2023 when some areas are twice as large as they were then. Some are shrinking. Um, populations are aging, Medicaid needs are different, you know, school needs are different. We're a different state. Um, and we also have more people. Transportation needs are changing. Um, nothing is shut down, but we we're operating on a really outdated budget at this point. And so there's a lot of political pressure, some of which we saw last night shake out in that primary um to come together on a budget for 2026. You also have a lot of great groups like you all who have really important needs that we've put forth and submitted through the budget portal um that are just kind of lingering and becoming more expensive as time goes on. So you'll have lots of lobbyists like us, you know, coming in with the asbestous water lines and other projects that really, you know, command the attention of legislators. And so you'll have legislators like Hannik, for example, um really vying for there to be a budget so that those local projects can be funded. Do I think they'll get it done? I'm at this point I'm skeptical um because we've gone so long without one. But with it being an election year, there's always that added pressure. Um I think the voters spoke last night in the primary about um how they feel about not having a budget for this long. So, we'll see how that shakes out. So, um a prediction, some predictions about the state budget. Um technically still at an impass, and we touched on all of this. We think it'll be about a $30 billion budget. Um I think we spoke about all of these things on the last side, but um if we're looking at surplus, we do have rollover surplus from 2024 and 2025. That's one of the only silver linings of not passing a budget when we're funding the state at 2023 levels, but our revenue is growing. you're you're actually banking some money that you're not spending. Um with that being said, a lot of that was spent on Helen and will continue to be spent on Helen and we really drained our rainy day reserves. Um also the state's economist is um projecting a slight contraction on revenue generation for

this year. And so um the revenue picture I think will be interesting. Um and I think there will probably be less like earmarks and pork and special projects if they are able to do a budget, but that's still to be seen. All right, an election preview. So, this PowerPoint was from um before I left the country last week. Um and it reminds you to vote on March 3rd, which was yesterday. So, looking at your election results, um and I'll just pause to thank Senator Hanig uh in particular, but also Representative Kidwell for everything that they've done for you all um or for us on your behalf. They've both been wonderful. Um met with us countless times, never had their door closed to us. Um, I know I mentioned earlier that the town has been wonderful about driving to Raleigh. They've never not met with us. They've always made time. Um, they've submitted our appropriations requests in a budget environment that's very unpredictable and advocated for for your needs. Um, they've both been wonderful, particularly Senator Hanick. I'm I mean, I was saying this back there when I arrived, but again, we represent local governments from all over the place, and I've never seen a legislator work as hard for his people as Senator Hanik. Um he's just been rock solid. I'm not getting emotional. That was just me getting hurt from talking too much. But I would get emotional over Senator Hanning. Love that man. And he's been so good to us um and to you all over the years. So he obviously decided not to run again um because he was running for Congress. He got third place in that race last night, which is disappointing. He's a friend to all of us. Um so he uh in that primary, I believe Tilllet won that race by about five points. Um and so that is a heavily Republican district and we know what the outcome will be. It was just a matter of the primary. Um I hope you all have relationships there. We are eager to meet um to meet him and you know develop those relationships. But it will be unique situation for the town to have freshmen um in 2027 in both

chambers. And I won't sugarcoat it. It's kind of a challenging situation because it's usually the in the second and third and fourth term incumbents who, you know, have the greatest ability to get legislation through um and to get appropriations won. But I will share a positive story, too. We do a lot of I don't want to say coaching of freshmen, but it's one of the most fun parts of the job um when they come in and they realize that we've been doing this for decades and they're new to the legislative building and they ask us where the bathroom is and ask us how to file a bill and how a bill becomes law. we get to teach them that. Um, but for another local government we represent, they had a freshman house member in 2025 and Marley's smiling because he was just so wonderful to work with. Um, and he would ask us every question like, "How do I take a bill to a bill jacket to the clerk's office?" And we'd say, "You just walk it over there, but we can show you, you know, we can take you over there." Um, and he was able to get two bills, two local bills done for us and submitted appropriations requests for that city. Um, so super effective freshman. um went from knowing nothing about the building to really being able to help his local government constituent in a matter of months. And so hope is not lost. I'm sure they will both be wonderful and we're excited to work with them. But the good news is that situation doesn't emerge until 2027 and 2026 short session. You still have wonderful Senator Hannig. Um we have Representative Kidwell to work with too. And so um it will be the same representation you had in 2025. But um can't be on an election uh and not talk about what happened in um Rockingham County last night. I think you all know the Senate has had stable leadership for 15 years. Phil Berger, senator from Rockingham County, um has served as Senate leader, Senate President Prom for 15 years, which is the longest I think in state history that anyone has led the Senate. Um controversial figure, people have strong feelings about him. Um, I will say just as someone who works in

the Senate every day, I feel like um, he runs a very tight ship and other Senate Republicans have complained to us that they feel like they don't have a choice in how they vote. They don't have much autonomy in the decisions that they make. Um, just because it is such a tightly controlled environment. Um he's never really had any challenger of of much substance, but the longtime I think like 30-year sheriff in Rockingham County challenged him um this go around and very popular man there. Looks like Richard Petty, tall, thin, wears a giant cowboy hat. He's been walking around the general assembly all year. Um beat him by two votes last night. Two votes. And if you look at the state board of election website, it's literally 50.00% to 50.00% 0% which I don't think I've even ever seen in my life like tied down to the second decimal place. Um and that doesn't mean and my husband was asking me about this last night that doesn't mean that Sam Page will become the president prom of the Senate. Um but it means that if Phil Burgerer does not come back in 2027, Senate Republicans will have to elect a new leader. And the writing was kind of on the wall a few days ago and some of our Senate Republican friends were starting to talk about who they might elect. Um and the name Todd Johnson been floated around. Um he would be such a different choice. He's so casual. He wears sneakers with his suits. Who am I to talk up here without a jacket today? But um very casual guy, very jovial, very light-hearted, and I think they're just craving something very different from what they've had. Um but don't want to put the card ahead of the horse. Um what needs to happen before that is to have some finality around that race. And obviously when there's two votes different, there's going to be a recount. Um, they're still waiting on provisional ballots. They should have those in. The state board of elections said they should have those in by the end of today. Could be 20, there could be 50, there could be 100. Um, it'll be interesting to see where those go. But there will be a recount. I'd be shocked if there wasn't litigation. Could be a

while before we have an answer on this. Good news is we don't need an answer on it until 2027. But, um, long story short, if we do have new leadership in the Senate for the first time in 15 years, I think a lot of this tension between the two chambers will alleviate. I absolutely think that the tax um standoff on uh income tax and cor corporate and personal income tax will alleviate because really there's only one person who's holding the line on that and it's Phil Burgerer and if that alleviates I think we have bill flow again. I think we have budgets again and I think that would be really good for the town. Um you know we have really good appropriations priorities. you just need a budget um to put them in there. And so um if we could get those relations between the House and the Senate back where they used to be, where they can be in a room together, I think a lot of things would start moving again to our benefit. Um got to wait and see what happens with recount. Uh, and then what the Senate Republicans decide to do, if they're put in a situation where they have to elect a new leader, but whether it's Todd Johnson or not, kind of everyone else in that top tier of Senate Republican leadership, I can reliably say each of them would have a better relationship with the House than Phil Burgerer had. So, it's just something to think about.

All right. Um, happy to take questions on any of that or we can start talking about your legislative priorities. completely up to you all, Mayor Andy, whatever y'all think is best. Well, um, we have about 10 minutes before we have another time specific item. Um, and so I I think first thing would be to ask if there are any questions of you um, in particular from her new board members, but anybody any questions about this? Well, lots, but in the essence of time, I we'll hold off on those, but thanks for the presentation. It's very informative.

You're welcome. And you can get my contact information from Andy. Email me, text me anytime, day or night. We had clients texting us at 11 p.m. last night about the burger results. We're at your disposal. No questions. Thank you. Um, so process, yes,

you know, and and whether they may or may not do business. We we talked about this a little bit last week at the at the board retreat. Um, and the town is, as you've said, we're we're prepared to be engaged. Um, doesn't sound like there's a lot of likelihood of them doing real business that we would engage with. However,

that's a good question. So, the bills that you all were most engaged in were those suite of um land use and zoning bills. They did all sorts of things and the mayor and Andy are so familiar with this because we wrote letter after letter. But um they would erode local government authority over ADUs. Um they would uh minimum lot size, density, parking spaces. They would take away your ability to regulate parking spaces. Um and that's where we saw the most effective advocacy I think from the town. The mayor very quickly said, you know, maybe this isn't important in the city of Raleigh, but here, if we aren't able to set a minimum driveway size with the minimum amount of spaces in the driveway, and you have these, you know, beach homes with eight cars visiting, then an ambulance can't get down that street. Like, you can't take away our ability to do that. And so, I thought that was very effective messaging. And ultimately, what happened is they took that section out of the bill in response to the mayor's letter. Um, well, I think you both wrote Andy and the mayor's letter. there was some joint authorship there.

Um, but it was fantastic and we saw real results from that. What happened there and the mayor knows this, but with House Bill 765 where most of those um really nasty local government uh walk back provisions were included. It reached a standstill about three weeks before session and the sponsor said, "We're going to stop pursuing this. It's it's buckling under its weight. There's too much opposition." That sounded good for about 24 hours and then they immediately put everything and I think it was Senate Bill 221. Not everything, maybe about half of the contents and a different bill and started pushing that and then about a week before session ended that too kind of stalled and crumbled. With that being said, either of those or any portion of those could be revived in 2026. We've got to remain vigilant for that. I know the groups that are lobbying for those, you know, the construction lobby, um the real estate lobby, they all very much want those provisions to become law. they're not going to just go to sleep in 2026 and and not pursue them. And so we've got to remain very vigilant, particularly with conference reports, which we can't amend um to see if those things pop back up. But to answer your question, mayor, um leadership from both chambers has said that they want this to be a short and sweet and non-controversial session. I've never seen them do that, but I've seen them try and they can kind of get to that point. And so, um, in the interest of getting out of town in time for the election and to go prepare for their elections and to fund raise, and that's a key point, they can't fund raise from packs while they're in session. And they've really, particularly on the Senate Republican side, drained their war chest to help Burger get through this primary. Um, they spent 10 to 12 million on that. And a primary in North Carolina is usually a couple hundred thousand dollars. So, um, Senate Republican coffers are really shrunken at this point. They can't fund raise when they're in session. So, I do think they're motivated for many reasons to get in and out quickly. Um, which gives them less time to move controversial bills like this, but I I would be giving you bad advice if I said

I didn't think they were going to try to bring it back up. That's good to know. Thank you. So Andy, to what extent do we want to, you know, and I I'll ask you if we um if the board continues to evaluate our legislative agenda, um are there any hard deadlines we need to be aware of?

Very good question. Um with them coming into session in late April this year, ideally by early April, it would be nice to have it. Um, with that being said, I think you're going to keep the majority of the priorities you have based on initial conversations with staff and Andy. And with that being said, both Representative Kidwell and Senator Hanig are very well briefed on those. And the reason we usually like it in advance is so we can spend time with your House member and your Senate member to talk about the priorities and educate them. But both of your members and particularly Senator Hanik are very articulate on each of these things and have been to battle on them for us with us already. And so I think less of a consideration in this environment. So, I'd say early April would probably um give us enough time.

Okay. Are you thinking that we would defer taking any action on the agenda today or um unless somebody has something in particular that they knew they wanted to sort of go straight to? I think I think we have a little bit of time for that. Um it is something I guess we can also address at the midmon meeting um which would give us time to get it to them. So if somebody had a particular issue I think that they thought they g thought to and we're ready to go.

One thing I'll I'll just bring up real quick and it's been discussed. I know several people have asked me about it. You know the this is not listed as one of our key priorities. It's sort of at the very bottom of the list that you got in your packet and it talks about supporting efforts for terminal groins and um you know we know that the coastal resources commission is currently u drafting a report on hardened structures and you know we expect that process to take some time and I know we want to stay tuned throughout that process to understand what the recommendations are going to be. We'll probably learn a lot through that process. And so given I know some members of the board have expressed concerns about that item, we might just suggest removing that item for now. Um and that would be just a simple change and then that's the one thing I've heard about so far from board members.

All right. And it does seem reasonable to do that knowing that um some some consideration and perhaps some advice from a a panel an expert panel is is forthcoming. So um if somebody wanted to make that motion to withdraw that item from from our legislative agenda for now um please do I'll make that motion to remove the the item about um terminal groins from our legislative agenda. Okay. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Very good. Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Thank you.

And then the the one thing I'll ask um I know that there's a portal that you submit our appropriations requests through and that that was based on last year's agenda. The agenda that has been proposed hasn't changed a whole lot. So, um, I don't know if we need to do this today or it would be good to to understand or if there's any changes that the board feels is necessary to our appropriations requests, you know, and the number one item that Whitney mentioned was um, you know, seeking funding to replace some of our spec cement water lines. From a staff perspective, that's still our top priority. I know that's been submitted.

Yes, it was submitted last year. We'd like to resubmit it this cycle. Um, I think subject to some further consideration that we might give it at the midmonth meeting that we would leave those items probably intact and especially the replacing the water lines because that's a that's a big one. Um, and it's a and it is a high priority for us. So, so for today, let's I would suggest that we leave that um, okay, agenda as is. Okay,

great. All right, thank time to go to the next item. Thank you, Whitney. Appreciate y'all making the drive. I'm sorry we're squeezed for time, but um we we really do appreciate you um taking the opportunity to drive down here and and be with us today and and Marley, thank you as well for making making the drive. and um and uh we will take this up.

Um and we will uh take this up at the at the midmonth meeting. All right. So the the board is going to transition to this next item which is time specific. Um I would say to the board if you need to take just a moment to uh to stand up

to break stand up. grab a water um a break. We'll just take we'll just sort of slow down here for a minute or two uh without taking an official recess as we did before. Thank you all gavvel even though we weren't in an official recess once again. Um, and we will proceed um to our next item which is time specific which is consideration of an appeal by Garage Band Charities Incorporated. And I'm going to turn this over to um the town attorney John Lighty and the manager Andy Garmin.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And since this is something we have not done in a number of years, I have some instructions and some guidance I'd like to provide to the board. So, if you'll all bear with me. Um uh at this time we will open the hearing on the appeal that's been requested by Gar Garage Band Charities Inc. from the staff's denial of their application for a crowd gathering permit. On this appeal, the board sits as a quai judicial body. Uh a quai judicial hearing is the process for the board to adjudicate how the general law applies to a particular situation based on an evidentiary record presented during the hearing. This appeal arises under the town's ordinance contained in chapter 4, article one in the town's code of ordinances. The applicant submitted an application for a permit to conduct a crowd gathering activity. That permit application was denied by the town manager pursuant to the ordinance. On this appeal, you are not bound by the decision of the town manager and must consider the matter denovo, which means the board is not bound by the prior decision or any of the findings or recitals made in that decision. and the board may freely substitute its own judgment as to whether the permit should be granted or denied. Your two key responsibilities in this hearing are one to determine contested facts and two apply the legal standards to the facts. You may apply only the standards that are already contained in the town's crowd gathering ordinance. You are not permitted to change or modify those standards during this hearing or as part of your decision in this case. In deciding whether or not to issue the permit, you must consider the information provided in the application and whether it complies with the requirements of the ordinance. You may also consider evidence regarding the following. any conflicts or possible conflicts with other events and performances. The burden placed by the event on public agencies, the adequacy

of security, traffic control and crowd control provisions, the health and safety conditions for the attendees, and the capacity of the area designated for the event uh to contain the expected number of vehicles, participants, and spectators. Additionally, you must determine from the evidence presented during this hearing whether the proposed activity will not unreasonably interfere with or detract from the promotion of public health, welfare, safety, and recreation. Whether adequate public services are available for security, traffic control, and crowd control. Whether or not the proposed activity is reasonably anticipated to incite violence, crime, or disorderly conduct. whether or not the proposed activity will entail extraordinary or burdensome expense or operations on the police department or other public agencies and whether or not the activities will interfere with other scheduled events. You may decide to deny the crowd gathering permit activity for certain specific reasons as set forth in the ordinance among among which the following seem pertinent based on the materials that have been provided in the record. Um, even when all conditions are met for approval of a crowd gathering activity permit, the permit may be denied when, in the informed judgment of the board, the special event is likely to create the imminent possibility of disorderly conduct, likely to endanger public safety, or to result in significant property damage. uh or the special event is likely to violate public health or safety laws, including but not limited to trespassing, noise violations, unauthorized use of public or private property, or the special event will likely result in violations of town policy or other law. It is relevant to consider whether the applicant has failed to conduct a previously authorized crowd gathering activity in accordance with the law or the terms of a permit or both. However, you should not deny a permit based

solely on evidence that the applicant has failed to conduct a previously authorized crowd gathering activity in accordance with law or the terms of the permit or both. If you make such a finding, you should consider the other superseding reasons for denial that I have just provided to you. In particular, you should consider in that instance whether the fact of any prior violation of ordinance requirements or other law in the past is likely to cause the event to create conflicts with other events and performances is likely to impose an undue burden on the town's departments, including but not limited to the public safety workers. Uh would likely cause security, traffic control, and reasonable crowd control provisions to be inadequate. the health and safety conditions for attendees and whether the capacity of the area designated for the event is not likely to contain the expected number of vehicles, participants, and spectators. Your analysis of these factors should also include whether there are reasonable conditions that can be placed on a permit that would be reasonably likely to ensure compliance with all of the ordinance requirements and ensure that violations like those that may have been experienced in the past would probably be avoided. The permit must be issued if the required considerations of the ordinance weigh in favor of approving the application. And you also find that the following exist. That the proposed activity will not unreasonably interfere with the rights of the general public and having free access along public ways and streets. that the provisions and plans for security, traffic control, and crowd control, as well as health and sanitation, and all matters required to be included in the permanent application are adequate, and that the applicant and sponsor have the reasonable capability of carrying out such plans and preparations. If the board decides that the grounds for issues of the permits have been shown, you may place reasonable conditions on the permit to ensure that the provisions of the

ordinance as well as the safety and welfare of the general public are protected. Any conditions that you place must be based on the criteria or requirements of the ordin ordinance. Now, a member must not vote on the application if the outcome of the matter being considered is reasonably likely to have a direct and substantial financial impact on that member. If such a direct and substantial financial conflict exists, the member should disclose it and ask to be excused from consideration of the matter. If any of the members present have had any contact with anyone prior to this hearing in which the particulars of the application or the proposed event were discussed, or if you have received letters, email messages, phone calls, or other contact from anyone concerning this matter prior to the hearing, you must disclose those communications. You must base your decision on this application entirely on the facts presented in this hearing and disregard the particulars discussed with the applicant or other parties. Because a member must base his or her decision on the evidence presented during this hearing, any member who has developed a predetermined opinion or bias on the outcome of this application before the hearing must not participate in the decision on this application. Your decision must be based on competent, substantial, and material evidence properly entered into the record of this hearing. Crucial facts used to determine the outcome of this hearing must be based on sworn statements made by witnesses during this hearing. While you may be presented before or during this hearing with copies of unsworn statements contained in letters, emails, and so forth, such unsworn evidence can only be used to corroborate or supplement other sworn evidence presented during this hearing. Unsworn evidence such as letters or emails can never be used as the sole basis for your decision. Uh in conducting this quai judicial hearing, certain safeguards must be instituted in order to give the applicant a fair

hearing. The applicant has the right to cross-examine witnesses and offer rebuttal evidence. Board members may question any witness at any time during the hearing. Questions from the floor will not be permitted except by cross-examination from any of the parties who are present to speak today. Um, at this time, if any member needs to recuse themselves from this hearing uh because of a financial interest uh that has some substantial impact on your ability to be fair and impartial in this case, if you will disclose that at this time. All right. Also at this time, if any member needs to disclose any communication about the subject of this application or this hearing that the member has had with one of the applicants or any other person prior to this hearing, this is the opportunity for you to disclose such exparte communications.

Um John, as you're probably aware, the board received a handful of emails um regarding this application, this appeal. Um those were responded, those were acknowledged. Um but there but that was it. In other words, it was a basically a thank you for your email. This will be subject of this meeting.

Um and um so there's that. I will also disclose that I was contacted by two members of the county board of commissioners regarding this. Um they are concerns expressed were primarily with regard to timing of the events. Um and and I explained that this would be probably at that point subject to appeal. Okay. So, let me ask you this, Mr. Mayor. Based on any of those communications that you received prior to this hearing, will any of those things prevent you from hearing this matter and being an unbiased uh decision maker in this matter? No, they will not.

And and and will they create or cause you to have any predetermined uh decision on what the outcome of this hearing should be? They will not. Okay. Is that the same for everyone else here regarding those email communications that y'all might have received? Yes. Okay. Um likewise, has anyone else had any other communications uh exparte communications prior to this that they need to disclose?

I would I'd like to disclose um my business, Booty Treats, has participated in the scavenger hunt, um the ice cream scavenger hunt, I think. Um I have spoken with Michael Tlet several times in uh organizing that. We also last year I spoke with Michael Tilllet after the event. Um Michael has always said to send him anything that we see when we see cars doing burnouts, whatnot. I did send Michael two pictures and a video and we spoke afterwards. Okay. Now, would any of those uh those prior communications or any of those things you've just disclosed um Megan, would those cause you to be uh biased in the outcome of this proceeding?

No. Would they cause you to have a predetermined idea of what the decision should be based on this appeal? No. Okay. So, you can be fair and impartial despite the fact that you've had those prior communications. Yes, sir. Okay. Anybody else need to disclose in the export communications? Um, I had a phone call from Mr. Nettles, Lee Nettles, the executive director of the tourism board. I am the town representative of the tourism board and we had a brief conversation um immediately following the denial of the application. Okay. So again, Miss Vaughn, would any of those communications cause you to be anything other than an unbiased uh and open-minded decision maker in this proceeding? No.

And would they cause you to have any predetermined idea on what the outcome of this appeal should be? No.

Okay. Anything else that anyone needs to disclose? Okay. So, um as I indicated that the uh the decision in this case must be based on competent substantial and material evidence in view of the entire record and any testimony must be presented by sworn testimony of witnesses who have been who have received the note. So, at this time, I'm going to ask that the applicant uh and any other witness that you intend to call or any staff witness who will be pro presenting evidence regarding this matter, if you will please approach the town clerk so that she can administer the oath. It's like twister. We need a picture. Okay. So, at this time we are going to begin the evidentiary presentation beginning with the presentation of the uh staff's

position and presentation uh presented by town manager Andy Garmin.

Okay. Thank you um John and board and folks in the audience. Um, so I have a brief introduction and then we have some uh evidence that we plan to show and Chief Hail's going to come up and talk about that a little bit. We compiled some information from the last three years and we uh gave that to the board and we also gave it to the applicant and they they have uh come and reviewed the files that we have on this. So I just want to say that uh that's what Chief Hay would be reviewing for folks. So, just to go over this real quick, uh the town received and accepted a complete application from GarageBand Charities for for the OBX Rod and Custom Festival on January 14th. Uh the point of contact for the application is Miss Sarah Hull, who I believe is here, and we also have Richard Quiddley and Michael Tilllet as well here, all listed as organizers of the event. Um the application states that the estimated total attendance was uh 1,250 with peak attendance at 900 plus. And we consider this a tier three crowd gathering under the town's ordinance. Um the applicant proposed a three-day event starting on the afternoon of Thursday, April 30th. I believe this was listed as 12 to 5, which would be a preview of of um cars at the event site. Uh Friday and Saturday would be 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm with the goal of vacating the site by 6 pm. Um obviously the application has been included in your packet. Uh as the ordinance expresses, the town has a crowd permit review uh team that reviews the applications. Our office serves as the coordinator for these reviews. Uh this consists of mainly department heads from police, fire, public services, planning and administration. Uh in addition to providing uh details on who the event will be managed at its primary location, the ordinance requests

that the applicant provide a general plan which describes the impact and plans for the impact of the performance or activity on existing parking areas, streets, highways, and the burden placed on public agencies for traffic and crowd security and control. Um, the town attorney already described uh some of the uh items in the ordinance that would either cause us to issue or deny a permit. Um, I don't need to necessarily repeat those items. I do think that there's uh one key thing that he he mentioned which is section 4-85 superseding reasons for denial and it basically says even when all conditions are met for approval of crowd gathering activity permit the permit may be not denied when in the informed judgment of the crowd permit review team a the special event is likely to create the imminent possibility of disorderly conduct likely to endanger public safety or to result in significant property damage. B, the special event is likely to violate public health or safety laws, including but not limited to trespassing, noise violations, unauthorized use of public or private property, or C, the special event will likely result in violations of town policy or law. So, with that said, some of the history, the OBX rod and Custom Festival, I believe, has been held at Nagad since 2019. You know, we we've been reviewing these applications every year. Obviously, the event brings in car enthusiasts from outside the area for a long weekend, maybe longer. Uh, the town has compiled a history of violations and or complaints over the years, which are related and in our opinion, the result of the event. Um, these include vehicle noise violations and complaints, particularly late at night, as well as speeding and careless and reckless driving, frequent burnouts on town or NC DOT streets, and unpermitted crowd gatherings at various locations

throughout the town. Uh, some cases this has led to trespassing by event participants. We have compiled a presentation, as I mentioned, which we're going to go over. U, we we've worked with the organizers over several years to attempt to mitigate these issues. We've had some pre and post afteraction meetings with the the event organizers and the tourism board. Um we've also forwarded complaints directly to them when the when we've received them. Um obviously the event has evolved over time. You know the locations of the the off-site or the non Outerbanks event site um gatherings have changed since this has began. You know in some cases permits have been received for those. Some in some cases they have not been received. Um the um the organizers have attempted to try to curb some of this behavior. Um they they've communicated to the registrants in various ways on the importance of respecting the town's laws and ordinances and encouraging good behavior. Um the organizers has also coordinated permits as I said for off-site activities. Um despite these good faith efforts, the issues that we see have continued to persist. So with that said, it's really given us no indication that future events will be able to successfully also curb these activities. So based on the prior history and our information that we've reviewed, we believe if the permit were granted, it would likely lead to continued violations. So this is what led to the denial of the permit. Um you you've seen the copy of the denial letter that was included in the packet. The applicant has a copy of that. Obviously, the ordinance gives the applicant the right to appeal the decision, which they've done, which is the purpose of the hearing today. Um, the board has the final say on this, which the attorney made you aware of. And so, with that said, um, you know, the board may uphold the denial or it

may issue the permit with or without conditions as the attorney mentioned. And so I I would at this time ask our police chief, Perry Herald, to just kind of go over some of the information that we've given to the applicant that sort of describes our experience with the event and um and then take it from there. Um like the manager said we met as a group for each trial permit that we do and then afterwards when this one came in we met and went over some of the issues that we've had in the past dealing with uh noise careless driving behavior um popup events that that lead at different parking lots etc. Um I do understand that these are are off of the event site and We have met with Mr. Quiddley and them in the past for some after action meetings. Um they were brought to their attention and um it was kind of acknowledged that some of these things were off the event site where they might not have control over but they were willing to send stuff out on their social media page to do things um to basically get permission and try to curb the burnouts that they could cause problems with the event in the future. Um a lot of complaints that we get are due to noise. Um, some of these cars, um, they are beautiful cars. Um, I work the event myself with a crosswalk that we have to set up there where they have to have, uh, four offduty security personnel there to set up the crosswalk. The first year event was 2019, I do believe, if I remember correctly, uh, where they were not expecting that many people. and the amount of people that came. Um, I personally that year was on the boat uh and had to come in because of uh the people crossing the raw road playing progress. So, we set up a makeshift crosswalk real quick, myself and then the former chief Webster at the time for two of us to to manage that to get them

through that day. Since then, they have been required to have uh mandatory crosswalk set up with uh message boards that are required uh both north and south of the event site uh notifying uh motoring traffic on the uh highways that there is an event going ahead. Um it cannot advertise their event. It can only advertise to use caution um ahead, slow down, pedestrians ahead, etc. Um us being in the road for the crosswalk um does not any safer. It's just that we will get hit before anybody else hopefully trying to cross the road gets hit. Um hopefully the stop light will be coming up there soon and we'll we'll help out with that. Um right there with the crosswalk lock. Um the noise from these vehicles, some of them um I can say that we probably all heard it. Um it is a lot of noise coming during that week from the amount of cars that do come. Um we've had people come to our office. We've had people call um complaining about the noise even during daylight hours and even into the evenings. Um I believe on um slide number there were some emails um sent in uh where people were staying um close to the 10.5 shops um and the noise consistently from them just sitting in the parking lot revving their engines while they're sitting there um hoods parked up etc. Um and then when they were leaving um spinning tires, careless driving behavior, black marks on the road um to the point of where in 2024 I contacted the 10 shop 10.5 shops owners uh to get permission letter from them for the police department to act as an acting agent of the the property so where we could enforce loying um and

trespassing to to have those cars moved as soon as they just pulled there. We did disperse several different groups um throughout the the show event um where they would pull in and they wouldn't even get their chairs out. They bring chairs to set up and then start having conversation with other uh patrons that are there. Um but uh they were polite when we did ask them to move being that we had authority to to ask them parking lot. Um being that we've had numerous complaints before um they understood they ended up I think ended up in K Hills at the Dare Center. I believe they had some issues up there not to get into another town's um issues, but um I believe they were asked to not be at the Dare Center anymore as well, either from the police department up there due to noise, etc. Um with that, some of the popup events, um they were blocking the ATMs. We got several calls from the bank there, um and patrons that um were trying to use the ATM on different occasions. um um to uh remove the vehicles um that where they were parked um and engaging in conversation with other vehicles that were there um to move uh so people could access the ATMs. That is another reason that led to um contacting the property owner to get a a letter um and that letter is still in effect. Um and I believe I even spoke to Mr. Quidley about that when I told him I had that. He said that would help out a lot. Um, excuse me. They used to have an event at at Ben Franklin. Um, so that has has since ceased, but after the first year that they had up there, we had some complaints. So then they started were required to hire an offduty person up there to try to keep people from leaving that area heading north or south on the bypass right there from uh spinning tires and leaving the uh roadway marked

up from the tire tread. Um the other issue with the um the careless driving behavior um we see that people are on the side of the roads on the beach road. Um the people that come to the event, I guess they like to see that to where they have actually put out signs to even encourage um burnouts. Um we had one that was listed on the uh complaints back there where the group was even putting water out there on the roadway um to help them uh sp tires um when they leave there. Um and also just a lot of the complaints for back to the noise are just when they start the cars up. I don't know if they have to let them run a little bit before they leave. Um but they have to give them gas um to to maybe warm them up. I don't know exactly how they work. I know they are some impressive looking cars. Um but the noise coming from it while they're just sitting idling at a residence um from people here um not for the car show have called and complained um that the the noise might start early in the morning, it might go late in the evening um etc. For that um from looking uh through our noise ordinances um the biggest one everybody always points to um is the decel readings. um that is pretty much um basically will be impossible to find violations because we'd have to be right there right then when something happens with the noise meter out. Um so after last year I started digging um through our town code and I do not know how I've missed this one from the years that I've been here, but we have section 167 uh 6 A4H. Um, and that states it's unlawful to operate a vehicle in a manner that deserves the peace of any person of normal sensitivities um with engine noise. Um, so those that town code right there is a civil and also a misdemeanor uh charge which means it could be uh written on a

town uh code ticket that we have or it could be written on a state citation um where the the individuals would have to go to uh district court to take care of the the violation. Um from reading that um there would be no noise meter or anything that would be uh required. It would just be the noise of the engine itself um that the violation could be written upon. Um so that is something that uh if moving forward this year that we would have and would be um basically issuing um citations for that um based off the noise complaints. Um, I've also looked and done some research with the uh division of motor vehicles inspectors. Um, they have been recently placed under the North Carolina State Highway Patrol when legislature um put highway patrol as their own entity again. and from talking to them um I would love if this moves forward um that the permit is granted um to get uh inspectors here um and have some additional highway patrol officers maybe uh come in for this event if they do based on um looking at some of these vehicles even though they do have registration plates. Um, some of them look like what I call a a dragster with a wheelie bar on the back and they have uh parachutes on the on the rear of them. Um, without running each individual plate, I do not know how we would be able to tell if that vehicle is actually registered to that vehicle and it's not going to be a standard Ford or Chevrolet vehicle being that these are are built vehicles. Um, but from speaking to the the captain of of Troop A headquarters here, um, definitely racing slick tires that some of these vehicles have would fall under the tire tread of 232 where they do not meet that standard. So, they could be charged under those violations as well. Um, so

that's something that we have looked in uh to with uh collaborating with the Howard patrol as well um to get some additional troopers here and to start looking at at some of the vehicles. um just driving around with racing slicks along with uh the racing fuel. Um I'm waiting to hear back from the DMV inspectors with this racing fuel that some of these vehicles do uh burn. Um I don't know if a fuel tax uh for road tax is included on that. So I don't even know if operation on the highways um would be allowed to those vehicles to be even operated on if they're burning straight racing fuel. Um, to me it's kind of like uh non-highway use uh diesel fuel um that's not has a tax on it. They're only used for tractors etc. So I don't know how that that racing fuel would would fall upon it. Um so that's some things that I've been looking into um since last year's event. Um I will say that um Mr. Quiddley and his team have always had their phone on whenever I have called um with them to try to get things in uh in place as soon as even though that I work the event some um I've gone out there directly to him um when traffic backs up onto the bypass from them pulling in that something different has got to be done. Um he knows that I have been serious about those things and he would reroute um the vehicles pulling in to even get their um slips or packages or everything. from what I've seen in the past that that it kind of slows down when they might grab a uh thing or then they have some people taking pictures etc. But they have set up a an offsite uh location to try to help alleviate some of that. Um we have not had as many backups as far as the distance concerned uh with this new plan in place. Um but it used to from previous events before. Um the back uh backups will come all the way down to uh South CJ Drive on the bypass. Um so that's just some things

that uh that we have uh brought forward from the noise um and the roadways. If you go to the slides um showing all the burnouts um I know our our year of 2023 um next slide. Um that was our heaviest year um for careless and reckless uh citations issued was was eight. I believe we had we had 28 citations issued that weekend and 42 um warnings uh dealing with uh the participants of the car show. Um each year we do ride around, my phone rings um even when after hours uh people call me personally um talking about the cars um their actions on roads from doing burnouts. Um, I had a phone call last year about uh the beach road near Admiral Street um where even some some residents, local residents tried to have a conversation um with a couple of the patrons and then after it it's like they took out even faster to sit there and do what they call fishtail um and burn up uh the tires on the roadway. Um it my staff knows that um if they see it um that they're to um issue violations. Um even speaking with Mr. Quidley and his team, he wanted us to have zero tolerance. Um it's just that we are not everywhere every time. Um and can't be sitting, you know, where a violation is going to happen all the time. So um we do have people riding around. I bring in additional staff um to work overtime during the time frame that the car show is here. Um that is uh getting increasingly difficult. Um it is required that they have four at the crosswalk. Um being that I've had um staff deployed overseas um fraternity leave um and then we're light with some

recent retirements and stuff. So staffing um is not always available for the overtime that we request to have officers to sign up for. Um but I do reach out to our partner agencies especially the sheriff's department and highway patrol being that they have jurisdiction uh throughout uh the outer banks um and let the other agencies know as well when the car show is coming um so they're on try to work in in collaboration with us. Any questions? Does the board have any questions for Chief Hail? Does the applicant have any questions for Chief Hail?

Maybe you can come to Thank you.

In regards to the burnout, were the offenders in these situations or some of these situations identified? The very first year when we had the eight records with the burnouts, they were because they were charged on a patient. So they had to go to court to handle those violations. Um a lot of the other ones are after the fact where we have been called afterwards or call might come in and then we get there's on the road the gone.

Okay. And just for to help with brevity for for our discussions, I like to refer to Rock Charities as GBC take a little bit of time. GBC provides a registration sticker for every registered car that comes to the event and registered. Did you by chance notice these registration stickers? No sir, we did not. Do you require placement on those? Yes. is where the inspection sticker used to be on the car. So, it be on the driver's side, lower windshield.

So, and and we change that sticker every year. If they don't have that sticker, they can't get on the event side.

Okay. And the years that we had uh the uh police officers security at Ben Franklin's, we would only let the ones that had stickers in there being we were paying for everything to be there. We had the insurance section. So I think that is what prompted them to start going to the food line. So some of the people didn't have stickers, they were turned away and that kind of grew organically. Um at one point in time that uh you and I had a conversation, I asked you, I said, "Well, when you catch these people, tell us who they are, and we'll uh we'll ban them from future events." And you you told me that uh it was actually against the law for you to share that information with us prior to them being adjudicated going through the court system.

Yes, sir. Correct. Okay. So, uh we can't release any information off somebody that has been charged. Um now, anybody can call the clerk's office. It is is kind of a strange legislative law. I can't release information about if you've been charged. If I have charged you with something, I can't release it. But um Michael could call the clerk's office and ask, "Have you been charged with anything?" The clerk's office can release that information.

Okay, very good. But uh we we did hope to pursue that, but uh because of the laws, we are unable to to do it through our system and ban people or remove them from the event later in the in that that period. And uh I like to say we we make Mr. Quidley, I'm sorry, sir. Sir, sir, can you I'm going to ask you just to limit your yourself to questions of Chief Hism. You'll have an opportunity to testify in a minute, but if you can just limit yourself to questions at this point.

Um, do do you have any suggestions of what we could have done at the event site to help prevent what what you see there of education to the people?

That's a a a tough answer. um you did work trying to educate. Um but everybody I look at it as everybody is not going to want to follow all the rules all the time. That's that's why we have have job security. Um, now to me, I look at it as the high school party at your house that you invite everybody and then people that weren't invited started to come and then when they leave and start tearing mailboxes down or doing things throughout the community that you reside in, when everybody gets mad, the family that the kids did it are responsible for all the damage that's out there. see the only questions I have for.

All right. Thank you, sir. Chief Hill, thank you, sir. Um, Chief Hill, if you would, are there any based on any of that testimony, any questions from board members? I do have one question. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Um, it was actually back to when you had mentioned section dots, and I might this um 16-76 A4. It was where um no sound devices required. Yes. Um, so it says no sound device required. And then I saw if there was a written complaint. Now, if there's not a written complaint, can an officer still do a citation based on his own observation without a sound device? Yes. Okay, that's my question. Thank you.

When you contact the applicants about violations or popups, do you find them willing to work with you or do you find them somewhat like they can't I can't control what's going on off

site? most have been willing to work with us. Um because I look at our job, we're not there to just create havoc on everybody. If if people treat us well, we treat everybody else well. I instill that in all of my officers. Um and most most participants, they might ask why. We give them a reason and they say, "Well, somebody else the bad apples before us have messed it up." We agree with that. And they move on. um if they don't um agree with us, we will tell them one more time that they need to leave and then my staff knows that um we we take action and they are either issued a citation for trespassing uh or they're arrested and carried over for trespassing. Um, we had two last year um that wanted to argue a little bit until it was getting ready to they were going to go to jail. Um, and they decided to leave and that was with RVs coming in and paying businesses a couple hundred bucks to set up their RVs in their parking lots where the town does not allow open air camping. Um they were set up uh at the Staples in the Bowling Alley parking lots and our staff had them uh removed

and the applicants are the applicants themselves are pretty easy to work with and receptive.

I've always got along with Richard since this event has come by and um they do try their best to take our suggestions. Um, Richard texts me on Christmas and New Year's and stuff. And I mean, I have no issues with Richard, Michael, or Sarah. Um, it's just I get tired of my phone ringing for noise complaints, even when I'm off. And I, yes, I'm the chief, and that's my job. Um, but people call me and I tell them, you know, call our dispatcher to get it so I you can get an officer there quicker than you calling me versus me having to get staff and stuff to go by and check on things. But um I have no issues with them whatsoever. They are they have open ears. Um it's just to try to put everything in place that needs to be done. I don't know if it's achievable.

Yeah. Thank you, Chief. Um John, sir, I do have questions, but I'd like to hear everything first. Am I going to be able to call the chief back up here? You certainly can. Yes, sir. You may. Thank you. So, no questions from you at this time. Miss Vaughn. Yes. I have a question. You mentioned um backup for registration. Is that just one day onto you said down to CC Chase? That was um so this is impeding traffic on the

Yes. Um you have the pulloff lane um going into the vent site, the cars start pulling off in there and then when they're that lane ends and it's just the road, they're stacked up on the road backing up. Um so then they started with the um Tur side plaza um trying to do registrations there. It has come to the bypass there. Um not as bad. Um we've told the cars that they you need to pull off or do something. Um and then it clears up pretty quick there. Um we have not seen it. They they tried to start doing a day before which is more of a registration on that Thursday. They also still have some people to just show up at the uh event site on that Thursday. Um we have not seen anywhere, but they are aware that if it gets to the point where people start want to come out there on the Thursdays, we will have to set that crosswalk up on Thursdays as well. Um but the main to to have the registration at a different location instead of people pulling in on the Friday to the day of that was when all the backups were coming in and it was going to to Chase where the whole out outside lane of US 158 heading southbound would be backed up.

Thank you. And then regarding noise, it's kind of a philosophical. Would you say that noise can be dangerous in addition to being annoying? I mean, if you can't because people can't hear, they can't hear other traffic. They can't hear horns, other things. Do I mean, this is ever an issue? There's enough noise that it prevents it. It could if you're at an intersection um and one of them sitting there revving their engines, could you not hear a horn? Absolutely. Um working the event at the end of the day, are my ears ringing? Yes. But I'm I'm a little bit deaf anyway, so I wouldn't say that's a chronic problem or a big problem. It just

as far as the noise being a safety issue for driving on the the highways, I have not seen where it has caused any where people hadn't heard horns or us having sirens going to a different call in front of them, etc. Um, but noise itself, could it prevent somebody else from hearing something? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from staff of the chief at this time? I'm not staff from the board of the chief. I mean, are burnouts is that just a nuisance or is that an actual safety consideration? I mean, is I don't I'm not exactly sure what burnout is. Are you just accelerating really fast or what are you doing?

All right, so burnout um I can say I've done them before um growing up, etc. Um but um with these cars, they're taking off from a stop and with the amount of torque um that these vehicles have, it is spinning their tires over um creating uh smoke. Um the black marks on the road are actual rubber that comes off the tires um that is left on the road. Um, when you see some that start to fish tail from getting in a traffic reconstruction part when a yaw happens, that's when the uh back tires come over the front tires and a that's when the person has lost all absolute control of a vehicle. Um, and they do not have it to where they can bring it back in. A lot of these you see them are swerving or straight. So, they're stopping and just taking off and just absolutely just flooring it. So, you're going to have noise, you're going to have smoke, and you're going to have um the possibility of getting off out of control. Um most people try to say that they still have control of a vehicle when they're doing it, but if anything of the normal let loose, brakes failed, a line blew to to power steering, anything that happened, it would be a disaster.

Okay. All right. Any any other questions of the chief at this time? Uh, Mr. Garmin, any other questions you want to ask the chief at this point? None of the chief. No. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. So, do you uh any other witnesses you wish to call Mr. Garmin? Uh, none at this time. No. Okay. Uh, and and did the applicant have any questions of Mr. Garmin? He provided an introduction, but it wasn't really testimony. But if you have questions of him, this would be your opportunity to question him.

Yes, I do. like to thank the commissioners for taking time to listen to our appeal today and the mayor. U in the past I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is an opportunity for questions of Mr. Garmin if you have questions of the manager. This this is a question. Okay. I just want to make sure you weren't testifying yet. No.

Okay. Uh in in the past we've had uh meetings postevent uh with the exception of 20 and 21 when we did not have the event site. Um a lot of these issues were from 23. Uh we did have a meeting in 23 where many of these issues were discussed in 24 after the event. We did not have a post meeting. We weren't called in for a meeting. So, we figure we did good. You know, they didn't call us into the principal's office. We did good. After the 25 event, we were not called in for a meeting. Can you tell me why we weren't called in for meetings if we had issues that was of concern to to either the board or the the people that do approve our event?

I don't have a specific reason on why you weren't called in. You know, we've been going through some changes in our office with how we handled these. And so, you know, we get busy at times. You know, the event curves in the spring when we're trying to do our budget. Um, so, you know, it could be that we just didn't didn't have the staff in place to do it. I know we just hired a new person to handle the crowd gathering permits and that was occurring right around that time. But, you know, no specific reason. you know, um I was getting a lot of calls and being made aware of the issues, um but no no specific reason on why we didn't have the meeting. The meetings are generally a courtesy. Um it's not something that the ordinance requires. You know, we've tried to communicate on it, but for last year, we just didn't.

Okay. All right. And then on the PowerPoint presentation on page 24, uh, one of the summaries mentions three plus years of escalating pattern. But if you actually stack all of those events together, 23, 24, and 25, you'll see a reduction in those numbers. Is that correct? Well, according to the slide, yes. Okay, that's all that I have for now. Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. Any other testimony or evidence at this point, Mr. Garmin? No, not from us.

Okay. So, at this time, uh, the Well, I'm sorry, one more thing. Does the board have any questions for Mr. Garmin before we proceed? All right. So, at this time, the applicant, um, and appelllet may present evidence,

technical difficulties. It's in everything. So, uh, to to best help everybody understand who GBC is, uh, I'd like to call my partners with GarageBand Charities. First, I'd like to call Michael Till up to answer a few questions that'll set a backdrop for what GBC is and what we do. So, uh, Michael, if you could please, uh, tell everyone your name and your responsible responsibilities with GDC. And please be sure to speak into the microphone. My name is Michael Tilllet. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. My name is Michael Tilllet. I'm one of the founding partners and promoter of the uh, GarageBand Charities, which holds the OBX Rod and Custom Festival. Okay. And can can you tell us how GBC handles the vehicular traffic at the event site, the entry, parking, traffic flow, etc., and how that's managed?

We we managed that with about 30 different volunteers and ourselves. We started having the trouble like we're talking about in 23. So, we moved the registration over to Surfside Plaza. So, when they came in, they could come right on in the um event site and we made them go all the way around the back of the event site to keep traffic flowing off the highway. And with all our different volunteers helping and showing them where to go, having their their vest on and and uh just different things to show them how to get off that road as quick as possible, but be safe. And that's what we do.

All right. Can we need two mics up here? We got two mics. Okay. And uh can can you tell us what efforts are are made on the event site to make sure that things run smoothly and safely at the event site?

Well, we have fire extinguishers and first aid kits throughout the event site. Um, so if anything would go on, we could help someone right up right off the bat. We keep everything flowing and everyone aware of where everything is. So, if they need any help with anything, um, we can do that. We have um, communications with two-way radios to all of our volunteers to help all of that flow and and go in a timely manner. Okay. Uh do do you have crowd managers on site?

Yes, we've got right many crowd managers on site. Um everyone had to take the uh online course and we've got um enough crowd managers that knows how all this stuff kind of works and that's made it work even better going forth. All right. To your knowledge, since 2019, have we had any injuries at the event site that required No, no injuries at the event site that required any first aid or ambulance or police or fire. Uh we've been blessed.

And you do a whole lot of traveling around the east coast to help promote this show. You've been doing that for years.

Yes. I uh actually started on the road traveling to promote this event. I started in 2013 trying to make people aware where the Outer Banks is located and to bring this event to the Outer Banks because mainly I I was I'm a car enthusiast. I was taught to when you're blessed to give back. And no better way to do that than travel. I've traveled from Jersey, Georgia, Florida, DC, cross country to Vegas, Texas, all over the country trying to promote the Outer Banks to bring an event like this here. and we knew bringing this event here, we could help a lot of people that really needed the help and it's done that. But it's it's it's it's been a dream and it started in 13 and it's it's done well.

I have no further questions for Michael. Anyone else? Uh yes, at this time I'm sorry. Yeah. Thank you, sir. If board has any questions for Mr. U Mr. Tilllet? Not at this time. I don't. Good. Well, I do.

Um, when traveling around the country, going to other car shows, have you have you notice how other towns handle the problem of outside events outside of the car shows? Yes, we every every place is different, but the places that I've been to promote this event with my car, um they actually allow burnouts. They wait, they say, say it again. They

they actually allow burnouts. They let you set up they let you set up and they have burnout contest. Um, and if you haven't been to one, you're missing something. Um, and as f as far as crowd control and things like that on the highways, they they really um they really help get your cars in and out just like the police do do here. is is pretty close. But a lot most of the places I go, the different things that go on is all different different um different times they let you do different things and um it just everything's different. It's hard to put it all in a in a blanket because everybody handles it handles it different.

When you're promoting this festival, do you make it clear to these participants that this town doesn't doesn't allow that type of thing?

Yes. and they always ask why. But um yes, we we make sure that they know that they don't allow that here. And I would always tell everybody when I try to get them to come, we have a motto here on the Outer Banks, come on vacation, leave on probation. So if you do anything wrong, like Richard says, if you uh play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. So, and we we try to let everyone know that if you do things illegally or harassing the public or whatever, it can ruin the event for everyone. And it's no matter what event you have, it don't matter if it's cars, boats, anything. It's always going to be a few that's going to mess it up for the rest. So, that's just that's life. that's in every every step of life. So,

and like in what specific ways do you do you share that with them? How do they specifically know that? We we put it in all of our literature. We do we do online, on our Facebook page, on our website. Um, we make people aware of no burnouts, no speeding, no careless and reckless driving, and be mindful of uh your surroundings and other people you may be infecting with your actions. This is this is what we put out. This is what we put out there. Okay. Yeah.

I I do have one more question for you. Um, Since it seems like everyone I can hardly hear you. Okay. Since everyone obviously wants to gather outside of the event itself off of the event site, has you have you ever made an attempt to offer any other gathering places that would be legal where the property owners agreed to let them gather there?

That's where we have most of our events. We encourage people to go to our local restaurants that sponsor this event. And every restaurant from Nags Head, Killed Over Hills, Kittyhawk, Mantio that sponsor this event, they the business owners offers what we call in cruisein dinners or cruise-in breakfastes and things like that. So, yes, we do. Um, and once we get the word out that you couldn't go to mile post 10, they stopped. That happened like on a Friday evening at Saturday, we got on the mic. You can't go back there. The ones that heard it, they went where they're supposed to go. And that's what we're trying to do is make sure people go to the spots that uh sponsor us. And this event is always all about giving back, bringing money to the community. And all of these different restaurants, the owners, they asked to be a part of it. And they want the cars to come through the restaurants, eat and have a good time, show the cars off. And and our motto is family fun and fellowship. Ride to eat and eat the ride. So that's that's what they do now. That stuff that's happened, you know, in past years. Apologize about that. But moving forward, that's you know that's why all these infractions has decreased. Give them things to do in the evening. They don't cause havoc.

Okay. Um I have a couple questions. The the registration stickers that when you were talking to the police chief, is that something that you guys have done every year? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Let me show you. I'll show you what it looks like. Okay,

these are the restoration stickers. That's for 19. That's for That's for 20. That's for 21. That was 22. That's 23. 24. and 25. If a car or truck does not have this sticker on their windshield, they're not a part of the rod and custom festival. Is there anything identifying on there specific to the vehicle that has those?

No, it's just it's just the it's just the um the sticker and then the the registration form has their car information and all that good stuff in there. Well, I'm wondering if there'd be opport just when hearing the police chief say that and I if there'd be an opportunity for some sort of collaboration so that when like when we've spoken before if you know what car it is, but saying they have a sticker doesn't always help, but if there was an identifying piece um

if there was any opportunity for collaboration there. And then the other question I had was those are the registered cars. How many do you got, you said that there's cars that don't have them sometimes. Is it is there any way you have an idea how many cars outside of the registered cars that do still come to these events? Not a perfect number because they're not registered. You know, we know how many comes because of the registration, but a lot of times if someone knows the events going on, they'll come down, right? And um a lot of these issues um

that we're talking about with the burnouts and this that and the other uh some of them are local. Most of them are local. Um the um one you were saying about um about your uh you know by your shop. Um they were some of our participants and we couldn't figure out who they were because you sent me the video but it was so grainy you couldn't tell who it was. So we couldn't

Well, that's why I'm wondering on the stickers if there's a way for identifying. And then the other question I had was when you talk about traveling to other areas that where burnouts are allowed, do they just allow burnouts throughout their towns or do they have specific safe areas so that when the drivers don't have control doing burnouts, someone can't get hurt? They have what they do, they they close the street, they put uh barricades on both sides and they they do it like that. So it's very controlled. Control burnout contest is what it's called. That's all the questions I have. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for uh for Mr.

Registration fee? Yes. Uh registration fee is $50 uh in advance, 60 the weekend of the event. Okay. You say they have to fill out a registration like form. Does that make sure that that car is street legal? I heard some mention of, you know, racing tires or racing fuel or what what we Yes, they're supposed to be street legal. Okay. And um

these slicks like Officer Perry was Chief Perry was talking about um some of those are what they call DOT slicks. They look like slicks, but they've got um two treads. Some of them have four maybe. And um it's called a DOT slick. And they come in all different size, 10 in, 1532s, whatever. But some some of some of them are um um just set up to run on the road and on a racetrack. Okay.

I have one other question. When people register, do they have to put where their lodging is or like how you can find them? So if someone calls you and says, "Okay." No, no. They don't have to put where they're low. Yeah. We we we have phone numbers and things like that. And if if anybody were to um do anything by any of the hotels, I'm sure the hotels or motel would call and say, "Hey, you need to come talk to these ladies or gentlemen, whichever one." And also, do you have an idea of how many registrants you expect this year or what? about 700. 700. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

And did you say like when they fill out their application to be in the show, do they require proof that their their vehicle is street legal? Is that a requirement or is that a suggestion? That's it's not a requirement. It's a suggestion because um mo most people if they know they're riding on the highway, they're going to have their cars registered, right? Especially with the horsepower ratings and the type of vehicle that they're bringing. If they get stopped, they would, you know, that's one less ticket they would get basically.

Any other questions for Mr. Tilllet? So, you have coordinated um permits, off-site permits previously. you worked with folks to to obtain permits from the town for other areas other than the event site,

right? Um Ben Franklin's we did that with them because they um um started kind of going there before we got the permit and the people that run Bren Franklin's, they love the cars being there. So they say, you know, brought them business. So, um, the following year we got a, um, you know, a permit, had police come and all that good stuff cuz they they wanted to keep it there. But then it kind of outgrew and they, you know, had to move forward and they've all gone smoothly. You haven't had any trouble, you know, obtaining those permits or, you know, so you're trying to work to

No, not at all. to you know help with the situation other than people going to commercial places in the evening which is private situation but but you have tried to Yes. have permitted places for cats to gather that are related to the show. Yes.

Okay. And uh just like we we just got a uh permit last year, we started doing some uh uh cruise ends at shipwrecks and the lot beside that in Kittyhawk and we got a permit from Kittyhawk to uh do it last year and we got one this year because they said it was no problems. Everything was everything was fine. and um and uh even uh kill over hills at the belts that he was talking Mr. Perry was saying that uh they had problems there. Um it was loc it was locals doing that. Uh we've got we got called we got pictures and we went and talked with the the three local gentlemen that was doing it because we happen to know who they were and told them that they were going to ruin it for the rest of us and that didn't happen anymore. Then I get a I get a phone call from the owner of Belt, Mr. Jeff Fabrican of the shopping center. When I got the phone call, I missed it. He says I said, "Oh my god, what's going on?" He co he calls me. He says, "I want to have a meeting." And I said, "Okay." He said, "We would love to keep this event at Belt. Our participant, our our people that render shops there, they like it. I like it. And we think it's a great idea. How can we be a part of this event?" And um so that's that's what you know so we haven't had any problems anywhere other than a head. Anyone else have any questions to ask at this time?

Uh do you want to ask him any more questions before you put on uh any other witnesses? No other questions. Okay. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? No. I I have a question. Oh, yes, sir. I'm sorry. So, um, just in terms of do have you guys done this in the past where you've had people or volunteers that actually sort of tried to monitor what's going on outside the event site, you know, throughout the town to address some of the issues that, you know, we've had

when we when we had the uh crews in at Ben Franklin's, we had volunteers out um at in the evenings. We don't we work our volunteers so hard during the day. So we don't get them to come out in the evening. So myself, Richard or Sarah, we would kind of go around and check things out. And Sarah did real good for us before they really knew who she was. She would go out and check things out and either say something to me or whatever. You might need to might need to talk to these people for this that or the other. And um now her covers bloom. So, but um but yes, we do it, but we don't ask our volunteers because we ask so much of them during the day and everybody does this for charity and and you know, so we can't ask them to do that at night.

Do do you think that the burnouts and some of these problems have been getting progressively better? A lot better. Yeah, they, you know, from the graph and and us jamming it down to people's throat and telling them if you keep it up, it's going to ruin this event and we won't be able to have it. So, we've had our attendees monitoring monitoring people also as well as us, let them know, you know, you can't do it. We've had we've had some of our our attendees um get not violent but uh really stern with other people say listen we don't want you here

and the the it's just you know everybody wants this to go on and those few bad apples can spoil it. So we try to help them out without having to uh have the police involved or getting in trouble because you know you can get in trouble real quick when you're passionate about somebody doing something wrong and then Chief Perry will be locking us up. Right. Right, sir. Okay. So, the the the um burnout area is an interesting idea. I'm not sure there there's anywhere in town in Nags Head that, you know, how about during the parking lot? You know, because it's just, you know, every everywhere in town is pretty much in a residential area more or less. You know,

how about right beside the puke ball court? Wow. You need a noise screen. Guess you're m Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. No problem. Okay. Uh any other evidence? Call Sarah so that she can give you better details on our registration. And this is going to be tricky. I'll lean down. All right. Sarah, could you please tell your name, your position, and responsibilities with GBC?

Um, my name is Sarah Hull. I am one of the founding partners of GarageBand Charities. I handle all registrations. I do most of the paperwork. As was stated, I fill out all of our permit paperwork. I try to make sure to get everything in in a timely manner, and I try to keep these two in line. Okay. So uh for for the years referenced specifically in this appeal uh 23 24 and 25 how many registered participants did we have in each of those years? Um in 23 we had 915 24 was,073 uh 2025 was,24

okay and these registrations were they all from North Carolina and Virginia areas? No, we have actually gotten from last year we had 27 states um and actually had someone from Australia um come in for the show. So, can can you tell what GPC has done since 2022 to get the word out about expected behavior by the participants not only at the event site but also while cruising around on the Outer Banks?

So, some of it's already been shown the big banner. We've have those in multiple places on the event site at the registration trailer. Um the registration trailer door is actually a how big is the door? 4 foot by 8 foot

um somewhere here. some of the things that some of the banners that we display. Every registration packet comes with a information guide and we have in the information guide right here uh act responsibly, drive smart, no burnouts. Uh remember your actions affect the future of our event 2026. We will be adding the respect noise because these were already printed when that was needed to be addressed further. Um so our 2026 version of this will also have be respectful of noise in all areas as much as possible. Um but we have done that for the past I would say six years put those cards on there asking um we also go through the event site during the event as people are leaving letting people know act responsibly when you leave here. act responsible while you're out in our community. Um, your actions affect our event.

And the the registration money that GBC collects, can you tell us how that helps our community? Um, we actually all registration is 100% donated to the local charities that we support here in Dair County and our neighboring counties of Hyde and Curry Tuck County. Um, so we make sure 100% of the registration fees every year go to charity. We pay for the incidental stuff with sponsorship money. We have a grant um that helps us pay for infrastructure, portaotties, tents, um that type of thing.

Okay. Um in the interest of safety, as we've already talked, GBC uses police guarded crosswalk for pedestrians to cross the bypass. Who who pays for the officers? Uh GBC pays for the officers. How much has GBC spent on the crosswalk?

Last last year was $3,400 um for the two days that we had to have it. And in the past three years was over $10,000 that we have paid out of charity money for um our crosswalks. It is estimated to at least be probably $4,800 this year um with the required time. Um, and if we have to add on any other times that are required by Chief Hail. So there there's no expense for the crosswalk to the town. Not that we're aware of besides him uh we pay for the police cars that are required and for the crosswalk there's no extra expense that we are aware of.

Okay. I know planning for events of this size have to start way in advance of the actual event date. Uh, can you kind of give us an idea of the timeline that UBC has for for planning out these events? We technically began planning for the next year, several weeks before the current year happened. So, in 2025, we already had our save the date cards printed to go in everybody's packet so they knew when next year's event would be. Um, and then as soon as this year's soon as 2025 is over, within a few weeks, we had a meeting um to go over things and we started planning for 2026. So, it's a full year out plus planning for the next year's event.

So, needless to say, we've got a lot vested in this event already. Yes. Merchandise and promotional materials, insurance, and so forth. Yes. Yes. So, we have a dog in the fight. so to speak. Okay. Uh, have no further questions for Sarah? All right. So, the Does the board have any questions for Miss Holt? When did you apply for the this year's permit

for Nagad? Um, it was I would say mid January around the 15th 20th. Other other questions? How many applicants are you expecting this year? I may have already asked this. So, right now we're around 700. That could vary. Yeah, that could vary a little bit, but right now we're around 700. It's a lot less than last year. A lot of people wait till the last minute. That was my next question is do you get a large percentage? Um

yeah, the the largest percentage is at the beginning. Um registration opens January 1st. Okay. And we actually we the first registration, they stay up at midnight on New Year's Eve to register for our event uh to win a toolbox. Um we had a hundred registrations in less than four minutes. So I stay up and make sure the website doesn't crash on New Year's night. Um and then it just kind of flows out from there uh till the event becomes okay but your local people will wait till the day of to come because if it rains they're not bringing their car out. Yeah.

They're not going to pay and then not be able to bring their car out. Just make sure. So but it's definitely been an upward trend for participation. Yes. So you don't have any reason why you expect it's just later. You don't expect it to be smaller. No.

Any other questions from Yeah, depending on gas prices that that will affect. Any other questions?

Uh Mr. Gar, you have any questions? Um, we we um I don't believe we have a a timeline. Oh, yeah. We have we have a timeline in the ordinance that says you can't or that you can apply for the event permit up to a year ahead of time. Is there a reason why you don't apply sooner? Well, so this year I knew in December I was going to go ahead in December and y'all were reworking the the permit and I don't know if that I mean I guess I could have still filled out the old form um and maybe had to have amended it, but I mean we could do it sooner. We've just always done it along the guidelines that were given to us. Um

it's it's fine. Yeah. I mean, the there is something I'm totally willing to do it. There's something in the ordinance that talks about not advertising the event or or doing a lot of the things you're describing until you have the permit. And and technically on most of our stuff, it just says the beautiful outer backdrop of the Outer Banks. We don't technically have the people know it's happened in Nags Head, but we don't technically have the address on um the posters, the cards. It just says when registration opens and it's going to happen. Um, okay. Any other questions? Any other testimony? Miss

Miss Hulk. Can you please tell everyone your name and your position in the community? My name is Jamie Chisum. I'm the president of the Outerbanks Hotel Motel Association and I'm the director of sales and marketing at the Hilton Garden in

Thank you. Can you tell us how GBC and the OBX Robin Custom Festival have impacted the hotel and motel industry on the Outer Banks? So there would be only one other event that I could think of that would have had this kind of an impact over the years and it would have been the Outer Banks Marathon when it was in its heyday. Right? So this compresses that weekend typically in the past what would have been a very soft weekend kind of still in spring after the Easter weekend typically. Um so still a soft time for us that shoulder season that season we try to promote at that event site out there. Um this is this kicks off our summer now. Um it brings in so many hotel room nights to all hotels. Hotels in Nags Head, hotels in Kill Devil Hills, hotels in Mano, hotels in Kittyhawk, hotels in Corolla. Um so it it helps all of us.

Very good. Have you experienced any problems related to the event? The only problem that we have experienced at the Hilton Garden in was with trailers. So, a lot of times these guys trailer in their vehicles. They trailer multiple vehicles. These are large trailers and that can be difficult when you're at a hotel that may have other events that weekend like weddings and things like that that parking can be a premium. So, that became a problem for us, the trailer parking in our hotel parking lot. Okay. Very good. But no problems with the guest.

No problems with the guests. and and immediately after talking to Michael about that, he came up with alternative trailer parking for people, um it actually ended up really benefiting the local Walgreens across from us because he graciously opens his lot to trailers that weekend and he said that's one of his biggest sale weekends now. I have no other questions. Thank you for your time. If you'll if you'll wait just one moment, Miss Chisum, uh does the board have any questions for for Miss Chisum? No. or Andy, you have any questions? No. Okay. Thank Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. And now I'd like to call Andrea Sullivan, please.

Good afternoon. Please tell everyone your name and position in our community. Uh my name is Andrea Sullivan. I'm the president of the Outer Banks Restaurant Association and the general manager of Jolly Roger Restaurant. Can you tell us how GBC and OBX brought customer dust forward and impacted the restaurant industry?

Um, pretty much in the same way that it has the hotel industry. Early season revenue boost, um, significant increase in dining traffic, extended stays, um, more hours for employees. Right now it's really slow for the employees and everybody's in a little bit of a struggle, but this gives us hope that, you know, what's coming to the season is going to be um better than it was last season. It's it's like this is like the gateway. Um it's where we can um get our cash flow going. We can get our more people hired, keeping people working, keeping businesses thriving. This is not about anything other than, you know, giving the people that come here for tourism and and vacations, all that stuff. It's it's giving them places to go, things to do.

Has the event created any specific burdens on your business or others that you know of in the network? Not that I know of. Not that I know of. Questions for Thank you. Now, does the board have any questions for Miss Sullivan? I do not. Andy Garmin, any questions for the witness? No. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Call Mark Block.

Good afternoon. Mark Blog, owner of Lucky 12 Tavern here in downtown Nagit. Can you tell us how the charities and the customer? I mean, same thing everybody else just said. I mean, in the afternoons, we have cars in our parking lot that we wouldn't have there. So, it kind of we've seen the growth the last five years for sure. Have these cars congregating in your parking lot created any issues for your business? No, they usually come in and eat and just go on and leave a spot and someone else fills it in the other car. Questions I have. Okay. Uh, any questions for Mr. Bailock? No, Mr. All right. Thank you.

These are just getting quicker and quicker. I'd like to call Bean Hines, please. Did you get You weren't here for Okay. All right. Matt, step. You did not swear in either. Okay. All right. He didn't get the roll call. Well, we'll skip forward to Miss Sarah Samson.

Hi, Sarah. Tell everyone who you are position. My name is Sarah Samson and I'm the executive director of the Children and Youth Partnership for Dair County. And how many years has GBC provided donations to children partnership? We have received a generous donation from the very beginning in um 2019. And do you know what the total that CP has received from broad charities?

So the total amount that we've received since the beginning is uh $112,000 520. So again, $112,520 with the most recent year we received $30,000. Needless to say, Charities has helped your organization. It's directly impacting the work that we're doing in the community to support the children and families right here in Der County. Have you seen any negative impact from this being in our community? Absolutely not.

And also provides some volunteers that assist our different locations at the event site and helping manage parking or not parking around the event site as well. Correct. Correct. That's the only request from for us as an organization to benefit from this is that we provide uh volunteers to assist with this work. Thank you so much. Any questions? Any questions for Miss Samson, from the board or for Mr. German? All right. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. I do have a letter with a written statement if I can include that and share with everyone, Mr. Lee. Good afternoon everybody. Can you describe the visitors process for evaluating applications at the event?

Yes, I can. Um, any party that's interested in renting the Southside event site must uh first complete an application. The application is mostly based on the town's crowd gathering permit. It contains a lot of information. Some of that's been mentioned uh by the town manager. Uh everything from the dates and times of the event, the setup, the tear down, um the the traffic flow in and out of the site, the size and placement of tents, the number and placement of portaotties, crowd management, contacts, the events, weather, emergency preparations, trash collections and disposal, whether or not alcohol will be served, um whether items will will be sold and by whom. Acknowledgement of the organizer's responsibility on the event site. Provisions for insurance and the projected attendance both during the entire span of the event as well as peak attendance at any one time. Once the application is completed, the organizer submits it to the visitors bureau for review. If the items have been addressed sufficiently uh in my determination, I sign the application and submit it to the town for the team's review.

What was your determination application for this particular event?

In the case of GBC and the Roden Custom Festival, the application was completed in a timely manner and submitted for review. I approved it on behalf of the visitors bureau. And here are some of my reasons for doing so. As far as the event site is concerned, and I should remind that this application is for an event to be held at the event site, GBC has produced a wellplanned um and enjoyable event, popular event that's grown responsibly over the last three years. The organizer cuts off registrations to manage attendance and to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for participants and guests. GBC has produced a safe event as was mentioned. I'm not aware of a single injury that's occurred uh over the time that the event's been held at the event site. It's a family-friendly event with no alcohol served. The organizer hires offduty police officers to ensure safe crossings at bypass. The third area I considered was the organizer's willingness to make changes to the event to address concerns and improve the experience for everybody. I've been in the pre-event meetings with the town and with the organizer. I've seen the changes that the organizer has made to the event and I also see now from the town's own information that the incident rates has dropped steadily over the last three years. The changes seem to be working. Um when when we got the packet on Monday evening, I I wanted to make my own table. I was having a hard time hopping back uh from the slide. So, um, in in 2023 there were five noise complaints. In 24 it went to six, but in 2025 there were two noise complaints. Careless and reckless. In 23 was eight. 24 went down to seven. In 25 it went down to two. traffic and directional uh hazard calls.

There were three in 2023, zero reported in 24 and zero reported in 25. Written or in-person complaints uh one in 23, one plus in 24 and uh that was stated. I'm not so one plus and then 2025 there was one. So total for the years in uh 2023 we have 17, 2024 there were 14 and 2025 there were five. Meanwhile the number of attendees has grown. So the incident rate has fallen significantly over that time. That's good news and a credit to town staff and to the organizers efforts. Let's keep that heading in the right direction. I would say that um that all of us, everybody in this room would like those numbers to be zeros instead of the five documented incidents in 2025. But the fact of the matter is that any type of large-scale event anywhere is going to produce some amount of negative impacts. And another event that produces negative impacts uh as it increases is is summer, June, July, and August. Um and Annie. So, GarageBand Charities is a locally based organization. Uh, the Rod and Custom Festival is estimated to have an economic impact of $2 million plus um every year throughout the community. And as just stated, the organization has donated well over 100,000 to local nonprofits. We're we're obviously in a tourism based economy. During fiscal year 2425, the town of Nagad received 4.6 6 million in occupancy tax collections. Without that income, the town's tax rate would increase by 9 cents.

The town also has a $36 million uh beach nourishment project scheduled for 2026. More than a third of that project, 13 million, is being provided by county beach nourishment fund. Most of those dollars come from occupancy tax collections. So, when we look at occupancy tax collections and what's happening in fiscal year 2425, Dair County's gross occupancy collections dropped year-over-year by 4.3%. And Knack said occupancy collections were flat. Basically, we cannot assume business. We have to continue to provide reasons for people to to visit and to return, especially in slower seasons like the beginning of May. The cars can be noisy. Some individuals go against GBC's very clear instructions. All of us want the incident rate to be zero instead of five. And significant progress has been made in that regard. But if the choice is a couple of days of noise or higher taxes, I got to believe that your residents, myself included, would prefer the brief inconvenience. I respectfully request that the uh town grant this permit and we continue the good work with town staff and the organizer to improve the event.

I have no further questions for Thank you, sir. Does the board have any questions for Mr. Nettles? Uh or Mr. Garmin, you have any questions for Mr. Nles? No. All right. Did they apply um to the to you about the same time for their permit or when was that?

So, it's it's it's actually kind of a a shared process. There's there's one app application that's filled out and uh as I mentioned, it's primarily the the town's crowd gathering permit. Um uh we have staff that works with the event organizer to kind of help them get their information together and and make sure that it's uh it lines up with our expectations. We want to ensure a safe experience on the site more than anybody. We want the events to be successful and minimize a negative impact. So, uh the process is we work directly with the event organizer upfront and um when and if I approve the application, I send it over to town staff and they begin their uh consideration.

Gotcha. and and and I should say we've u the first event that we had out there was in 2012. Uh so we have a long-standing relationship of working very closely with the with town admin staff and the various departments and u I I appreciate that relationship and and the work that they do. I I think we I mean we've been extremely successful over the years hosting uh safe and enjoyable events. What is your um capacity there? How how large could this event or any other event at the event site grow?

It it depends on whether the event is self-contained or not. Uh for the markets that we do in the summer, we we have a a mandate that we don't want to negatively impact the neighboring businesses to knock out any of that summer business. So, it has to be self-contained and uh and that I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but it's basically the amount of parking spaces that we have uh between the original event site, Pamelo Jacks, and the Dairy Queen and then the town's uh three per car requirement. But that also depends greatly on the layout of the event and how much space they're taking of the event. Otherwise though, the the site is capable of hosting you upwards of eight to 10,000 people such as with the seafood festival. Um but when we get to those kind of uh levels, you know, obviously you have to have a shuttle system to bring pe people safely in and out.

All right. Any other questions for Mr. Nettles? Anyone? All right. Thank you, sir. I have no further witnesses. All right. Do you have any other evidence to present? Uh I would like to make some other commentary if that's possible. Um before you do that, let me ask the u the manager if he has any other evidence he wishes to produce. Um I don't have any other evidence. Um I do have a question for Perry.

Okay. Just have him come back up then. Well, the you know, we have talked about this a little bit, but you know, I know that we provide offduty staff at the request of the event organizers to work at the event site to either provide crosswalk safety or crowd control. Is that correct? Well, it's not at the request of them. It's at the request of us. Okay. um is pretty much where we mandate um that they have offduty out there to set up a crosswalk for the safety of uh participants, pedestrians that are trying to cross and uh motor in public. How

and how many staff on average would that usually require? We have four people to operate a crosswalk, one for each lane of traffic pretty much. Um with our cones, um two vehicles out there to in the center turn lane uh with some makeshift signs that we have put up. Um and then the additional officer cars that we've put on the side of the road as well to try to put as much um light out there as possible. Um which that can also cause to people stare at blue lights and don't they lose all common sense of driving and don't pay attention to anything. So message boards as well

that's for people and that's working for the duration of the event when it's occurring at the event site. Uh yes, they they have where they come in um believe y'all y'all open 11 or 10

10. And from what we've seen over the past when we first started um mandating the crosswalk uh to be set up, they don't initially get overwhelmed right at 10:00. So we have the contract in place that we have out there that our officers are there with crosswalk set up from 10:00 and then we go until 6:00. Um they usually start uh leaving out to where there's hardly uh anybody left by 6 u mostly 5 5:30 um when they're pulling out, but we're still there until 6:00 to um help with crosswalk from patrons. Um because there's really not much parking there for patrons. They're parking on side streets, other areas, and walking over.

Okay. And then could you could you tell everybody um in addition to the folks that are working the event, what does your normal shift look like during this weekend? How many people are on duty? Um our shifts are a sergeant, two patrol officers um that work from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Um we have two, one K9 and then an additional 12 to 12. Uh, so we have two additional offers coming out from 12 uh p p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Um, and then our night shift comes on at 6 pm. So we could have five depending on if everybody's here, not sick and hadn't uh already have approved vacation. But we're not necessarily upstaffing our on duty staff for the event.

No, we we've always had a philosophy that any event in town, we do not pull resources from our on duty staff to to handle events. So if anybody that I'm asking or so-called um volunt telling people that they need to work um they are not pulling from staff um and they are pulled in for overtime purposes only where we pay them overtime to to come out and work and then based on the events or what all is going on I look at the time frames of when I would want that person or officers out there so I can get the most um out of the shift that they're working. So they might not be out there from a 10 to 6 being if that's when we're out there. I might I bring them in usually probably 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They do sometimes a six or an eight hour shift or either bring them in at 4:00 and get them to 11.

Okay. So So you don't necessarily have additional people out that are able to monitor the things that are occurring off site. They're they're having to manage everything they normally manage plus that. our our normal staff, I tell them to keep eyes on everything and if we do have additional staff that come out specifically for the event, I have them roaming to monitor uh anything dealing with the event itself. Okay? So, if they see issues of anything popped up or traffic violations, they're there just to do that. They're not answering calls unless we have something major that would pull them away that would require more than what we have out.

Okay? And this may not be a question you can really answer accurately, but so obviously this is an evidentiary hearing and the denial letter we issued was based on evidence that would include any actual violations that we logged, citations we issued, complaints we received. But u do you feel like that adequate adequately characterizes what what you observe currently like that the number if for instance if there's five burnouts that we issue complaints or or citations for you know do you think there's more than that that's actually occurring?

We don't catch everybody. Um and I mean I'd love to catch them all. I mean I've even spoke to Richard about it. I mean, I you know, to me, the vent does bring people here. Nobody's arguing any of that. It's the after effect that that we're having to deal with from the complaints coming in from noise, etc. And even when I've told Richard and and Michael and them that we are going to go zero tolerance, maybe they might get the picture if it's bad enough that I put one of those cars on a roll back and tow it. Um, so and they've been in supportive of that. Um, even we reached out to Ocean City, Maryland the other day to find out what they have had because I I know this event used to be up there. They raised their towing fee and I don't know if they have their own law enforcement division for towing, but they raised their towing fee for the car show to $1,000. Um, just to do um to let them know that they're serious. Um, and I don't know what I think the car show used to be somewhere or not not their car show, but other shows comparable to this. We're in South Carolina that I don't know if they're there anymore. Um, but we don't have our own towing. I towing set, but my staff knows that we want to catch as many as possible. I can't give somebody a mandated number that they got to go out there and write because then that would be in violation of of uh quotas and that's not allowed in North Carolina. They know my feelings that we want to have a safe weekend and that we want to keep people tight and to um not have complaints, so they understand where I'm coming from.

I'm sure they do. Thank you. I'm sorry, Chief. Hang on one second. Does the any does the board have any questions for Chief Hail? No. And do you have any questions for him, Mr. Quinley? All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Um, any other evidence, Mr. No. Garman. Um, any other evidence, uh, Mr. Quidley, that you wish to present other than your remarks? Just remarks. Before you get to that, let me ask this. Does the board have any Is there any other evidence that the board would like to hear or receive before you hear Mr. Quidley's remarks or conclude the hearing? Certainly before concluding the hearing. Yes. Okay. Not necessarily before hearing the remarks.

Okay. Well, let's go ahead and hear the remarks then, Mr. Quiddley. The floor is yours.

Well, I allowed Michael and Sarah to tell everybody who they were. My name's Richard Quitley. I'm also one of the founding partners of GBC. Get this pointed in the right place there. Um, I am a longtime Dair County resident, graduate of Cape Padis High School. This is my home. We chose to share our passion of cars uh with the community and found that there was a way that we could do this in a scale that we could raise money and do good for the community. Um you know we talked about the 100,000 plus for children and youth partnership over the course of years since 2019. Uh, our charitable donation has been just a little over $246,000. And we started this on a dream that Michael had. He came to me and he said, "Look, you do bike week stuff all the time, which I used to do all the guided tour rides and everything for for Harley-Davidson down here." He says, "I want to do something like that with cars." and said, "We can do it, but we got to have somebody to to help bring it all together." And that's where this lady come in with all the paperwork and financing and, you know, keeping all the numbers straight and like she said, keeping us straight. Um, the difference between our car show and a typical car show is it moves. People love that they can come down and show off what they've built. And most of these people have built these cars theirel. They get to show them off, pop the hood, sit on the field for a little while, close the hood, and go ride. They can

drop the wife off at Belks or they can go get lunch at Lucky 12 or Jolly Roger. You know, we've got a lot to show here on the Outer Banks. We actually have people that pay the registration, stop by registration, pick up their packet, and never go to the event site. We've got one group from Richmond, the Low Rider Club, and they are clubs. You know, you see these cars traveling in groups, which some of the impromptu parade things, these are just guys out with guys riding in their cars and having a good time. But the group from Richmond, they ended up in Hatteris. That's a long little ride for those guys. Now, the Pro Street guys, you know, their cars, they're the ones with the great big tires on the back and the wheelie bars. And a lot of that's just like a racing stripe on a Toyota. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's just what they like. But those guys, they're getting about four miles to the gallon. And yes, they do burn 110 octane racing fuel, which I'm pretty sure does have the highway tax. I will check on that. Uh but uh I I burned 110 in my Camaro or did I just change the engine because I can't afford it anymore. It's stuff $65 for five gallons. But these guys get four or five g miles to the gallon and they're paying, you know, $10 a gallon. So they're going to stay somewhere close to the beach. But we've been able to share our passion and bring people from places that never heard of OBX. We get calls and Michael's phone number is plasted all over the internet. You know, he's on all the cards. It's got his phone number. Uh, and he answers the questions. He said, "Well, what is OBX?" And now they're learning from Texas, Minnesota, and all these other places.

We have one lady that came down from Richmond, and of course, she knew what OBX was, but she hadn't been here before. She came down, stayed for the event, came back the next week and bought a house. So, you know, it is bringing not just vacationers, it's bringing new residents, it's supporting our charities, it's supporting our businesses, it's supporting our employees. We've vested a lot of time and energy since 2017 when Michael first came to me and talked to me about this. We put our heart and soul into this and we've got a lot invested in this coming event and I ask that you consider allowing us to have this event and follow through with this year. It's very important to us. It's important to the community. Thank you for your time.

Does the board wish to ask Mr. Quidley any questions? Anybody? Um, I have a rather open-ended question, I guess, about if you have any suggestions about um, how you could help the town and our board to alleviate some of our concerns other than, you know, meeting, which I know you said if you don't hear from us. So, we heard that loud and clear, we'll be sure there, you know, there would be a meeting. But other than that, is there anything you can, you know, I don't mean to put you on the spot. Is there anything you could suggest that would enable us to continue to work together? O

open dialogue would be good. Like I said, the meeting would have been one of the the biggest things. You know, if uh if mom and dad daddy's not mad at you, you must be doing okay. You know, if the teacher don't call you out, you must be doing things right. So in the prior years you felt like we were that

well we we felt that we had made things better u you know this this was all new hat for us you know u I grew up in retail Sarah was retail I'm not sure what Michael did Michael worked north Carolina power Dominion power for years but you know this isn't what we did this is what we became and we're learning as we go uh just just as the chief said about the the traffic backing up on the bypass. Uh we had registration trailers set up on the event site. Well, you have to get them registered to get them in the event site. So, what happened when we opened up the gates at 9 or 10:00? You have two 300 cars showing up that had not registered because they waited to see what the weather was going to be. So, we have adjusted that. We moved them faster. We started bringing them in in two lanes to get them in quicker and still we couldn't process them inside fast enough. So this past year we moved registration to Surfside Plaza which we also have a application permit for crowd gathering there as well. Um we moved it to Surfside Plaza, set our trailer up there. So people go there all week long, pick up their packets, put the sticker on the car or they register and put the sticker on the car. When they show up at the event site, we drop the gate, they pull in, they got the sticker, they go on in, they park, and we have a serpentine. They come in and they go all the way to the back and pull all the way. You know, we we've got a system for it so that we alle alleviated that problem to back up on on the bypass. And it's little things like that that we've continued to sharpen our pencil each year. But some of these problems, you don't know you've got them until you have them. You know, I've always been a believer that a good manager can spot a problem before it happens. And in some of these situations like this, which is

constantly evolving, it takes time. You know, some things we can fix on the fly. Some things we have to do different next year. So, you mentioned open dialogue. What What could we do to improve that? It Do you think there is an open d There hasn't been open dialogue? Well, I we were unaware that Okay.

People were unhappy. I mean, uh, the chief and I, like I say, you know, I've never been to his house for pizza. He's never been to my house for beer, but, uh, you know, we we have, you know, we stayed in contact. You know, it's it's cordial and and I I feel comfortable talking to him about anything. And you know, if he had been called to the principal's office and you know, the town manager or whoever or somebody's calling him, you know, it's okay to call and say, "Hey, you know, guys, we we need to work on this for next year, you know, but uh until we get the opportunity to make a mistake, we can't correct the mistake." Uh, and I I do not approve of burnouts. I love burnouts. I don't approve of it on public streets. There's a time and a place for everything. and uh the the public streets is is not that place. Um and looking at those pictures, I know some of them were from 2013 and some of this we've tried to correct with the time. Um the u some of it's the nature of the cars. Might sound odd, but most anybody that's got a newer car has traction control on it. These cars don't have traction control. You know, uh, most of the cars built nowadays have 250 horsepower at most. Uh, these Pro Street cars, they're pushing 2,000 horsepower, you know, so all they've got to do is push a little bit and they're going to leave a mark. Now, the guys sitting there doing a long burnout, they're doing that intentional and they need the book thrown at them. And if that book takes being on a roll back, that's what it takes. But, you know, this event means too much to us and to the community than to let a couple people spoil it. We need to spoil their day if that's what it takes, but not ours.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? You had mentioned on the application um requiring it's not a requirement on street legal, it's a suggestion. Would you guys be interested in making that a requirement? That would be an easy one for someone to say, "Sure, it's legal." Sure.

Um just just like GBC doesn't have the authority to uh enforce traffic laws. Um I I think it would also open up a liability to us if we came to you and said, "Okay, this car is legal." And then later you find out it's not. You know, this one of the one of the issues. I mean, most of the cars drive in. So, if they're driving down the road and pull in driving, then you can pretty well assume, and we know that gets everybody in trouble.

We can assume that they are street legal. Um, I mean, there are cars um, you know, the the antique cars actually fall under a different classification for inspections as well. I've got a 79 Camaro. It doesn't have to have state inspection every year. Uh, it's got a wild motor in it. and doesn't have traction control and I can do a burnout but I don't uh you know a lot of that's but uh so far as us re requiring it or asking I mean it's it's kind of implied because it's a drive-in car show. Why is that on your application right now whether it's street legal or not

for the registration? Is there something that they have to put in there? I don't believe it actually states in there that it has to be street legal, but it's it's kind of implied because most car shows I mean I I do have a guy from uh South Mills that or just outside of South Mills, but uh he he has a drag race car. It doesn't have license plates on it. It it doesn't have lights. it as a drag race car and he brings it down on a trailer and he parks it in the field and we know that's a race car and and you know uh he doesn't drive it out on on the on the road so it's a display only and we have a few of those that come in that that are display only but uh you know if it has a North Carolina tag on it or you know and other states we I don't know what their what their criteria is but uh I mean if it would please uh the commission please the board that that we add a stipulation in there that you must be street legal. But

I think I'm a little confused. Um I thought I heard before um in the hearing that there's a spot in your application, your registration where they have to indicate whether the car is street legal or not. Can you answer that question, Sarah? There is there is not anything on there. We know their make, their model, um the type of car, but there isn't anything specifically that says is this. Okay. I apologize. I think I misheard. I guess what I'm wondering is if there's because that is there obviously putting a car in a roll back is a way to ruin someone's day and lesson learned. But I'm also thinking is there a way that you guys could maybe try to communicate that we're very serious about street legal cars

being on the road because obviously we do have trailers. I mean we heard a story of how Walgreens is accommodating and stuff. So, right, some people are trailing the cars if not maybe for care of them, but also they might not be legal to ride on the road. Most most of them that are trailering their cars in is because they've got two $300,000 in their car. Okay.

And they won't drive it from uh we've got one guy that comes from Texas that uh I mean he's been in Hot Rod Magazine. He's uh Summit Racing has had his vehicle on display in their their headquarters in Texas for for months. I mean, and it's it's probably a $200,000 1966 Ford truck, but uh you know, he he'll drive it around here, but he he wouldn't drive it to Curry Tuck, you know. So, that's that's where a lot of these guys come with and you'll see the trailers. A lot of these guys pay more for their trailers than than we do for our cars. But um if you guys would be open to communicating that. And then also would you guys be open when manager Garmin was asking about um other officers, would you guys be open to letting to um I'm not sure I'm going to word this right to having extra officers on duty to help us so that we're not taking away from our town staff.

Uh if if Chief Hail feels that that is necessary. Yes. uh keeping in mind that any money that we're spending is charity money. That's a safety concern. And uh I don't know that uh and I would have to to ask Chief Hail this if if there were any reports in the last three years of traffic accidents involving uh participant cars. Are you able to answer that question? traffic,

right?

Participation of the car show or is it somebody coming to be a spectator that is looking and then running into the rear end of somebody, right?

We don't in our narratives ofu 349 crash reports. We put facts of what happened. We wouldn't put that Richard was here for car show and looked over to the right and didn't see somebody and then ran into the back of somebody in front of purposes for statistical purposes for the division. I think my concern and the reason I was asking the question about additional officers was I understand that it's you guys are raising money for charity, but when we're concerned about safety and I'm seeing those pictures of those burnouts that clearly someone doesn't have control of the burnout's going across the road

and having additional officers would we've been blessed that there haven't been injuries like Michael said in the beginning and I just that can only go so far and extra officers could ensure more safety and alleviate a lot of safety concerns that we have. Correct. Any other questions for Mr. uh Mr. Quidley from the board? Anything else you wish to present at this time? I have nothing further. All right. So, at this time, any additional evidence that the board wishes to receive? We should go ahead and introduce that. John, I want to circle back to um the the beginning and our authorities to to address these issues.

Yes, sir.

Um uh this is an applicant for a specific event at a certain site. Um and we are responsible for the the quiet enjoyment of the property for the entire community. And so um Yeah, there are two ways to look at it. One is that, you know, the the applicant is responsible for the activities on and immediately around the site, traffic, noise, etc. We're talking about issues that extend to the entire town. Um, and they are concurrent with the car show. I mean, they don't they're not happening the rest of the year. So, they they are concurrent um with car show. And I just want to I just want to uh have you sort of restate yes that we are capable and should properly address issues that happen related to an event that may proceed to any point in the town.

Yes. Uh so the the uh town's ordinance and issue here um just to recircle that um allows the board to consider and to deny uh the permit uh if you were to find that even when all conditions are met for approval of the crowd gathering activity permit. um that the permit can be denied when in the informed judgment of the board, the special event is likely to create the imminent possibility of disorderly conduct, likely to endanger public safety or to result in significant property damage, or the special event is likely to violate public health or safety laws, including but not limited to trespassing, noise violations, unauthorized use of uh private or public property, or if the special event will likely result in violations of town policy or law.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, Chief, can I can I ask the chief to come back up? Sir, I'll remind you, chief, you're still under oath. And we'll remain under oath for perpetuity. Um, yes, sir.

Um, the issue really just two questions. when this whole issue of street legality. So, you talked about possibility of having inspectors for future events, for example. Um, and there was discussion about the tires and and the street legal uh DOT, you know, slicks and all of that. Um, and and the noise. So, how difficult is it to really tell you, you know, take the car show away if you heard a vehicle pass your you're you're sitting by the side of the road writing a report. You hear something go past and you think that clearly is not a street legal vehicle that it either doesn't have a muffler on it or something's going on and I really should turn around and go speak to this driver and find out what's going on with their vehicle. How evident is it whether a vehicle is street legal with regard to noise?

It will be it's kind of hard to determine on the side of the road. Um because there are general statutes that deal with mufflers if they've been altered. Um we would not be able to inspect anything right there on the shoulder of the road. Right. Um could we look under and and see if the catalytic converter has been cut off or something like that? Yes. But not everybody in law enforcement uh is a mechanic.

Um so would it be to stop a vehicle? All we need is reasonable suspicion. To arrest somebody, we have to have probable cause. Um that if I see a car that comes by that I don't think is street legal with noise, wide tires, that would fall under reasonable suspicion that I might want to stop to to check into it. the if it's got a plate on it, I've stopped numerous cars myself that have plates on it that ain't got nothing to do with what it's attached to,

right? Um, but to run it, if it's not a standard Chevrolet, Ford or something that we can obviously see right then and there when these people are are building these vehicles, it would take a little bit more to where that's why I have reached out to try to see if a DMV inspector um could be around or have some agents here to to look at some of these cars if we're having problems, if we start putting some of them on the side of the road um that we think are not street legal. Um, could he come do an inspection on them? Um, but without a lift, etc. to really do everything. It's right. Kind of I don't think it's going to fly too much.

Right. Right. So, a car with a turbocharger higher than the top of the car is not automatically not automatic. Street legal. Not automatically. Now, it's it's usually automatically create noise that might not be within regulations or whatnot. um with some of the breathers on them and and everything else that is that is going through when they're idling, etc.

Right. So, we you had we had the instances that were cited on the slides. You you and the applicant have spoken to occasions where there was a certain kind of infraction, a discussion, some sort of resolution and then reoccurrence of the same or similar kind of infraction. Has that tapered off over the years? has that has I mean are are are you get you're getting a lot of calls you've said so so um I assume you got a lot of calls last year

my phone rings a lot were those issues that had previously been discussed or or previously occurred come up been discussed with the applicant and then reoccurred looking at our calls for service whether somebody calls it in there is a trend for downward where his stopping some. Now, is that the the entire case? I can't 100% tell you that we're having less calls of that. That's the the the the people calling in has been a decrease now. Are people just not calling in anymore because it's been happening? I don't know that.

Okay. Um last year the gentleman that came in several times um I rate over the noise that just wanted me to go out there and write every one of them a ticket and I had to explain to him that I could not just go write everybody that's here for the car show a ticket. Um, it's it's those type of incidents that we're dealing with that is frustrating on our end because I can't throw a net over everything and automatically give everybody a ticket or whatnot or make it stop instantaneously, right?

Um, that's that's the side that we're dealing with. Nobody is I am definitely not arguing the fact that this is a violent show or that they're not they're giving a lot of money to to people that come here and a lot of them are nice people to talk to that I've talked to out there. It's just the after action stuff of if it's not at the event site. We even had it to where they were pulling out of the event site that we talked to Richard and them where they're sitting there while we're working traffic control and getting pedestrians across. They're burning tires going out of there with four police officers standing there that I can't leave and go run them down and give them a ticket. So, they put people out there on the the brick wall last year to to let them know

y'all don't do this and not have the people there to encourage it um for them to do burnouts. It's there's nothing that irritated me more than sitting there and watching that and they doing it right in front of us to not have the respect for us being out there and the respect of the community because yes, they bring a lot of money, but where's the balance at from the complaints that we're getting? And it might not show on numbers all the time because nobody's calling our dispatch center. Um, and I'm I'm not writing down every time somebody calls my phone that I'd have a never- ending sheet of paper. I mean, if my phone stopped ringing today, I'd be just as static,

right? Um, but that is my job and that's why I'm here and I'm and I'm here and I have been working with them to to try to figure out what we can come up with um as a whole to do this. And when we go out there and come zero tolerance, we're always the bad guys because they're coming here and this and we hear it from the people that we stop. Well, I'm coming here to spend money. You're just a stopping me to bring more money to your department. We don't get any money from the the thing. It goes to buy, if you want to call it charity, it goes to buy school books for kids.

Sure. So, and that's what I tell people sometime when they, you know, throw it out there. I mean, I'm a common sense kind of guy and, you know, and I'll joke and and beat around the bush with all of them. If, you know, they give me a smart remark, I might give it back to them that it ain't buying me a new toaster because I'm writing near a ticket. It's going to school kids. So, um, but we just want them to understand that there's got to be a overall where we've got to either come together for something. So these numbers are going down even more that we're not having to deal with it.

Okay. I'll ask you and then I'm going to ask the applicant the same question. In the same way we have these occurrences. Is it the town's responsibility, the visitors bureau's responsibility or the applicant's responsibility to try to bring an end to the problem issues? I think it's on the applicant's responsibility to be the most. We have to work together, but I think the applicant needs to bear the brunt of the the responsibilities. If they if the event was not here, and I'm a common sense guy, if the event was not here, we wouldn't have those problems. So, I think the brunt of the responsibility becomes on the applicant.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And I'll ask whoever from the applicant wants to answer that same question. Ultimately, we have the best conduit to get the message out to the offenders. And we don't know so much that it's the same people doing this each time. Yeah.

With 100% enforcement. If we put the message out there that this isn't going to work and in some way partner that message with the police department, whether it be a PR campaign with videos with police car in the background or something that they see, we're working hand in hand. That might work. Um, but again, us just point blank saying, "Hey, don't do this," doesn't mean they're that somebody's not going to do it. Somebody's going to get itchy.

I mean, it's it's like uh Chief Hail was saying about the the people in in the house that were have paper signs, do a burnout, you know, they're being encouraged by people that aren't even involved with the cars at all. They just want I want to see fun, you know. Um there's other elements that again we can only control when we see it that burnouts leaving the event site. We found it was that situation where there were people sitting on the wall and around the sidewalk at the exit of of the event site. So we have created a no spectator zone in that area. So there can't be anybody sitting there, you know, when the guy is idling waiting to get out and they're sitting there telling, you know, do a burnout, do a burnout. another one of those things that we have tried to snuff it and figure out cause and effect.

Um, we can turn up the heat a little bit more on our end. U, the Pro Street guys and and all all the, you know, I talked about the the low rider guys. You got different clubs from different places and and and when I say club, it's not like a motorcycle club. Uh these guys, they they just get together, crews, go out to dinner or something. But the Pro Street guys, um you know, they have their own little network

and they've worked real well with us. We tell the guys at the top what's going on and they put the word out, hey, y'all can't do that. Don't go here. Don't do this. You know, so we've had good good results working with them. It's probably some of the other smaller guys, independent guys. I know one of the problems when when we had issue at uh at Ben Franklin's we went up there and ran everybody off. We had a whole group of cars from Curry Tuck. They weren't with the cars yet. They just came because there were cars here and they wanted to see the cars and they were doing burnouts. I could tell you looking at the pictures, one of those burnouts was not a high performance car. You see it? They back it off and it gets the car at an angle. It started at an angle and then went straight down the road one tire.

That's that's not typical of the high performance cars that that we're seeing out here, you know, but uh I I think we can use our our conduit, our uh social media platform, and the one-on-one. You know, I talk to the guys, Michael talks to the guys, and uh, you know, we can do a better campaign of getting the word out. Can we get that number down to zero? In a perfect world, we would, but I I don't think that's plausible. I mean, just like we can't stop everybody from running the stoplight at 8th Street, right? You sit out there every day. We all know we stop for red, right? Yeah.

But they don't. So, thank you. You're welcome, sir. Does anybody else have any questions of Mr. Quidley or of the chief? Doesief.

Actually, if you can get closer to the microphone, just make sure. Okay. You can be heard. What I wanted to ask when you were talking about us trying to calm this thing down, would you be willing to do some type of video with your police car with us in one of our cars and saying, "Hey, if you want this thing to continue, you've got to do this, this, and this. We can say it and then you say it, but they see us together." Then that makes our participants not think you're against them. You want to make it work just like we want to make it work. So have you in uniform, us in our uniforms with our cars and go to the event site if it's okay and do a video say, "Hey, we love having this, but we're not going to continue to have it if it's keep going like it's going and what do you think? You think we can do something like that to because these guys are visual. If they see that, you can tell them and tell them and it's great. But if you give them a video like that with us hand in hand, I think that's going to hold a lot of weight, brother. I don't have a problem with that at all.

Yeah. I I think What do you think, Richard? You know, what do y'all think? We'll defer. Thank you. All right. Does the Does the board wish to receive any other evidence before we conclude this hearing? Anything else at all? Anything from the applicant?

All right. All right, at this time we will conclude the evidentiary presentation and the board may begin its deliberations. I will point out that the board has um just to help guide your discussions here, the board has at least three um potential actions that it can take here. One would be to uh to deny the permit application. Another would be to uh direct that staff approve the permit application. Uh and then third, uh the board could direct that staff approve the uh permit application with conditions.

Thank you. I I don't know if the board has a starting place. I want to ask the manager having heard that um giving some thought to it. Um is there any recommendation from staff at this point? Well, obviously we've talked about this, you know, I mean, in large part, you know, constructively we thought we would hear some suggestions on how to make this a better event. But we've also uh come up with a list of things that we think could make it a better event. Obviously, we would have to get agreement from the applicant to accept these things, but I can show you them. I've got it on on I can put it on the screen if you want to review that.

Sure. Yes. a little better.

So, so one of the things that you know, um, we know is that inherently a lot of the vehicles are probably in violation of the noise ordinance. Um, you know, but we get most of our complaints late at night and I know the applicant has tried to self-impose a curfew, uh, which is very difficult to enforce. Um, one of the things we would suggest is an a curfew that's 900 p.m. for the engine noise. And then, um, we would we would offer to have additional staff working um, for the duration of the event. And that would be onduty staff, not offduty staff. And so that'll that's another condition we have further down the list. But the first item would be a 900 p.m. curfew for vehicle noise. um you know obviously no burnouts, tire spinning or water placement on public roads. Um that would be a condition that we would be monitoring. Um and then what we would ask is that if we um come across somebody who violates this, we would communicate that to them and then um they would they wouldn't they would agree to not allow them to register for future events. And if the event's still going on, then they would remove them from participation from that point forward. And so, you know, we're hoping that this is an additional tool that gives them some leverage over people that are um here. And we already talked about vehicles being street legal. Um, we put that in there as a um as a condition and that any vehicle that's not legal to operate on public streets shall be transported to the site via trailer. And Perry talked about possibly having some other folks here to help us monitor that. Um, that could provide us with some guidance. So, that's something that we would likely take on outside of any

condition on the applicant. Um, you know, we talk about unauthorized off-site activity. This would be any any crowd permit gatherings that occur in the town um more than 100 people that we the the organizer would agree to let people know that they they're not allowed to do that to organize an activity um without permits. Um so um they would monitor that through social media and then agree to reach out to people who are planning things and let them know of the requirements. Um, we we we sort of tiptoed around this a little bit already, but we would we would ask that they agree to pay for additional onduty law enforcement for the duration of the event. And we we've come up with a number not to exceed $4,000 and we would build them for the actual time based on a $75 per hour rate. Uh but you know, initially um talked to Chief Hail about having two staff on in addition to the normal shift um for the for for about six hours um each day the events occurring. And and we were thinking um 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. would be the time because that's when people are leaving the event site. And so um that's a suggested condition. And then the last condition would be that you know if if we find that the applicant didn't comply with the obligations established by the permit the permit shall be revoked or the revocation shall be considered as part of any future crowd gathering permit. And when we say um the obligations established by the permit, it's not saying that there can be no burnouts or there can be no speeding tickets or anything like that. It's basically saying that they've agreed to do everything that we're asking them to do with these conditions. So, monitor the

social media, communicate to the registrants, you know, um remove people from the event if we find they violated a town ordinance, those types of things. It's not creating a sort of a zero tolerance even though that's what even though that's what we would like. We also agreed it's probably unrealistic to come up with something like that and that that's something that they would question us about is well do you mean that nothing can occur? We're going to lose our permit and that's that's not really what it's saying. Trying to be a little bit more practical than that. Um so anyway that's our list. One thing that I just made a note of um you know I think um if it would be possible and I don't know if they've already done this for this year but adding a number to the sticker might be helpful

and in order for us to sort of um check back in with them you know and sort of reference their list of registrations. So that wouldn't be able to be a condition for this year, but I it could it could be. I mean, you know, they they they may have already issued the stickers. I don't know. But question would be, could they just reissue the stickers and give people a registration number, right, and put it on the sticker? Okay. Anyway, okay. Thank you.

All right. I'll throw this open to the board then. Having heard all of the evidence today, um, having heard that from staff, what's the board's pleasure? I'll I'll start off.

Okay. I would want to start off by saying we certainly don't want to eliminate this event, if there's any way at all to work together and avoid that. Um, we recognize all the good things it brings. It's our responsibility to be really tuned in to the safety issues and and other issues, other visitors and on and on. We could all talk all day, right? So, I but I do want to say we're not interested in, you know, we're not interested in shutting this event down. Um, I want to thank our staff for all the work they did um putting all of this together. It's it's important information and I I'm really impressed that we basically came to an agreement with um both folks answering the question the same way that it's kind of um on the applicant to to help us get to a place where we can all enjoy this event for a long time, you know, and continue. I would like to add I guess it goes without saying that we we definitely want to mandate an afteraction meeting. I think at least one at you know wrap up that seems like a simple thing and um but and I think the only way we're going to be able to monitor a lot of what's going on all around town is going to be with extra staff

because you know this just we have our usual officers on duty and they're doing what they do. So, when we bring thousands of people to town, whether they're registered or not, or they're local or they're not, it's impacting things all over our town and and we and I, you know, you do hear about it. You hear about it from folks. So, whether or not they're calling in and filing complaints, I'm not sure, but um you do hear about it and you hear both ways. You also hear people saying, you know, bring them on. But, so let's just uh I think Chief Hail said, you know, we have to balance it. Guess it's my turn.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the noise, but it's not about what I like. So, that's illrelevant, but um I am really impressed at uh you guys first coming here today and and how hard you've worked on this and how hard you worked on past events to make the numbers go down. I mean, it's obviously that it's obvious from what we've seen the numbers are going down and that's because of stuff that you've done and you're willing to do more and you're willing to take on extra things to to make sure that this happens and I commend you for that. Um, you know, that's really great. Um, I agree with um, Commissioner Vaughn that, you know, there probably does need to be some additional enforcement. Unfortunately, that comes out of charitable funds, but it does kind of go towards public safety and to help the chief out to monitor all this stuff and to make sure the event runs really well and is wellrun and and you know goes smooth and there's less problems. And thank you all. I appreciate it.

I echo what Commissioner um Sanders and Commissioner Vaughn have said. You know, one thing that struck me was when Mayor Cahoun asked um the police chief and uh the applicant who should be responsible um the applicant or the town and you know first thing is probably a lot of people in this room are going well the drivers that are doing the bad things should but in this situation we can't just go straight to the drivers right now with the way it's been doing. The applicant can only do so much. I commend you guys that you guys are willing to work with us and the town can only do so much. But the other thing I've heard that struck me is a few bad apples. And that really where it goes to the point that there's only so much you can do. There's only so much the town can do and those bad apples are going to keep doing what they're going to do. Um, and that's really where it circles back to the police and just having more enforcement is really the best way to figure out how we can get to those bad apples because those bad drivers aren't going to step up and say we're the problem. We've got to find them and we've got to make sure and that's how we do it with extra police. Um I've heard people say it's locals or it's visitors. It's bad drivers. And so we really need to rely on the police that are educated, trained, and can handle this. And by having extra I I really think that can help us with the problems that we can't quite put our fingers on because we're not the bad drivers in this room. Um and that's really the other thing I'll circle to is I've heard zero tolerance and zero incidents. And I really am of the firm belief that we can have zero tolerance. And I don't think we'll ever have zero incidents, but with zero tolerance, with more police presence, we can have zero tolerance. So it won't result in zero instance, but it'll definitely result in less. So that's my

um No, I obviously want your event to go on in our town and I really appreciate that you're willing to to work with us and maybe have some conditions about how we work together. Um, I agree that maybe for at least this year having an additional police presence in town just to kind of keep an eye on what's actually happening would be, you know, above and beyond what our regular officers are doing on the street would be beneficial. And maybe that's, you know, maybe the word gets out that Nags Head has zero tolerance and then the word kind of spreads and spreads and then we don't need that in the future and hopefully that money could go back to charity. But um you I think for this year just because there are are public safety concerns that sounds to me like a good idea just a conditional you know granting of the permit with maybe paying for extra police presence. And I don't know if it's too late for this year but like having street legal vehicles does seem really important for your liability as well as the town. So I know people can lie about that but at least you like if they lie then that's on them. like at least you have something saying that they have I don't know they're checking a box that they are street legal at least. Um so those are my comments.

Um so are are we endorsing the list essentially of conditions that the manager suggested? Okay. Um that includes the additional enforcement. Yeah. At the applicant's cost that with the addition that Commissioner Vaughn mentioned of the after meeting. Well, and and I would hadn't gotten to that yet, but I would make that a condition on all parties, including the town. Yeah. that there is an afteraction meeting with minutes distributed to all parties

for every event uh for this event

for this event um you know it's a it's a difficult one um you know the and the applicant is in a difficult position it's you know the analogy for me is you know Nagshead doesn't permit factories Because most factories generate smoke, noise, pollution, truck traffic. We don't permit them and then go argue with them when they violate the provisions and they're generating smoke, sewage, and traffic. But you're here and um and we don't have a restriction on your kind of event. We don't want one, but we're in the position of having to deal with all of the things that happen offsite because of what we've allowed to be on site. And and I think we're reasonably dealing with that. I appreciate y'all's tremendous effort in this regard. Um I appreciate all of the benefits. I appreciate the the the hotel stays, the the um the business in um in our restaurants. Um, I appreciate what y'all do for charity. Um, I will say I think it is in part this quiet enjoyment of their property in Nags Head. Um, that has a lot to do with the generation of sales tax in the town of Nags Head uh, as much or more than a single event. And so we want to guard the thing that people come here for. And y'all chose this in part because it's Nagshead and you want to bring people to Nags Head. You don't want to spoil Nag's head, you know, while while you're at it, obviously. So, um, so I I I endorse that um what's been offered, which are those conditions, the condition of an additional meeting, um, and, uh, the

granting of the permit with those conditions. So is John, are we at the point where we can make an an a motion? If you've said your piece, you certainly are. Okay. And and again, I I I would recommend that based on this discussion that the motion be um to d to direct staff to uh to approve the permit uh requested by the applicant with specified conditions with those conditions that you're listing here. Right. Very good. Someone make that motion.

I'll make a motion that we direct staff to approve the permit given the conditions and the the after meeting and the after meeting. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Very good. I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

I. opposed. Thank you. Board will be in recess for about 10 minutes. All right. So, the board has returned to uh its its meeting and board's return to business. Thank you staff for having a little snack for us and uh we'll go back to doing things in order. And Joe Estine Shoreline Management.

Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Um so this is a continuation of the January presentation where um staff provided an update on the direction we intended to take for the um four sites um that are four pilot sites recommended in the estuary and shoreline management plan today. Um before you are scopes of work to um carry out those recommendations. Um so I'll give a brief summary of each site but we're going to ask for is approval of the scope for McAdams to um carry out their work at Southside Road, approval of environmental professionals scope of work at the Southside Road related to um public engagement, approval of environmental professional scope at the Catfish Farm Causeway site, and then approval of budget amendment 7.1 as well as approval of the capital project ordinance amendment number 11. Um, so just a brief summary of where we're at. The Harvey Soundside Event Center, um, we submitted our major permit application January 14th. That is still under review. We have not gotten any feedback yet. The Vadunes Drive project area. We've contracted with Environmental Professionals Incorporated, their principal being George Wood to engage with those property owners to better understand sight specific needs and identify alternative and implementable solutions there. Southside Road project area, we had a little bit of back and forth with the RCCP team about a design and to ensure that we had a design that was um able to get us to RCCP phase 4 funding. In other words, they wanted it to be permittable permittable and shovel

ready. So, we had a couple um teams meetings and sort of work out how to move forward. We did get their um approval um to to move forward with the site, which is why now you have the scopes before you today. Um and so um that's where we're at with that. Hopefully, we'll sign these scopes and we can begin um engaging those property owners along the burm section and do the necessary public engagement. And then with the catfish farms causeway site that was the pivot site from the villunes drive site to utilize the RCCP 3 phase three which are really planning and design funds to come up with a design for living shoreline that protects the catfish farm shoreline as well as the causeway. Happy to answer any questions. That's all I have for you today. Anybody have any questions for J? You've been involved in the shoreline to a great degree. Any comments?

Um, just really happy to see it all finally coming together. I know you've been working really hard and it's and it's taken a lot of effort and you've had a little bit of push back, but you know, I'm glad you guys persisted and have, you know, gotten it all together and yeah, I'm really excited about this project. So, thank you. Do you think we should revive the committee so or at least tell them what's happening? Um have a meeting with the committee because I was on there too and I think the people who were on the committee might be interested to see what came of the work of the committee.

I'm certainly amenable to that. Um would staff like motions and action or is it required on all of these items including the considerations? I mean I realize the budget amendment and the capital project amendment are. Would you like for us to to actually take action on each of these items? Um I don't think they need to be separate. I think you could just Can we do this all in one motion, John? Yes, sir.

So, so a motion for all five items then would be in order. the McAdam scope, the scope for environmental profession professionals for the sound side and then for causeway and the capish farm and then for our budget amendment and our capital project amendment. We can somebody can do that in one motion if you're willing. Can we say we I would like to make a motion to accept staff's recommendations on Five of these. Can Can I be that general? Do I need to be more specific?

You You also need to approve the budget amendment and the capital project amendment and approve the budget amendment and the capital project. All right. Do I have a second to that? I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? outside of the motion um to reconvene the committee at least for an update on the progress of their All right, but that's not part of the motion. Um all right, hearing no discussion, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. That brings us to actions necessary to approve the beach nourishment project notes to proceed. Uh good afternoon mayor and commissioners. So this is one of the last action items um that is going to be required for from the contractual administration standpoint uh to go ahead and proceed with the 2026 beach nourishment um project. The uh this project uh the preliminary schedule that we've received so far from the contractor is scheduled between May and August of this coming summer. But uh prior to commencing with construction and the staging of material and equipment, there's a lot of logistical things that need to occur. Uh we've got a inter agency pre-construction meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Um we've got a pre-construction survey that needs to be um completed as well as clearing of the pipeline corridors to go ahead and meet permit conditions. So, as the contractor proceeds with this indepth planning as we get closer towards construction, uh we'd like to come back to the board in April to go ahead and uh give you some more in-depth detail about the project that we can also use to go ahead and publish out uh to the public. Um but uh today we just would like to ask for board consideration to authorize the town manager uh to issue the notice to proceed to Weeks Marine for the 2026 beach nursery project.

Very good. Thank you, David. Any questions first for David before someone makes a motion? All right. And a motion would be in order. I'll make a motion to approve the notice to proceed. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Have a motion. A second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. Oppos. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um let's see. That brings us, I believe, to uh new business number two, which would be committee reports. And I'll stop start at my my left with Molly. You don't have a committee. I have no committee report. Fix that. We got to fix that, too. All right. Thank um I have I don't have a committee report because Kelly gave an excellent one for the septic health committee complete with the exciting news about the email for the grant. Um but I have more to say under my commissioner's agenda. Should I just wait until

Okay. All right. Nothing further to add on the shoreline committee. Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it.

Um I'm happy to report about the tourism board. Um I guess highlights from our last meeting. uh they adopted uh anou between the county and the tourism board for the pickle ball courts and the use of the pickle ball courts and all that. Highlights for that will be the courts will be for residents and visitors and they talked about promoting um tournament play there. We talked about that earlier regards lighting. So, um, we we I did confirm I mean they they go through the county first to the tourism board and then to the town of Nags Head. And I did confirm that they, you know, they would need to comply with all of our permitting requirements, rules, and regulations. And then other than that, there's a really busy schedule at the event site starting with sunset festivals and things um at the boardwalk, I guess, starting this month.

So, a lot of things be pardon. Is that new? Sunset festival. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't I can get you a a whole calendar, but there's two or three a month according to the the schedule. Yeah. Something called a sunset. Yeah, I think it is. There's a there's a lot going on down there, including the rod and custom festival on the calendar. And nothing. Thank you. And I have nothing to report from Janette. It's true. It is. It is. Um, all right. So, that uh John, do you have anything for us from the town attorney?

The only thing I have I've mentioned this to uh to the manager, but we're going to be proposing a fee increase, but I'll be submitting that after the uh CPI calculation for February is reported, which won't be until after next week. Remind us when was your last fee adjustment? 2023. So, three years ago. Very good. Thank you. Um, that does bring us to the town manager. Andy, do you have anything? Nothing else. Thank you.

Okay, great. All right. And that brings us to our board of commissioners agenda and commissioner. Um, all right. So, I think I'm assuming everyone's had time to look over the budget. Um we have the GAC budget for 2627 in front of us. Um this is approved by the government education access channel committee but it also has to be approved by each board members governing board. Um so unless there's any questions um the membership fees are the same. Uh it's a tremendous return we get from this. So if there aren't any questions I'd love to have a motion to approve. I'll make that motion.

Have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Have a motion and a second to approve that budget. Um, any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Thank you. Anything else from? I did want to add one thing. Um, I noticed you shared it yesterday and I shared it also, but the government education channel just put out a great video about our beach nourishment project that's coming up. So, if everyone could share it, it's a really great video. It's super informative and I think a lot from it. Thank you.

Uh, that brings us to the mayor's agenda and it's that time of year when we request nominations for the White Keeper and the Nag's header awards. Um, and so we ask that those be delivered to the town clerk's office by April 15, 2026. Uh the nomination forms are available online on our website. Uh there is a page on um let's see what's this page called honorariums. And uh the the criteria for the Naghead lightkeeper. Uh this is to honor persons who have shaped the image and direction of Nagshehead making significant contributions to the town through their time, actions, talents, and dedication. Uh nominees should be outstanding individuals who've been involved in community service such as boards, commissions, task forces, agencies, volunteer organizations, or community groups and shall have demonstrated sustained commitment to our community. And they will be perceived by the citizens of Nags Head as leaders. Those are living recipients. Um uh for those who u are deceased, the Nags headquarter recogni recognizes a special deceased person who has made a difference in the town and who has shaped the culture of Nags Head since its incorporation in 1961. Um I think we all find great joy in making these awards. Um in the case of the Nags Header to generally to their family. Um and uh it is um it is a meaningful and moving day. Um and those uh awards are profoundly appreciated by the people who receive them. So I ask that the community give thought and bring forth those nominations, please.

Um we do not have a closed session. Is there other business to come before the board before we adjourn or recess to our workshop? All right. Um, in that case, um, I make a motion that we recess to our fiscal year 2627 budget workshop. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. board is recessed to its workshop which gives you a little bit of an overview of what we did last year and then what we're expecting to see this year.

It talks a lot about um sort of revenue forecasting and then big big picture items and large projects and initiatives that we're expecting to come forward. But really really not a lot of discussion or um um needing input. Certainly provide any input that you feel you want to but um certainly not expected just more of an informative discussion and then we'll come back at the April meeting and have another workshop which we'll present the CIP to you. And so hopefully the strategic plan helps set the stage for what you're going to see in the the CIP and it's not not a lot of surprise or new information. So anyway, very good. Amy.

Amy. Hi.

Okay, I can try to go quickly, so feel free to stop me if you have any questions. And we just have an agenda. We put a few things uh just so you kind of know what's we're going to talk about today. And I just wanted to put the calendar up first of all so we kind of know what's coming up. We have another workshop. Um the budget's going to be presented in May. We have a workshop after that and then we'll have to adopt it either June 3rd or June 17th. So that's kind of the next budget items that we have. And um I know Andy wanted me to talk about kind of where we are now, like what happened last year. Um we did a rebal last year. Um properties increased about 60%. We did not adopt a revenue neutral rate and um the board actually adopted a higher rate than the manager's recommended rate. And that is because we of all the towns we had the lowest tax increase um of all the recommended budgets. Ours was like 1.13% and I think the highest was close to 5%. So, um, we were going to actually lose close to uh over $400,000 in our shared revenues. Shared revenues being occupancy, sales, and land transfer tax. So, I I guess I'll back up there really quick. So, shared revenues are distributed according to our tax levy size, which is our valuation times our tax rate. So, when other towns raise their tax rate, it our distribution, we're going to get less. Um, and the shared revenues lag a year behind. So, whatever tax increases or changes or nothing happens, whatever happens the year in say this year in

2026 when we adopted the tax increase, that affects our percentage for fiscal year 27. So, it lags a year behind. So, the board was very forward thinking and and acknowledging that, you know, we kind of had to protect our share because that's what the other towns were doing. So that's kind of where we are now and why we did what we did last year which this side pretty much talks about that. And I guess uh what we had put when we did the recommended budget what we had put in the planned budget for the shared revenues um was 10.6 million and I'll talk about how we're tracking that after this. Um and because the board did what they did which raise the tax rate that preserved that um shared revenue for the budget we're coming into 26 27. So thank you very much for making my life easier this year. Um and again part of that tax increase was a breakout that was the the total townwide tax. So we did put some of that tax increase into the townwide beach nourishment tax. So it was not just a tax, you know, for the general fund. It also knowing that we were, you know, at that point contemplating a project, not knowing what was going to take place, we did put some of that tax increase into the townwide beach nourishment part of tax, if that makes sense. And that part does also increase our levy. So whether it's divided between the, you know, the general fund or the beach nourishment tax, that all helps us. So that's kind of what we did. And with the extra tax increase, we were able to fund balance appropriation, which is meaning we use our savings to balance the budget because we don't have enough revenue. So, that's really helpful in helping with our fund balance percentage. And one of the reasons the board did that was because uh I'm going to go to the well that will be another slide, but we were not doing tracking on target with

our shared revenues last year. So, um we were you know in like a $500,000 deficit with our budget. Um, so when we when we use less of our savings, that helps our fund balance. So that was that was one of the measures we did. So that's kind of where we are now and what happened last year. Um, and I just wanted to go over the beach nourishment rates. Um, again, we talked about the town Y tax and with the revenue neutral rate that was not only for our adorum tax, that was also for our MSD tax. So we had to revalue that also. And um, we When we calculated MSDS one and two, they were the same rate. So we calculated them the same essentially adopted the revenue neutral rate. Um and we just kept the half cent and the one cent in um MSD3 and four just because how much lower can you go really? So um and I just put you know what one cent generates. Um we're going to talk about beach nourishment as our last slide. We dropped the MSD rate for MSD6. There was never a tax rate in MSD5. And the reason we dropped them, again, it was only a half a cent, but we use them to help fund the master plan study. That study's done. We're not nourishing in those areas. So, we are not asking them to pay for the next project. So, they helped pay for the plan, which was important, but they're not getting sand in that area. So, it's the north of Bonnet Street. And we are not likely to recommend um any beach nourishment tax rates or any anything like that unless the board um I know our financial advisors came and talked to you about that. We're actually going to have a call with the LGC Monday about our beach nourishment financing and we're going to talk to the Carters I

think on Friday. So, just kind of where we are now again. Um This is kind of what I was talking about with the shared revenues where they're tracking. You can see last year that is not good because the budget is blue. What we actually got is orange. This year we're within $50,000. So um we're tracking really well and um I I kind of broke that down further. So occupancy is down 2% from last year. Um sales tax exact same. I think within like $300 of the budget, land transfer is up, but occupancy the the budget for occupancy or the revenue for occupancy tax is four times the revenue for land transfer tax. So even though land transfer tax is up by 5%, that 2%'s hitting us, you know, a lot harder than that increase. So what I'm thinking of doing is, you know, probably budgeting somewhere between 10 and a half and 10.6 million just to see, you know, what comes in later this year. So again, appreciate the board being so forward thinking to this year. That's one of the benefits of a two-year budget, right? Um and I just, you know, Andy always has mentioned that, you know, sometimes you can see what tipping fees are like, um, compared to occupancy tax and tipping is down, but recycling is up. So that's good. Just fun fact. Um, and then I I think the direction from Andy was um we're going to move forward with the assumption of no tax increase um or changes, but that's, you know, the board's decision and we've had a lot of requests. That's all I'm going to say. We'll we'll filter through all that. That's our job. Okay. So, the water sales, just wanted a quick update on water revenues. I think, you know, I appreciate again the board being so forward thinking with the smart meters. I think the conservation aspect of this

is working because interestingly enough. Um the gallons purchased are down by 5%. But so are the water revenues. So to me that's saying people aren't using as much water, but we're also not buying as much water. So um we are up by 5% with our water sales, but we had a 5% water rate increase. So, we're tracking pretty much the same as last year. And again, the down the gallons are down by 5%. Um, we are down as a as a total as the the total cost of buying the gallons just because our water rate decreased. So, um, I don't know what will the board would like to do with the water rates. Um, I know that was one of our strategic items with the water conservation. Um but perhaps you know any drastic changes um might be better once we get a better picture a more clear picture of the water master plan being complete which has to be complete by the end of this calendar year as well as some of the outcomes of our legislated efforts. So that's where we are with that. Um just wanted to talk briefly about some personnel items that we have seen so far. Um, we're actually meeting with our broker tomorrow at 9:00. Um, Jana had indicated probably using 5% based on what he had um what she's heard through the CPAC meeting. Um, and that's about $100,000, which we did account for. We did do a when we did the plan your budget, we accounted for a health insurance increase because it's probably not ever going to be zero. So, um, and we have currently using 3% as the placeholder for the CPI. Um the January the light the latest information was 2.4. Um you can see the cost of that. Um that can change but we're just using that as a placeholder right now because

usually the towns like to kind of get competitive with that. Um so we so we rounded um and there there have been some personnel discussions. I know we briefly discussed them at the strategic planning workshop. Um, we've seen uh requests for facilities notion rescue. I won't go over that today. That will be something we'll talk about perhaps at the next workshop. That could be better articulated by the department heads. Um, going to continue on with our total rewards philosophy. Um, looking at implementing the pay study. We budgeted 250,000 and 27,000 in the general water funds respectively. That's about what she's going to one of the recommendations came out about that much and maybe a little bit more with the benefits, but so far we we planned for that. So that's good. Um and we are wanting to hopefully you know implement some engagement survey and benefit recommendations as well from from our engagement survey and from the pay plan benefit comparison. So just some person high level personnel some capital that we've seen um is we are still we're we're engineering currently the multi-use path between Keralista and Southside Road. Um we are engineering that now. So hopefully we'll be in a good position to be able to construct that next fiscal year. Um we did get $750,000. Thank you Visitors Bureau. They gave us a grant for that. So if the is about 1.9 million which is what David has calculated. We'll probably need to finance that. I I can't see paying a million dollars plus for for that. So that'll likely have to be financed if that gets approved. Um just wanted to you know uh maybe for some of the new board members maybe they don't have understand the debt payment for the public service complex and the smart meters. So the 1.2 and the 437 that's

1.2 in the general fund and 437,000 in the water fund. So, we did increase the tax rate and the water rates to help pay for those when we took on that debt, but that is something we will continue to be paying for over the next close to 20 years. Um, some of the street resurfacing projects, I won't name all those streets, it's about $600,000. Um, we will use a mix of Powville money and some thousand perhaps to offset that. Along with that, we're doing um clo closed loop water distribution. This was on Ray's uh wish list. Since we don't really have the water master plan um ready yet, we're kind of um taking care of some low hanging fruit that our staff has identified. Um we have a sanitation truck, excavator, beach accesses designed for hard road and the beach multi-use path design. That's 100 combined. We did get a $400,000 grant for Hard Grove from KMA and um I will be applying for probably another 400,000 um in September from the visitors bureau to pay for the rest of it. So that's the plan. Um beach nourishment. This is my last slide. Um uh hopefully I don't know how long this is taking, but um just like I said, um you've seen some of this already. Um, we're bringing in about $2.7 million between our townwide and MSD revenues, another 600,000 with our sales tax that we get. Um, the the sales tax the the levy that our MSDS create, that extra levy has to go back to which the purpose it was raised for, which is beach nourishment. So, um, that's that's where that extra is coming from. Um, we have an 11 million reserve in our fund balance right now for beach

nourishment in our capital project or capital reserve fund. We also have extra funding left over from the master plan because I feel I I think we couldn't do some of the permits that we had budgeted for. So that could also be used towards the project. We can put down about 14 million. Again, the mix will be decided by the board, but recommended, you know, we'll bring that to the board based on the best recommendations from the LGC and our financial advisors. Um, we do need to have cash set aside. We can't drain it completely for PGO projects, engineering survey, the DUNE uh management plan that we that we offer. Um, and we have to keep in mind that I know the financial advisors talk about coverage. So, we can't be like a one to one. Like if our debt payment is a million dollars, we can't bring in a million dollars. You have to bring in like $1.2 million. So, we have to account for that cushion whether it be the fund balance that we keep or um I don't I don't think we're going to recommend taxes, but it is important just to note we can't it's just not like a one for one. We have to have a cushion that the banks require. Um, and I guess just with that being said, um, putting down that large amount of cash, um, I know earlier I think we mentioned Dare County is giving us $13 million towards the project. Um, when we do use that large amount of cash to put down, it is not forward. So it helps us now, but it's not really looking at kind of doing where we're at now is we're we're not having to raise taxes because we've slowly built that fund balance. So perhaps maybe not next year, but maybe in 28 in the plan year, we can start like planning for that again. So we don't have the spikes. That's what we're trying to avoid is large spikes in general with water, with beach nourishment taxes. So I think that's kind of the path that we're taking. So

perhaps you might be agreeable to see, you know, some capacity building back in 28. That is all I have. Um hopefully I didn't go too fast. Don't know if I was confusing. Happy to answer questions. All the departments are here. Short and sweet. Yeah. No, I mean that's I think what we just needed was kind of that overview at this point. I think that's good. I think perfect for today. Yes. Not too much though, Amy. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Nobody questions for Amy at this point. No, that's all right. Okay. All right. Staff, anything else for this?

Oh, I'm good. Thank you. Okay. All right. Then, um then, uh all that being said, um we covered other business uh before we took that little break. So, um, we need to we need a motion to recess to the midmon meeting, Wednesday, March 18th at 9:00 a.m. So, move. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppos. Thank you.