Planning Board - Regular Meeting

I call the uh North Topsel Beach Planning Board meeting of February 12th, 2026 to order and ask that we have a a motion to the adopt the agenda unless anybody wants to make some changes. I would like to adopt or make a motion to change the agenda to add in after item number two to swear in Sam Ferrari as a member of the planning board and also under new business to review the petition submitted to close a portion of Island Drive. Second. I'll second. Yes. Do

we have any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of amending the agenda or approving the agenda with the amended items say I. I. Any opposed. Next we have approval of the minutes of December 11th.

No, excuse me. We got we have to indict induct swear in Sam step to the podium. I believe we'll do that there. I Sam

I Sam Ferrari do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina not inconsistent with therewith not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully And I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office discharge the duties of my office as a member of the planning board as a member of the planning board of the town of North Topsel Beach of the town of North Topsel Beach. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Come on up here. Sign at least two copies for me. Please come on up and take a seat after you do that. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll get a name tag made for you. I don't think I want him if he's indicted.

Okay. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Do we have anybody that's signed up or would like to speak? Uh okay. Not not seeing anybody. We'll move on to old business. The deb the review of the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan and proposed adoption resolution. Did you adopt the minutes? Oh, I'm sorry. It's been a long day. I'm sorry. I'm right there with you. Again, a motion to adopt the minutes of December 11th, 2025. I'll make a motion to adopt the minutes.

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Minutes are adopted. Now item number five. Deb, can you do you mind scrolling up for me to the staff to the staff report for old business? Okay. Did you do the same? Did you just do the agenda? No, that's all right. He's got it.

No.

Yes. Staff report, please. There we go. All right. Uh this is the review of the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan and proposed ad adoption resolution. At your last planning board meeting, you re reviewed the draft of the mitigation action plans. Thank you. uh mitigation action plans uh that I presented the planning board's recommendation in the mitigation action strategies were presented to the board of alderman at their meeting yesterday. Uh the board adopt uh voted unanimous unanimously to adopt those mitigation action strategies. uh and I'll be sending those strategies uh to the firm that we have to the consultant that we have uh to be included in to be updated and included in the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan. Um as ana in attachment one is a draft of the resolution to adopt the the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan. Staff's recommendation is that the planning board recommends that the board of alderman adopt adopt by resolution the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan uh as as attached.

Do we have any discussion? I'll make a motion that the planning board recommend that the board of alderman adopt by resolution the southeastern North Carolina regional hazard mitigation plan as attached. Get a second from anyone. I'll second. Okay. Any any discussion or clarification questions for Deb? Hearing none for a vote. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Okay, we are now down to new business and the board of alderman at their meeting yesterday received a petition to close a portion of of Ocean Drive and directed the planning board to address the issue. So, uh, I am going to ask Deb to discuss the portion of Ocean Drive that's been under petition.

Yes. Uh, first of all, uh, I don't believe that attorney Corey Faithly is here present. So, um, as Fred said, at their February 25th, I have the wrong date on that, and I apologize. Uh February 11th, the board of alderman remanded the planning board the petition by John Walsh, owner of 2870 Island Drive and parcel 032133 to close a portion of Ocean Drive beginning at the western property line of 2870 Island Drive and ending at the eastern property line of 2874 Island Drive. So, if you flip attachment one over and you see uh you look at the diagram that was included in the attorney's petition, the yellow portion is the portion of Ocean Drive that is being requested to be abandoned. And Mr. Walsh owns 2870 and Dead President's Dead President Properties and Investments LLC owns 2874 and Mr. Walsh also owns the parcel and green that's on the on the Oceanside. Um, Mr. Mr. WS first made an inquiry own or about June 14th of 2016 in which I had informed him to send a request to the board of alderman and care of the town clerk. The town may wish to initiate procedures. However, since 2016 um until present the board has not initiated that abandonment. Uh the Ocean Drive rightway was platted recorded as mapbook 8 page 48 dedicated as public and is included in the POW bill. Both owners access their property off of

Island Drive and have pedestrian access through the ride ofway to the nearest public access. Upon the closing of a street in accordance with North Carolina General Statute section 168-299, subject to certain provisions, all right, title, and interest in the rightway shall be conclusively presumed to be vested in the owners of adjacent parcels. In this case, all the abandoned portion between Mr. Walsh's two lots would belong to Mr. Walsh and the Dead President Properties and Investments LLC. The abandonment serves no benefit to the town nor the public, but solely to Mr. Walsh and to the Dead President Properties and Investments LLC. Staff's recommendation is that the planning board recommends to the board of alderman that the petition be denied as the closure represents no benefit to the town nor to the public. Included as attachment one is the letter of petition or I'm sorry the petition to close a portion of Ocean Drive submitted by attorney Coral Lee Faith with the U GIS screenshot as an attachment. Deb, I have a question. They first made an acquire back in 2016, but haven't done anything about that between then and now.

They they made a request, but the but the board didn't The board did nothing. The Correct. The board took no action on their request. Okay. All right. And they didn't come back with anything after that. They're coming back. Their attorney has filed the petition requesting filed a petition with the board of alderman to abandon that portion of the rideway. and it was presented to the board of alderman yesterday. The board of alderman uh the action that they took was to remand it to the planning board as they respect your opinion and your input u uh to be sent back to them. Free to take a look at it, send it back to them.

But since up until yesterday, they didn't come back with anything. Not not to my knowledge. I might have some emails on there, but not a So, we don't know why all of a sudden this is coming back up. I I just know that I've been uh responding to Mr. Walsh since 2016. I didn't go through and do a do a timeline of all my emails and correspondents and times that I've forwarded it to the attorneys and to the town clerk or or that they've submitted to the town clerk. I uh I don't know. I I didn't take the time to No, I was just curious because I I thought this was kind of out of the blue I mean 2016 to 2026.

I can't I can't answer that and the attorney's not here to answer that for her client. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I had a couple of questions. the um portion that's owned by the dead presidents and that's a horrible name but 2874 have they expressed any feelings pro or con to closing of the Ocean Drive section I I think either either in an email from Mr. Welsh or in the letter from the attorney. Um

yeah, the the letter from the attorney says that the owner has indicated a willingness to consent. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. And my second question is this is not the first time the town has been petitioned to close portions of segments in Ocean City and elsewhere in town. What is the general what has been the result of these petitions in the past?

Uh to the best of my knowledge since I've been here, the town has the town the town uh the board of alderman have taken no action to reduce uh rideways. I'm not I am not aware of any uh roadway abandonment or reduction that the town has taken in 19 and a half years. Deb if we as the town if the town were to abandon this then who they become responsible for the care and the upkeep of that area or how does

they would be respon Mr. Walsh would be responsible for um all of the yellow

if it goes if by state statute depending on how the the board wanted to do it. Um if it was split then how if it was split with uh dead presidents then they would be responsible for all of the property that they own. Right now the the petition is for the abandonment of that rideaway but the presumption is that the interest in the rightway uh belong to the adjacent property owner. So I would imagine that the portion that s that is sandwiched between dead president's LLC investments LLC and Mr. Walsh's and that might be tricky too. They might get half of it

because usually Mr. Walsh Mr. Walsh on that on that oceanfront site owns that entire parcel. So he would get at least the bottom half of the ride ofway. Mr. Walsh Walsh would also receive the um half of the top portion and I would imagine that the Dead President's Investment LLC would receive the top northern half of the rideway. So it'd be split and kind of that's how it'd be split. Okay. Like three is it 34? That's a half. I'm doing fractions past five o'clock. Whole and half.

Looks like a little one. Yeah. Yeah. Three quarters. Thank you. It looks like it's a little more. Yeah. Do we know if there are any utilities under this stretch that would be affected? I'm not aware of any utilities whether they are or whether they aren't. And for our fire or police, is that something they can get? Can they get to the beach that way or do they need that as right away?

Uh, I have not consulted the fire department in that regard. I was told by the fire chief today that um right ofways are a matter of fire code, but I did I do not have any more input from him than than that comment. pushing button. Couple questions. So, you asked those one of the questions was there any utilities under the under the right of way? But um so the property on their exhibit with the green square that's that's forward of the coastal line. So they they own to the water is that they would they would own to the uh approximate meanh high water line.

Okay. And so they're saying they own all of that and then the dead presidents don't own in front of it. So they would landlock the dead presidents from No, the dead presidents still have still have access to Island Drive. Yeah, their house is on Island Drive, but they wouldn't have access to the ocean like they have they have both both lots have access to a beach access uh within walking distance which is shown just below the uh green box. Yeah. Okay. The one where the the other houses Yeah. Across from 665 and 561 is they

So that that's the town line right there. Surf City. Okay. So, excuse me. Let me clarify. I I just heard you say that that's the town line with Surf City. The town line for Surf City is not indicated on that plot. Would you like for me to see what you're looking at? Yeah, I think we're looking at the back of their letter, right? I was talking about this square, right? But Keith is saying he thinks this is the Surf City line. How go to number 605 from 2008? Because the That's a good question, Keith. I'm glad you picked up. This is 202 over here,

right? Because 20 2870 and 2874 are address off of Island Drive. 665 is address. All right. Good. Okay.

And then Deb, one last question regarding the um the state law. So, and and again, I apologize because I'm new to North Carolina, but in Florida, public land, they'd have that'd be a value to that that the whoever's getting getting the property would pay to the jurisdiction. So where where I came from, we had a lot of we had a lot of u this town was flatted in the 20s and we had a lot of roads like this and people we would let them have them as long as there wasn't utilities in them but they had to pay the fair market value of that piece of ground. What we're dealing with tonight is a request is a petition for the board of alderman to abandon that portion of the rightway.

Okay. And that's but I wouldn't give it to them for free or we don't they are requesting you've got the attorney's letter in front of you. They are requesting uh that the town abandon that. Okay. So I guess my my question is as a taxpayer of the town there's a value to that and I mean I would think we would need a a better plat than their little drawing or survey showing exactly and and Mr. temporary that that's the ba that's part of the basis or that contributes to the basis of staff's recommendation um to deni to recommend denial of petition as it represents no benefit to the town nor to the nor to the public

and as Fred me mentioned it would this would certainly set a precedence yeah so right Now the excuse me the portion of the property his property on the south side of the um on the beach side say that is unbuildable. Is that for a house? Is it too narrow a strip to meet the setbacks and so forth? Are you talking about 2870 that's outlined in red? Um well 2870 is but the part in the green

I don't I don't know as whenever you say is can you complete that sentence for me well the portion here some of this under the is that is that's not buildable is that correct the way it is now the lot that's in green that is landward of the first line of that is oceanward of the first line of stable natural vegetation is not buildable. Okay. Beach. That's all beach. That's all beach.

Did I hear the attorney say yesterday that what they're trying to do perhaps is put two houses on kind of where 2870 is. One that I guess is, you know, closer to Island Drive and one that would also fit closer to where you're still allowed to build. Did I hear that? I didn't hear that. I think the question was almost

and until you know until I would have until we would have an application and a plat with the first line marked with the setbacks uh we would not be able to make a determination uh as to the size of house that could be built or whether the lot was buildable. We're and that's not something that we're going to discuss this evening. So, we're trying to they're all great questions and I don't want to deter you from asking any questions, but the request is for the closure. Okay. So, the way I look at it, the town will be giving up some right ofway that it owns and get nothing in return except a possible increase property value to 2870 because you can't really do anything with the half of the lot on the beach side. Is that

I imagine that I imagine that either in either in part or totally that either in half or in a section depending on how the how the two owners negotiated settlement of the portion that was abandoned uh that they would be absolved into the two lots. My my concern though is is that a couple things. Number one that there's no precedent set with the town of abandoning property and I don't know if that's something we want to start.

Um second um cheer point Fred with the utilities that is a concern. Um but also to uh Mr. Ferrari's question or concern about the fact that that's prime real estate. That's if the town were going to abandon it, then maybe we sell it if that was the case. But the issue before us right now is the petition um to abandon it. And so I guess I'm coming down on the side of I would deny deny this petition. But that's just my thoughts. Does the town have an option to sell that property?

I'm trying to think what year it was. Was it 2016 or something like that? When Fred Burns was mayor, uh the town had an inventory of vacant parcels and they listed them at auction. Uh the board of alderman as the governing body for the town of North Topsa Beach uh I would presume has a right to sell anything including land uh that is titled to the town of North Tops Beach or to dispose land, vehicles, um computers, radios, however they see fit. It's an asset to sell whatever to sell whatever or dispose of whatever assets that they have. Um I want to say that the um it the way that they're having this done seems like there's no real plan. You know, we might build on that or you know, I don't know. I think what do we what do we why would we agree to this? There's no benefit to anybody except for him and he looks like he's doing all right to me. I mean it's just that's a big hunk of public just to hand somebody and you know it's I think a bad sit bad president because people will be oh well you let him in we just want to you know it's a little right here how come okay for him so we have we said we've always denied it then we're covered you know but I think set president that's my opinion

yeah I agree I mean we could have little stubbed out streets like this and neighbors could say hey let's get together and and see if we get the town to close the road in front of us and we get some extra property and it doesn't cost us any money. I you know I I think it's a a bad president as well. Plus I'm not sure what utilities are under there and um so I'm not necessarily in favor of it. I'd like to make a motion that the planning board recommend to the board of alderman that the petition be denied. I'll second.

Any any discussion on that? We got Dev has got a question. I have a request that in in your motion or that's the motion. So, I don't want to screw that part up, but if I could uh if I could recommend or request that you give a justification for your your motion. I will amend my motion. Thank you. um that the planning board recommend to the board of alderman that the petition be denied as the closure represents no benefit to the town nor the public. I'll second that. Any other discussion?

You want to say there put in there about president for for future things or just not? That's up to the board. Well, you have a you have a motion and you have a second. So, you already have a motion on the floor. Okay. All right. Okay. Um, let's call for a vote. Um, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries to deny the petition and we will pass the recommendation on to the board of alderman. D, will you do that? And I'll do that. that'll uh be submitted for their March 4th meeting.

Now, it's my understanding that they still have the board of alderman can still say thanks, but no thanks. We're going to do whatever do it anyway. Absolutely. It's all it's always the governing body's prerogative to uh accept or reject or modify the planning board's recommend recommendation, but uh I certainly appreciate you taking the time tonight to review the review the request and uh I'll forward your recommendation to the board of alderman. Okay. Not seeing any other new business on the agenda. We have our second public comment period. Um, I don't see anybody else here. Has anybody signed up? Okay,

nobody signed up. So now, uh, we have discussion. Do we have any discussion items, Deb? U, no. But, uh, I'm glad to be flanked by two new staff members that are doing stellar. uh Donna Ster as our um town uh permit specialist and your clerk and clerk to the board of adjustment and uh Brady. Just Brady. Just Brady. Just Brady. Just I should have said Brady Golden, but it it's just Brady. Does any of our board members have anything to discuss?

Okay. Uh do we need a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. All in favor? I Okay. Meeting meeting ends at 6:35.