Planning Board - Regular Meeting

and we begin. Good morning. We are live here on uh February the 17th planning board meeting in Nags Head. I want to welcome you all. Um glad to have you with us today on this chilly morning. I'm going to first of all ask for the approval of our agenda. Can I make a motion to approve as is? I second as motion and a second. All in favor? I I

And the motion passes. Thank you. Um public comment. Is there anybody here that wants to address the board? Seeing none, we will move on. Thank you. Um, the next order of business will be the approval of minutes. I make a motion to approve the minutes as they have a motion. I'll second. We have a second. Thank you. All in favor? Thank you. All right, we are moving on to very rapidly action items. And Kelly, good morning.

Everyone. So, the first item that we have up this morning is um we're revisiting it from last month's meeting. It's the group development for TWWs. Um, and let me bring up really what I believe the only um thing that we need to touch on today is. I'm happy to go through the entire staff report like we did last month if anyone has any questions. But it was my understanding that after going through um talking about the scope of the work that they were proposing um uh converting the most recently approved storage between the two existing buildings to retail and then building two other buildings. um one having two units in it, one unit dedicated solely to storage, the other to retail and storage, and then a third building um furthest west. That building was going to be dedicated to art gallery and storage. They had parking, uh storm water management, septic infrastructure, all shown on their site plan. Uh when we talked about that, um they were compliant with coverage, um, parking, storm water management, buffering, all of those things. Um, so when it comes to the the use standards and the development standards, those were all met. Um, but what we did talk about at length at our last meeting was the proposed architectural design. And um what was brought to you at that time did not fully meet our architectural commercial architectural design

criteria. Um and this board had said um you know please go back work with the um the applicant to try to incorporate more architectural elements. Um, at the same time, this is a special use. Uh, it goes through the special use process with the public hearing being scheduled. This board um was not interested in uh pausing or delaying that. So, we did go ahead and schedule the public hearing for March. It's been advertised. Um, the public hearing, the adjacent property owner letters went out yesterday, although I realize now it probably did not go out in the mail since it was President's Day. It'll go out today.

Um, and then we'll also put a sign out there. Um but uh if you had a chance to look at your staff report, you will see that staff has noted um that uh the applicant and the architect went to great lengths uh clearly to incorporate um elements architectural design elements that we now believe um it clearly meets the intent of our commercial architectural design standards. So what you have in front of you um on the screen right now is um building A. So this is the building that is furthest west. Um this is proposed to be art gallery and storage. Um this used to be one continual building at the 35 foot height. You can see they've dropped this down. Um you can see from this image. So we actually have two roof heights here. They've dropped it uh to give that one story appearance. We've got a pitched roof. So that gamrell roof has gone away and we now have a pitched roof. Um and we know that that's one item that we highly um desire with our Naxad architectural design. Um we have um larger dormers that have incorporated into them the double hung window. Even if it's a faux window, it does give the appearance of double hung and we've accepted that in the past. Um they're even showing uh faux shutters on the elevations as you can see. And we know um shutters are

also a big part of that um architectural style. Uh as far as um designating their entrances, um we have a little roof over the entrance. Um and we have this dormer again um elongated dormer with pitched roof. Um this in our previous iteration um because of the gamal roof, this porch roof kind of looked a little wonky, made it look topheavy. So that's gone now. Um and as you can see from this side elevation, uh this does give the um appearance of a porch of that wraparound porch look that we strive for. Um, previously, um, there were columns along these areas, um, maybe more more columns, a little, um, uh, skinnier, but what they've done now is boosted those columns up. They're a little bit larger. They're more architecturally appealing. And so, we've got that column trim as well. Um, you've got your horizontal um, siding. lap siding on the bottom to give it that grounded look and then you've got your um vertical board and batton up top. And we also now have a gable bracket. So they really um made a lot of effort to bring these buildings into compliance. This is building A. Um but if you scroll down um you can see where they've incorporated these elements into building BC. Um, we do have the one roof height, but they've incorporated a shed

dormer. Um, you can see here again these same larger dormers with the double hung windows. Um, the variation in siding. um column trim, these larger columns with column trim and kind of architecturally highlighting the entrances here as well. Um even if you look here on the back, um we've got our double hung windows here. We have some faux shutters um and these little uh uh roofs over the entrances which are going to be beneficial. Um and again, we have bracket. So, um that being said, again, I can go through step by step um all the development standards, but it really seemed like the last time we met the architectural design was um the point of conversation and with what they've proposed now, staff does um recommend approval of the group development as it's proposed. um including the revised architectural design scheme.

Thank you, Kelly. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Are there any questions? No, I like it. Okay, nice work. Yeah, looks great. Anybody want to speak on behalf of the applicant? No. Um anybody want to Have discussion or make a motion. I'll make a motion that we approve the plan as shown. A second. We have a motion and have a second. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor? I say I.

Nobody opposed. Thank you. Motion is approved. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. This could be a short meeting. Imagine that. Don't Well, I'm sorry. I won't I won't pre-exist the rest of her ass. Is that a promise?

Yeah, I guess more of a threat. I just want to say how how nicely this all worked out and and I really appreciate the staff's effort um on that as well as the applicant and the um architect. I think it they did a great job making it look more residential and blending in very nicely. So, I'm very pleased on how that turned out. They really did. I I appreciate and I appreciate the board being willing to let them stay on track. um with their their special use. So

yeah, I saw I saw a lot of work towards a consensus there and I appreciate that. Okay, we are now moving on to the second action item. All right. Um, this one probably go pretty quickly too. Um, so I think everyone except Ms. Head probably remembers when this came before the board about a year ago. So everybody on the board has seen this, but you might have seen it as well through the village

and other Yes. in other avenues. Um, but so this is a a site plan review for construction of an EMS station right across the street um on Case Drive. And uh this board has already seen this uh site plan approvals unless you go through the vested right process which elevates it to a special use in this case. um that approval is good for one year and the board of commissioners heard this um in December 2024. So, they just didn't um they're they're ready to pull permits now, I believe, but they just didn't have a chance to pull a permit before the site plan expired. So, we're sending this back through the process for planning board and board of commissioners. Um nothing has changed with the site. Um it is what you had seen previously. Um lot coverage is still compliant. Um in fact when you look at the coverage that was there currently there as the bank um but now the town is having their facilities in there but um as part of this lot coverage is actually going to be reduced. Um so lot coverage remains compliant. um height is compliant architectural design. This building um previously when you heard it uh met the town's architectural design standards. Um because it's in the village, it does go through the village architectural review. Um since your last um look at this, the village has requested um to

move away from the from the cedar shake or from the metal roof and go towards the um cedar shake roof. So, as you can see, really the only thing that's changed in this request is the roof and that's gone from metal to um cedar shake. So, um, again, everything's the same. Architecturally, they still comply. Um, previously, they had shown adequate parking. Um, they're required to have a minimum of 13 parking spaces. They've shown 22 on their site plan. Um, the majority of their parking is done in a permeable surface. Uh so they meet that requirement as well. Um for landscaping um they've shown adequate buffering along 158 um along Cchase um along the perime of the rear as well. Um buildings adjacent to street frontage. They've shown some foundation plantings in there. Interior parking lot landscaping. They've met that requirement. Um their vegetation preservation. Um they're preserving quite a bit. Pretty much everything you see over there now will will continue to be preserved. Um so they do meet that requirement as well. Um for us terms of wastewater, Carolina Water Service has said that they're capable of providing service to this facility. Uh and that's in your packet. We didn't have that last time you saw this, but we do have that now. Um town engineer has reviewed traffic circulation, storm water management. All of that remains compliant as does uh the review from our

fire department and public services department. It's my understanding the village is going to look at this maybe Wednesday or Thursday. Um so, uh they'll be seeing it soon. Um but obviously prior to issuing any building permits um we're going to need that in hand. But everything presented to you today um is compliant with their codes and we continue to recommend approval as it's been presented. Thank you, Kelly. Do we have any comments at all from anybody on this? Does anybody have any questions?

Uh the only comment I have is I appreciate the the changes. You know, this is when it first came in front of us before the the more recent iteration. The station one was relatively young and it's since a year older. Um, and I appreciate the parking spaces off that front apron. Um, that'll be very much appreciated by staff. Um that's something that I know has uh caused considerable um issues because you know who wants to park in front of a garage door unless it's at your house. So um yeah uh so thank you very much and this yeah this is nice.

Thank you. Any other comments? I would think the village would be ecstatic that it has a cedar shake roof. I've been through that. Believe me, I've been through that. I have one question about the the median cut to come in. Yes. Um, is there going to be the elimination of everything west of that cut as far as the medium? Will all that be eliminated or will there just be a cut there and the medium will then continue on the other side of that that cut through? So I think you're asking when it comes to this cut will this will that go away?

Will that go away? Right. I kept it. It can go away. It really doesn't make any difference. Um I just thought it would be nice to have some landscape. We are going to have to cut back the landscaping on the east side. You see there's a line in there where it's cut down 18 inches. Um it can it can go either way. I think it's kind of nice because it otherwise it's a big broad open piece of pavement that Okay. As it as it was without that one vehicle could successfully clog traffic. Yeah. And with that, it's kind of a a little bit of a pause station,

which I think is is is a good idea, especially in this racket. My my only concern was was that and a large piece of equipment trying to make a left turn into the MS station. Well, one of the things we didn't want to encourage were were large trucks making that turn into there. So, um, that's a good point. And the pavement's quite wide behind it. So, for construction purposes, a vehicle can make that turn and get up in there. That's probably one of the first things they'll have to do is cut that out. Okay. And either put some gravel down temporarily or do something until they're ready to pave it. So,

thank you. Any anybody else? Do I entertain entertain motion to approve it as submit? I'll resubmit it. Resubmit. I'll second. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. That makes it unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Nice job, Kelly.

All right. So, we have moved on from the action items to report on board of commissioners actions. And Tony, you're up. Thank you. And there's really not a whole lot to report out for this. Um, so the board met uh Wednesday, February 4th, and we had a couple things on the consent agenda. Uh, one was TWWs, which we just talked about, and um the other request for public hearing was related to the um lighting for the pickle ball court. So, those two items are on track for public hearing. uh the board to make a decision on those at their March 4th meeting. And that is it related to um the board of commissioners actions.

Okay, thank you.

We've got our um departmental report. There's really I can flow right into that. There's not a whole lot um for me to report. I think the primary thing was the next couple of items that Joe has um in terms of his updates. Um let's see here. You obviously already know everything you're doing. Um as far as the septic health advisory committee meeting, we were unable to meet in January, but we are going to meet um towards the end of this month. We are um still waiting to hear back from the Division of Water Infrastructure on where we're at with the zerointerest septic loan program. It seems to be moving in a positive direction. Um hopefully we'll hear back from that soon. Um wanted to give a shout out to our environmental planner Connor Twitty. I don't know if you remember, but um it's been less than a year ago, but quite a while back, um a group from Mount Pleasant Waterworks came up here for a couple days to meet with Connor and learn about our septic health initiative because they were doing something similar there. And um they have reached back out to Connor. their program is up and going and they're hosting a sort of a septic health think tank is what they're calling it like a one-day event for all the people who are dealing with um you know on-site waste water and potential issues to come together and and share ideas. So, um it's uh it's a nice recognition. Uh you know, we're not in South Carolina. We're not part of it, but they recognized that their program was so dependent on learning about ours. So, they've asked Connor to come um present there. So,

congratulate him. That is pick a different name. I think I think I think you lean into something like that. And then um like I said, Joe will be up next for an update on the Estrin shoreline management plan. Um with the snowstorm and the winds, um we've been pretty busy with our sand relocation program. Um again, mother nature has been busy as well.

Um everybody sort of uh was hands-on during that, but we with all of the wind and all the erosion. We had a lot of people really scurrying to get their sand relocation application in. So Connor actually came in um on a day where town hall was closed so that he could get out on the beach and get a jump start with that and Lily came in as well because she was getting bombarded with the dune management cost share. Everybody wanting to take advantage of that um grant money available. So she came in um and processed um all of those and they they continue to come in daily. Um, so I think that storm kind of amped up the number of people participating in this program this year.

Well, please thank Connor for coming in and Lily, thank you.

It it's this kind of a condition just came through and what it how it remodeled the beaches. This is exactly what I kind of have been dithering on about how movable and and and and influx the entire shoreline situation is and how the lines change since, you know, just this is a a reasonable spot during your report. Since getting into that, I I discovered a a a small community south of here, south of North Carolina, that has hired someone a former lo someone who was born and raised here to do a study on a small scale on an island how a lot of these dynamics affect shoreline and how lines can be affected in so addressing a lot of the things that I was speaking about. So it'll be done in a in a small setting but maybe we can copy some of that you know good work later.

Yeah. keep us updated. Yeah, Matt Loer's daughter um was hired for this purpose

and um it it's I took a tour of the beaches that I work on and all of that volume of sand that was moved, all that volume of sand that's deposited um was deposited with reourishment, it's still moving. The question is where is it? Where's it going to go? None of that is really known, but it's not ever going to stop. So this idea that we're building a renourished beach and allowing for straight lines and flat planes in that is a little ridiculous in in a natural setting because mother nature absorb she absorbs a straight line or a flat place. Um everything has to encourage movement and now where is the sand going to redeposit itself and and what other good or ill will come with it? That's the property owners. Um yeah,

keep us updated on the study. Yeah, I was very interested in it, you know, and I've asked I've asked to kind of stay in it because it's it's more or less exactly um I I found out this through a third party, you know, not through through the lookers. Interesting. So, so there will be more and continuous discussion on this. Absolutely. Yep.

And then lastly, um just update on Dowy Park and holiday events in art and culture. We had our um page hosted um the winter market this past Saturday. It was very well attended. Um the art and culture committee is preparing to give sort of a update on this last season and what they would envision happening in the upcoming season to the board of commissioners at their March 4th meeting. Um and then um just recognizing that Pa working on all the summer activities and getting that all lined up. So, um she's got a lot going on these days. That's that's it. Um

are there any numbers from Paige in terms of participation in in these events? um in all of the events or no just just like in the the winter markets things that would indicate the success of of these activities.

Sure. Yeah. Um Paige is really great on tracking the number of people visiting, getting an idea of whether they're um local or visiting and if they are visiting maybe from where. and then um following up with vendors to see what their day was like. So, she's a wealth of information and I don't I don't have that for you today, but if you're interested, that might be something Paige um could come and and kind of run through with everybody if that's something you'd be interested in. If the board is interested in that. Yeah. Yeah. Like to

that would be nice just to sort of gauge the success of that and hear hear from Paige. That would be nice. All right, that's all I have. Thank you, Kelly. So,

that's a good picture right there. All right. Good morning.

Morning, Joe. I'm going to give an update on the estuary shoreline management plans progress. I thought given we have some new members on the board. I would sort of take a step back from just so project specific um on everything and and kind of talk a little about the plan, what the plan's purpose was, what the plan's intent was and and why it's important. I thought I'd start there. you're going to tell them just the primary purpose of the plan was really to develop strategies that prioritize living in naturebased shoreline management projects for each segment of the town's estate shoreline. This includes protecting shoreline from erosion. It also includes the benefits of the natural shoreline such as improved water quality, support for the natural environment. And this plan also mentions that we intend to preserve and hopefully enhance recreational accesses that exist to the south. This um if I if I had to sum up ESMP, it would be the four things that are greener on the left. Let's do more of those. And then the two on the right, if we're doing those, can we incorporate some elements of the living shoreline to make them a little bit refer back to the slide? This comes straight from the plan. I think it's um important as as far as sort of that top town's natural shoreline, there's about 70,000 linear feet of natural shoreline. There's about 50,000 of shoreline. My guess is since this data was collected roughly eight or nine years ago that we got more shoreline. You can see the

impact in those sort of infographics there. have a hardened shoreline. It really causes scour and then searass can't grow as well. It's deeper so it doesn't get as much sunlight that impacts all kinds of natural habitat, you know, amphibians to birds to people like to be able to have that interface between the shoreline. And can I toss in safety? safety. Oh, absolutely. Sure.

So, it's important and you know as as developed and erosion continues, people want to protect their property and there's also a permanent reality that makes it arguably easier to do bulkhead as opposed to shorelines. It also takes a lot more coordination. you know, if everyone has bulkhead and you have a little segment, you can't really have a super eicacious design if you're just doing vegetation only. So, it takes a lot of coordination. It's a major issue for the town. So, I just wanted to

Can I Sure. Can I I don't want to get ahead of you, but if you go back to the other slide, if if the bulkhead was already in place and you're seeing these two juxtaposed here, my question is, is there a way that the bulkhead area could be retrofitted, if you will, to make the wave actions act more like the natural shoreline. Is there any way that you can mitigate the scouring and and and that wave activity once you've done it?

My well, so is it ever going to be as effective as a truly natural shoreline in reducing scour? I don't think so. Are there things you can do to reduce scour and sort of green up your your infrastructure gas plan has some examples of that some sort of stepped baskets that have some greenery you know there's a variety of designs it you know is obviously gets technical as far as how sheltered it is how much wave and wind energy yes

but yes it's possible but is it if you have a hardened shoreline is going to have that energy come back and gets reflected. So I I don't think it can fully mimic nature in a true natur.

One of the biggest issues that I noticed with the varying the two in a storm effect each one of them will be scoured. One will heal, the other one. The question is, does it have mechanical failure? That will make healing more problematic, more of an issue. But there's an averaging effect to the natural and a hope that the man-made will start to collect some natural elements and and impediments that become more natural. you know, kind of stepped in front of take the grass and put it in front of the wall and then you have the same

or you rocks stuff like that to break that up. Yeah, I think that's a a great point and I've, you know, seen videos of sort of post hurricanes with some, you know, natural living and how resilient they are. You know, resiliency gets kind of thrown around a lot, but I think it's really anything you can do to slow water down helps. I didn't mean to interrupt, but that's okay.

Feel free to ask questions and try to com just thought I'd show some photos about town that highlight some of those on that spectrum. Here you have the water obviously you have sort of sandy beach that transitions Right. Then you know thinking about that green to gray spectrum you have a rock here that transitions to March. This is actually Staten Island but it's an example of after Sandy destroyed a lot of that shorine. It just shows offshore breakwater sort of again kind of in the middle of that spectrum you're putting something on the water but can have some habitat value also you know waves are hitting that reducing that energy for this It has a little bit of breakers and then you have that silly kind of see how the entryway is offset, you know, between here's, you know, sort of that far gray side on your left shelter environment right just just examples around. So the shoreline management plan really looked at our entire shoreline. It mapped um and categorized basically the shoreline treatment we have all all along our shoreline. One of the things about our

shoreline is it's largely privately owned. So it makes doing public infrastructure projects challenging. You need easements. You know you need permission. and you're also there's sort of this question about fairness. You know, you're doing something here that's protecting them somewhere else. But this whole idea around it's mostly private, but the consequence of doing nothing is you're getting more and more part of the shoreline and that has major impacts for the town as a whole from a water quality standpoint as well as from a natural habitat which sort of ties into our town values and really our economy. So, we want to protect the natural environment and we want to have better water quality and we want to stay true to our values. And so, we selected some pilot sites that we got funding to do designs. This is the village drive shoreline. You can even see in this photo kind of in that little code at the sort of middle top left of your screen. You can see the dark that's savaquatic vegetation. pering agencies, you know, don't want you to do anything that's going to impact that. It's got a lot of value from an ecological perspective. And so, you know, then you also have the the homeowner perspective of, you know, you want access and and you don't want anything to h you in. We, you know, did a lot of data collection. We collected survey data, metric data. the engineers looked at how much sediment was moving through the water because I think the idea was originally when the tr management plan was drafted that there was this sand that was moving from Jockeyy's ridge and could be collected and created and it would help bolster a shoreline there. Um that at least you know from the engineering

report that they did was sort of shown to be not true. There wasn't really that much sediment moving in the water sort of the hypothes these sort of kind of boomerang shaped islands out there wouldn't be collecting as much sediment as maybe originally put out there you know the plan was designed then there you know became sort of these questions about easements um financing construction and then financing maintenance the long term so we felt like shifting to a different model where the town helps come up with a design and helps throughing maybe on an individual or group level, still staying true to our the point of the plan is to try to continue to maintain our natural shoreline and preserve that and support homeowners in doing so, which this is a key example where we have a lot of natural shoreline that hasn't transitioned to bulkhead. So, we do want that to continue and people not to just bulkhead that all max woods, you know, that private property that sort of touches the um So hopefully this model will will will yield results where we have an engineer that's working maybe on an individual or smaller group basis. Town is sort of taking a lead in designing and and getting to permitting, but then ultimately construction is formed by the homeowner and they own it and maintain it. So it's not a liability that's ongoing for the town. With the Southside road site, this was the concept. I don't in the shown what we had most recently designed with biohabitats. Um but basically similarly people were um you know I think taken aback by the islands concerned about their access

concerned about stagnating water behind it. Um and so we are looking to do a storm water project in the whole Southside road area through David Ryan storm water master plan initiative. And so some coastline protection would work well with that. We've asked our granting agency to really just look at this BM section now which I've kind of draw that white box around and sort of not considering any of the other areas and hope to combine some coastline protection there with a larger storm water project. for property owners. There's a lot of storm water. Why don't we fix the flooding on the road, you know, and also we don't really want or need this offshore breakwater. There's a lot of private property owners. There's a lot of easements. Obviously, people value the aesthetic viewed, you know, the sandy beach there. You know, we didn't want to see grass. So, hopefully this shows, you know, we're listening right there. There's sort of a, you know, really it's concrete aprons that been cut up and and being used as as a rip shoreline, but it's not an engineered um shoreline. It's regularly over top, at least is my understanding. You can see on the left, if you can see the little parcels, there are private property um parcel segments on the water side of Southside Road, which so those people, you know, still would have to grant easements to do a BM of some form. And but if that continues to erode, they'll lose their

rights and just'll just be the road. So hopefully it's something that there's an incentive for both the town and private property owners to work towards a better coastline protection solution as part of a larger project. Is there any example either within the town or locally in a similar environment where there are series of uh you know this is where it began before and after pictures and you know which is incredibly instructive but also really easy to change moods.

Yeah. And in the plan, we um this segment was actually chosen because of sort of the historic shoreline being, you know, much further westward. We do have that and it is in the plan. Actually, one of my next images shows that the RV. Sorry, I beat you to it. Thunder.

The light yellow was the shorine. Here's the orange shoreline. So in some points, you know, you got almost 300 feet that's eroded. Obviously, it's in some places actually there's a little bit seems like, but there so with this site, something we've learned or I've learned through the this process of implementation is ownership really matters and having It's easier to get to consensus with fewer owners. It's just the reality.

Can the areas where on this on the on the bottom section where there's accretion? Um has that has there been any effort to denaturalize that or has that always remained more institute? I'm wondering if if there's a natural example of that of of what you're you're proposing. Um you know that is has been a natural shoreline as long as any of us in the room can remember and therefore that's forever kind of sort of thing and you know so there's an example. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm thinking you know locally hard hardline um on the around Cington on the south side. It's a really hard edge. It's naturally you know very um very active in a storm. a lot of exposure and what it's created is pretty pretty um dramatic situation. A lot happens. Not all good. Um but from a property owner standpoint, I'm protecting what's mine, right?

But you know, I'm wondering even in that situation if there isn't, you know, some level of establishable before and after pictures because I think that there's been a lot of my time here. I think it might look greener, but that's only because you can cut the grass. Um, it's I I've worked many emergency situations make it very hazardous, make it clear that even though it's you're going through grasses, it's still a lot more accessible and safe for everything animals and animals.

Thank you, Joe. Let me ask you a question. What I can't fine print at the bottom. What is the time period between the yellow line and the white line? Um the whiter line I pulled it from I think it's like 1975 and the orange is like 2024. I can't hear the orange I want to say is 2024 and then the white line 50 years about that's is that great eagle the the kind of notch in is that for for a while long time ago that was kind of an access that was

yeah that's interesting

yeah the raceourse there Um so this is the design that is moving forward um this Harvey living shoreline which is going to be right here and hopefully stop that erosion. This has been this basic concept that you're seeing has been submitted to um ECM for a major permit and um as you can see it's sort of a combination of those treatments. You have in the northern portion of the site some offshore breakers. They're going to be quite large. They're about 50 ft long each and 30t wide and about 2 and 1/2 ft above knee high water. So they're they're robust. Um but they are going to have a long weight behind them where they're really detecting a lot of large engaged users of the site people who um go out there in catamarans and made sure that um sort of their access the Harvey site was optimized with this protection scenario. We also had tourism board. They preferred granite as opposed to some sort of proprietary reef or something else because they wanted to ensure that they could get the materials and maintain it the long term felt that they were able to do so with that.

So the sills will have inside it would be granite.

Yeah. And and then there's the sills that are sort of in the middle of They're going to be about um 9 ft wide and about a foot and a half above high water. Um they protect about 200 250 approximately. You know, we also as you can see that gazebo sort of sticks out there. We wanted to make sure that people could stick photos and have weddings and such with sort of the preserve that view code and that's why part of the reason why we went to sort of in front of the boardwalk to protect the boardwalk but behind the gazebo

and then not sure if we'll get approved for this but we're trying we asked to do a little bit of a beach there southside beach on the southern portion allow us off entry um our funding source for this the North Carolina water fund supports that that you know they support public access as much as they support the habitat and natural preservation goals. Um ca my understanding you know you have to have a historic beach to ask to reourish it. There's a lot of marsh plantings where we're saying we want to put beach instead. So, I'm not sure how the permitting agencies will view our requests to improve our public access, but you know, from a common sense standpoint, but you know, people go out there and they're treging through the marsh one way or another. And people are going to still do that. And so, you know, I think it's our our thought that giving people a nice soft sandy beach area to be will help preserve more of the marsh than allowing it to be hodge podge used.

Is is there any existing softish sand beach in the area that is that is that where this is going to be there? Um it's like a little bit sand, you know, like walking out there, there's like a little bit of sand kind of adjacent to I guess I guess what, you know, could we're going to take it from here, put it all together over there. Would that is that kind of what you're is that what you're having to camera.

We're, you know, we've sort of shown on a set of drawings that there's historic imagery if you go back and look at Google maps in like the late 90s and 2000s, there was a sandy beach there and now it's become fragmite and rush and low marsh plants along that. And so if you have a historical beach, you're allowed to at least apply to reourish it. My understanding is the type of asked to put there will be a little bit thicker, denser, so hopefully it has a little bit of staying power.

Um, but we'll we'll just see. You know, I also, you know, in talking to Margaret before she left, our design engineer, she was, and we have another one, but she she was the one who said this. Um, you know, she was talking about basically you can't just put sand anywhere. It'll just wash away. People sort of have this false understanding that like, oh, you can just create a is not going to stay. Um would those uh mar sills help preserve the sand that you would add to those beaches as well?

Um the way the sills are not really, you know, because there the sills are sort of back behind there and then you sort of have this soft fringe where um there's really just vegetative plantings, but there was historically a sandy beach there. You know, Miller is kind of a deeper spot over there and talking to them and coming off that Harvey sound access is a little bit deeper than a lot of the other parts of sound is like a foot or two, you know, then it's like four or five there. It seems like it's a little bit sheltered kind of in that spot. I'm sure, you know, some sand will be will be lost if it's reourished, but historically it was sandy and just kind of had invasive grow all over it. So if that's maintained, I think it's certainly possible that keep it there. um the sills. I'm sure there's been consideration of this when we have one of our generational weather events where the sound empties out and the eye goes by and the water comes rushing back in to the tune of six or eight feet or more. Um I maybe they would withstand that. Probably they would need some repair after that. if they given that some consideration

and that's correct. It probably would need some repair in a major event like that. Um Dr. Luchia actually you know who is doing a living shoreline design for the lost colony you know has been involved because he's doing the boardwalk he's the design engineer for for the boardwalk county. He actually in our calls has mentioned, you know, upping our level of stone one

from what was originally considered if we went with that to have a heavier, larger stone. Um, so it's overengineered and the size of the structures are a little like maybe one over instead of one under both for potential sea level rise in the long term, but also for the the oneoff storm event. But to your point, I'm sure it would need repair and I'm sure there's a level of nature Do u do they also encourage u the development of any small aquatic life right around them?

Yes. And and that's one of the main benefits. It preserves the marsh um behind it and and yeah they you know they have some proprietary stuff now that's like concrete forms or like reef forms that are even more catered to that. But things live in the rocks. Sure.

There'll be a certain amount of alivial kind of deposition. Some of it unknown how this is all going to play, but you know, it's like the earlier picture that was of the dunes area, you had some really interesting nearly like zebra like lines. And it's really wonderful how when you get clear water, you can see some of those alivial effects, but it's going to be interesting to see how it intersees with this to to kind of add on to his. You can have an irres can have an immovable object and an irresistible force in the same perspective. And this kind of the space between these sills will allow for some valving. Yes.

So that it, you know, you can have some pass through. Yeah. And yeah, these are pilot sites, you know. have done this to this extent. So you know and this goes to that point of being a pilot site if everything does move hopefully as I I believe we all believe hope will some really some great satellite imagery capture over time would be super illustrative and and I'm sure would help everybody

and it has the potential to grow back the marsh. I mean you know really these offshore sills they basically protect the march behind it and unlikely but it has that potential you know there's a there's less wave energy it's shallower water you know water isn't coming through as much it'll it creates an environment where vegetation stands and finally I just here's a drone image we took to look at around our catfish farm site protects the causeway. Um, this is where we have looked to move funds to to protect catfish farms are basically you kind of see the tip of the top right. All the area between villages and um Sugar Creek restaurant are what we call catfish farms. Guess there was a catfish farm there at some point but we have town owns them. They're under conservation ementology. We want to preserve preserve that land. It is eroding. There's a ton of fetch coming down to the causeway. All that water just eats land and you can see the causeway too, you know, next to Sugar Creek eventually if nothing's done as you drive, you know, west on the causeway, you'll see the shoreline rip wrapped and that's what they'll do. So, I think, you know, if we could move forward with the living shoreline in this section, it would be a really awesome gateway and also, you know, the real position of providing the same benefit from an erosion standpoint, but It's a natural shoreline quality. What would be really exciting is if we could do oysters. There's different ways of doing oysters.

My understanding at least anecdotally is that they saw that in around Sugar Creek. I've previously heard north of the causeway you can't get oysters to grow. I know. But then you know due to water quality or I guess the salinity but too saline or I think not enough. Okay. But I'm not 100% on that. It's that's that I Yeah, I I we get a lot of interesting fish on the north side of the causeway. So interesting.

If this could be something, we'll at least try and consider this if possible. We might have natural as possible. are great for the environment. So the ideal would be to do something along that catfish farms. I would think that you know from an educational standpoint there there's opportunity here with for partnership

with with you know CSI or Coastal Federation helped us collect the GIS data for this originally water. Charlie's been super helpful with their drone and super accomodating this helps us track. We're hoping to advance the design of the RCCP. I mean here instead of doing all of the breakers that we were doing outside roadside road. It's also kind of a little interesting in this area here. I think well you you certainly remember and I think Dominion and Power Lines through this area and how they felt about it and how their more recent logic and activities have really changed as compared to what they were 5 years ago. So there's going to be a certain understood institutional knowledge that's established and reinforced through these activities that make a lot of the other more commercial developmental stuff more easy to get behind which also supports the end of living instead of just mechanical

right below a set of above ground as as the is what I'm talking about. I just want to that's all I have questions.

Thank you Joe. Let me ask you a question just as a corlary. Um I had a dinner the other night person that is heavily involved over the road island festival park and um he told me that they're expediting the timeline for dredging out of the shallow bag bay and and down there Dodge Creek and stuff. The question that I have for you is, is there any use of the the dredging material in any of the planning for this?

We have no um I'm not sure if there couldn't be, but I think At least my understanding is, you know, with with the reality is most of our areas aren't going to be from our intervention aren't going to be vegetation only. They're going to be on that middle spectrum because of the high energy environment.

And so the silt material in and of itself really we're looking at, you know, either granite or like potentially like something like this in this area. But I don't know that the dredge material it would still need to be compounded with other hardened materials. So I'm not sure if the coordination is worth the benefit of sort of aility but I'm not a coastal engineer and I could be completely incorrect on that. So but it is a good question and and someone else has asked me that too and yeah what you know what do we do with all that material and Is there a potential to use that? Um, I know with like some of the bulkhead repair, you know, you see that where they kind of use the they dredge it and put the bulkhead in and then kind of put it back in the yard as fill.

Yeah. Well, it it's also sometimes with the those projects um when you go down towards Oregon Inlet, there are some very large spoil islands.

Yes. And I know that the state is very protective of operations where they're involved. And because of the very long permitting processes, you got to get involved really early to get involved. And it's it's a little it's almost to me it's a little bit concerning how individualized all these processes are considering that it's it's really affecting a relatively small area that there could be two not two more than two very similar public private state municipal or operations going in the same environment where we all could learn from each other and there's so little long-term, you know, bending toward a a higher knowledge level. That's kind of weird, but you know, there's the internet, so hopefully it'll get there.

Trying to go AI. Is AI going to help these at all? Come on. Um, sorry. I think we're, you know, going from individual private property to sort of regional town is a big but you're right I mean the same thing is true jurisdiction and working I think challenge thank you for the update on that

I I guess what I'm looking at is kind of almost like what you talk about with we talk about with these other regional um issues groundwater this or this or this would there be kind kind of a, you know, a regular quarterly or less frequent gathering of here's everything going on, all the permits that are being even pulled or looked at in this area and where could they be and then we could all look at them and then maybe use that as a revolving, you know, effort understood because we're this is, you know, Nags Head is it's a lot of involvement in But there's, you know, there's a lot of other involvement and interest.

Sorry, I was looking at the state level, you know. Well, I'm thinking about even on the south side of the causeway, we we there was very there's really nothing there, but there's some involvement and some stuff to be learned about all a lot of that. Um, yeah. So, it's a it's a good point.

It you know, I guess it reminds just the sort of the same like wisdom of oh you're going to repave the street might as well you know move utilities or do everything so you're not ripping out the street and redoing it over and over again similar you know you have all this activity going on in the same area and could there be some conjoined efforts of course my thinking is well you know you have separate budgets and separate staffing levels and programs and it's just

I I kind of looking at even more like you know, an unintended consequence or goal of this. You um many, you know, nearly a century ago, more than a century ago, New Galveston had a horrific event. And after that, they engineered and did a lot of big projects. They established this. They established some groins. All of those have had real effects to that area. Many of them quite delterious and loss of life is involved in all that. I'm not saying that any of that is could be part of this process because it's not quite as dynamic. But in areas where you are going to have human involvement for you not to have a sandy beach that people could at least recollect themselves on. You know, if you're creating a hardcape that's difficult to surmount, you know, then you have insurmountable issues to safety. And that that's very much what what I am involved in and work and you know it's kind of why would somebody build like this?

Thanks. So next I was going to give an update on the board. So

your dosa tones are missing. That's for my benefit, Joe. Okay.

Yeah. Um so for the commercial outdoor recreation district, we've been talking about this coming up on a year. Um last March staff created a report that really looked at the existing conditions of the area um from both a background what's happened here looking at the built environment but also what's been planned here. Um and if you look at our comprehensive plan, one of the um things I found interesting was a lot of discussion on the well-bown character area and the connection that we've talked about between the soundside character area. We also talk about the soundside activity node um developing as a high quality mixeduse area as a prime location for recreational uses and hotel development. Further, the area is highly desirable for additional dining opportunities, local boutique style shopping that is designed as a planned highly walkable destination type development. Mixeduse development should utilize vertical and horizontal development with groupings of commercial dining, office and accommodations. This area was identified as appropriate for hotels, more specialty boutique hotels and smaller scale buildings over a single massive structure. We still don't want walling off of the sound. And so when you look at the development that is there, um I think it's more highway commercial. Um people have to drive to each individual site and it does not align with the vision that we've set out in the comprehensive plan. Our zoning um in some ways could be adjusted to um accommodate that vision. We could also look at other strategies such as capital

improvements. Um whether that's an extension of the boardwalk, whether that's trails or sidewalks, an elevated walkway across the highway. I think there's multiple ways you could look to achieve that vision or um all of them together. Um then there is sort of these other elements like beautifification, art, trees, and um the planning board did a great job over from that March till we kind of left off in September and sort of vetting and prioritizing a lot of those elements. Um I sort of broke down in the report a lot of the existing plans that have been considered. you know, the the beach plan was one where it looked at our um the um highway 12 corridor and how it could kind of accommodate a lot of the same things that are recommended in the southside activity node as well as connections between whale bone and that outlet area. Um the US 158 access management plan is currently in our STIP. Um our um secondary transportation improvement program which basically is the funding mechanism for um highways in our um in our area. And um the access management plan recommends basically getting rid of our sort of middle suicide lanes and having a vegetated buffer there and sort of delineated turning areas, but it hasn't been funded. It's been on the stick for years and years. Um, so then, you know, the the existing conditions analysis really looks at the court as a whole. It tried to break it out into different um areas and get a understanding of the character. The Northern Cord, you have the Southside Event Center, which coming through with pickle ball courts. They've constructed a boardwalk. There's a lot

of change there. And then you have some outdoor recreational uses such as the speedway, the flight um first flight adventure park, the um mini golf and really uh sort of epitomizes um our our commercial outdoor recreation district. the central portion. You have the outlets. You have our catfish farms. You have a couple commercial outdoor recreation uses potentially underutilized, underdeveloped lots um at least when looking at our vision and and what we've um hoped this area could be. And then, you know, you have the high density residential landings at Sugar Creek. The causeway cord is a little bit different. You sort of have a mix of restaurants, sort of smaller scale, um, some retail. A lot of it's associated with the sound, water sports, businesses. Um, and looking at the vacant properties in the area. I know that map's small up on the screen, but you really don't have much in the core. You have a a good amount adjacent or around. Um, and it also breaks down sort of your typical square footage of of buildings with the outlets being by far the largest. Um, the the plan really looks at different concepts of boardwalks over time, but in that far right corner that's actually gotten constructed. So now is, I think, a really great opportunity to consider extending that. And we had a public engagement meeting where we had the outlets. We had um the owner of Miller's um come in and and give their support for that concept of extending the boardwalk. Outlets are sort of already used as sort of a satellite parking area for most outside events. And you know, just the idea that the events are happening and that is

causing all of this parking, but people are you know, having to hoop around. It it it it it's sort of s um suggested that this area wants to almost work together, wants to do what the comprehensive plan suggests that this area should be connected. People should be able to walk freely between these different uses and activities and and um I think supports the whoever um was wise enough to put this in our comprehensive plan. Um, in looking at our strengths, I think, you know, we have an existing grouping of of outdoor recreation business is we have the Southside Event Center which has regional and and and even larger sort of scale of events. We have a hotel coming in and now we have another hotel expansion um coming through which the planning board has seen and

um I think those are all strengths. We also have proximity to Janet's pier and the wellbone activity node. I think um some weaknesses are maybe a lack of zoning protection for the full range of C2 uses are allowed by right in the area. So someone could come in and build a large residential private home or um any number of other C2 allowable uses that would break up the continuity of the corridor. Um there's a lack of pedestrian connectivity. Um, I think the multi-use path is important and essential and is great, but it doesn't get to the level of um, what I think our comprehensive plan recommends, really connected, highly planned, easy to walk. You want to go there and walk. You want to park and be there all day and walk and go to the uses. I don't I think it's a way to safely go from A to B, but doesn't quite get to that level of let's park there and be there all day for a day on our vacation. Um, some opportunities would be to improve the pedestrian connectivity to remove incompatible uses, which SP 382 keeps us from doing. So maybe we can incentivize by adjusting our zoning ordinance to allow group developments to also have commercial outdoor recreation uses as a part of it. Um we allow group developments and mixeduse developments but they don't allow um outdoor recreation uses as a part of that. So really just the idea that you could keep your mini golf and you could also have a restaurant or retail and that's okay instead of having to do you know, a group development that doesn't have outdoor wreck. It has indoor wreck in our current definition as as a part of a group development but not outdoor wreck. So, just doing some zoning changes that support keeping the corridor and commercial outdoor wreck rather than someone saying, you know, let's get rid

of the mini golf and let's put in a cottage court with six Airbnbs or whatever. Um, so I, you know, keep it commercial, keep it the public accessing it, and then, you know, the investment in an extension of a boardwalk that could be accommodated into redevelopment of some of these sites. I think that would be um the best case scenario. And so here are some recommendations that we made. Um, and you know, the key recommendations from this whole u um plan were really to improve walkability, enhance the walking experience, strengthen key connections. Um, and and then as we sort of talk through at the planning board level, we um continued to basically talk through and prioritize um and and by August, we really had um we want a boardwalk that extends from the southside event site to the outlets. We should try to encourage more public art in the area, a focus on access and connection to the sound, shade trees that provide some shade relief along the multi-use path corridor, and a blend of outdoor recreation, retail, and other commercial and mixed uses. Um, next steps, you know, we we had our public outreach, a couple people showed up, sent like a hundred letters, only two or three people who own property came in support. A lot of people didn't come. I take that as tacid approval. Of course, we need to do more public outreach, but I it seems like when you send people a letter and they don't like it, they sure find a way to come.

Why take it why take it as a negative? That would be that'd be a bummer.

Yeah. Yeah, I do. Um, but I think our next steps for this um are really to, you know, have a little bit of a discussion at the new board of commissioners um retreat and and see what their thoughts are on all the work the planning board has put into this um sort of honing in on what we want to focus on to kind of create this core that our comprehensive plan says we should and um take their guidance and um Maybe that's um applying for grants for a boardwalk extension and seeking easements. Maybe that's continuing to work with existing um groups like the arts and culture committee to try to get some art there.

I think it's multifaceted. Hopefully, it would also potentially lead to some text amendment recommendations to allow for property owners to create these group developments and and get it to be more walkable and and more of a mix of uses and less highway commercial. And I think it, you know, as we've talked about here for months, it would really be a a a sort of the crown jewel, so to speak, of dining and entertainment along the beach. And I think a something that would be in magazines, as David Thompson's mentioned, um other places are and um something that could really be um liked and used by locals as well as tourists. It's kind of almost epitomizing the public private partnership that

Yes. Yes. Well said. And so that's all I have with that. Um just wanted to update you all. Haven't forgotten about this. We'll talk to the board and hopefully get their um feedback and guidance on how to move forward with this concept. Thank you. Thanks, J. I I love how you think. I love your your projection of of Can we call this Joe's big brain area? This I like this. This this is great. This is exciting. Yeah, this really is exciting. It's it's it's to add it's a step forward. Yeah. As as compared to, you know, a step back or no steps.

Well, both this and the shoreline, I mean, it's just it it enhances Nag's Head. It makes Nag He said He said He said He said He said He said He said He said He said He said Head more family friendly, more environmental friendly, and that excites me. It really is good. I like I like your thoughts on this. Thanks. And you know, Kelly and Andy and um all of our staff have a lot of input, so I don't want to sit here and take all responsibilities, take all the credit. Actually, for you to give credit to everybody else is just the grandizing at a level that's supported in municipal government. So, thank you for that. You're welcome. Any All right. Thank you. Any comments or questions for Joe?

No. Yeah. I'll just say and and I mean you've heard me say it before, but on to a greater extent the Outer Banks. We live in such a unique area. We are a barrier island. There are not many barrier islands um like this anywhere in North America. Um I personally believe that the greatest town on that barrier island is the town of Nags Head, North Carolina.

Um because we continue to strive to maintain the familyfriendly approach. Uh while we certainly encourage business, we also want to encourage the feel um and Kelly spoke to it very well when she was talking about the architectural revisions to the plan we saw earlier. uh with the Estran shoreline, with the core district, with all these things, it enhances the entire living experience and visiting experience in the town of Nags Head and uh the work that y'all put into it is ymen. Believe me, it's a lot of work and it's most appreciated. One thing that I that I did you brought into my head right now we're getting into a period of time where I think it's Cornell does a bird study.

No,

this talks a lot about Florida. It doesn't talk a great deal about fauna, but fauna is really sexy. People like getting involved in it. And I can see moving forward, you know, maybe having like at the event site at Dowy Park, maybe having a notable burer come in and see what talk about because okay, I used to lead ornithological safaris and um it I I got backed into it. I didn't have any interest in it when I started and now it's really interesting and until people know how much you know how many paragrin falcons have you seen on the side of the road recently and the reality is once you see them you see them and people I if we build it they will come and they will come so let's go ahead and talk about them and not just birds all the rest of it as well I think there's some really neat opportunity for wildlife education information and that's going to make this more valuable as well.

That's a great point. Which brings up my my idea. I know it's screwy, but to erect at least one if not two osprey nests that you can see from the boardwalk so that you're inviting the birds to come with a camera. With a camera, but and you're inviting the pedestrians to come with the cameras. Yes. So, I'm just throwing all that. I mean, every time I see an egret or a blue heron, I'm like, I mean, and do do you guys know do you see paragan falcons on the side of the road? I have not.

They're they're about to they're a little bit bigger than a pigeon. They look like the toughest pigeon you've ever seen. And once you see them, you'll see them. They're endemic to this area. And they're amazing what they do. Um really real. They're fast.

I'll be looking. on. You'll see them around this time of the year because there's not as much visitation. Um they're much easier to pop out. But there's a lot of bird life in this area. And what I'm kind of thinking if this happens, if if your plan moves forward, what goes down into Hatteris into the National Seaore will will create this that will create a little bit more blending into this area as well. We'll get some visitation which is nice. Yep. That's a great point. I mean, yeah, anything that

I agree with, right, that you know, it's so easy to think within our jurisiction, that's sort of what we're charged with. Yeah, looking at more of the outer banks, you know, Kill Double Hills being more urban and Mag said transitioning and doing some to, you know, sort of look outside of jurisdictional boundaries, not just from transportation or storm water, but for flora and fauna, I think is a really my husband will be thrilled. Salient point. My husband will be thrilled as he goes out and birds. He's birding now. Oh yeah. But I think anything that you can

nurture nature with is is a positive environment. You know, tourism wise, family wise, shoulder season, which is what the visitors group loves. This is a shoulder season bump, right, Joe? Thank you. This is really well done. Appreciate it. Thank you. and the rest of the staff. Don't I'm not trying to slay anybody here. Okay. Planning board members agenda. Anybody have anything they want to share? No. No. I'm getting better with this computer. I'm just going to take that. Getting better with this computer. That's a start.

That's a start. Yes. It's okay. Um, the only one thing that I as chair would like to just bring up one more time and I'll continue to bring it up. We're talking about all of the business and all of the things that we can do and to coordinate all of that. We need to house the people that are going to work in these businesses. We need to talk about ADUs and workforce housing and I want to have that brought back up on our agenda very soon. Amen.

Thank you. That's all I have. Can I make a motion? Yes. A second. So moved. Goomba. We are jumped in front of you there. Sorry about that.