Town Council - Regular Meeting

Mhm.

I'd like to welcome everybody out today April 29th Town Council public forum meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you again for coming out today. Does any member [snorts] of Council have a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest in regards to any item on the agenda? If so, please state this time. Mr. Arnold.

I do not. Christy. No. No. No. No. Okay. Moving on. Public comments on agenda items only. The floor will be open. Our little timer's broke. We got one that should be here in a couple days, but I'll use this phone. Can you just try to stay 3 minutes? I'll try to let you finish up your your talk, but just please don't run over long long. So, who would like to be first? Come up, state your name and address, and you're welcome to come up.

[clears throat]

Good afternoon. My name is Gary Maness. I'm at 101 West Main Street here at Sunset Beach. So, as many of you know, I operate a business on the island and we've always made it a priority to support our local economy by referring our visitors uh to the few brick-and-mortar businesses that we have. I said, however, I'm standing before you today because the current proposal for beach vending and the way these ordinances are being fast-tracked is simply absurd. On section E, the timing and transparency, it covers the initial trial period for operation time. The timing of this smells a little fishy. And I said, I run a fishing pier, so I know what that smells like. Uh has an appearance to be uh some inside trading. I said, I would like to know and for it to be put on record to reflect the exact date that the specific business approached the Town Council and made their presentation. Uh if this passes Monday, there are only 17 days before it goes into effect. That's not nearly enough time for any other local business to research, purchase equipment, or apply for a trial permit. I said, this creates a unfair monopoly from day one. On hours of operation, the proposed hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. is baffling. I used to sell slushies in western North Carolina and people generally do not buy ice cream, Italian ice, or anything like that in the morning. I said, even our neighbors in Ocean Isle Beach, which is the only other local beach that allows a push cart up and down on the sand, uh they limit their vending hours. I said, if we're going to do this, the hours must be adjusted to a reasonable optimal time frame that doesn't turn our beach into a 11-hour-a-day marketplace. On fees and permits, regarding the permits,

who's actually eligible? So, after the trial run, how will the town determine who can get a permit? The timing of this suggests that the trial participants have already been hand-picked. With the way the proposed ordinance is written, anyone that falls under section E, subsection two and three, would be eligible. How many vendors from South Carolina and surrounding towns do we want on the beach selling items? Are we prepared to have vendors from those areas flooding our sands? If this Council goes through with this, I strongly urge the Council to limit these premises to a brick-and-mortar business located within the city limits of Sunset. Furthermore, there's a no cap mentioned. Are we going to be seeing 10 permits with 20 carts? 15 permits with 30 carts? It needs to be a clear limit before we start. The push cart design's wording reads, "Designed for retail sales." That could be anything from clothing to beach chairs, vapes, any item that Walmart or your local head shop sells. Also, the wording allows having a cook apparatus or grill top for heating of pre-cooked foods. This opens up a whole new area of food carts to be on the beach. As one of the founding businesses on the island and who sells food, this will be detrimental to our business. Allowing someone from outside of Sunset Beach town limits to come in and take away revenue from established businesses on the island is not being business-friendly like this Council says it wants to be. Size restriction. 5 and 1/2 ft. So, for you that need to be visual aid, for understanding, that's 5 and 1/2 ft by 10 ft. Let's go. Excuse me there.

That is 10 ft by 8 ft high. I sure hope that includes the umbrella on the 8-ft 8-ft high limit because if not, then we're looking at Oh, I don't know how high this thing could be. Um I know [snorts] not everyone will have a cart this big, but imagine sitting on the beach at high tide and next year when the ordinance changes to allow, let's say, 10 permits and 20 carts, these things going up and down the beach. Have you ever been to a parade and seen the person pushing the cart that has the little spinning lights and the bubble blower and the swords and selling cotton candy? This is what you're going to have at the beach. It'll look like less like a beach and more like a carnival. If the town is going to open this Pandora's Box and allow God knows only what to be pushed up and down the beach and be sold, then it should have been approved at least 6 months in advance to give all local businesses a fair equal chance to compete. This feels like the old Council way of doing things. Closing. I said, I hope the town has consulted with its attorney. Sitting on this for months and then rushing it through with a 17-day window leaves the town vulnerable to legal ramifications regarding fair competition. And what about legal ramifications when you deny one of these retail stores a permit? As currently written, it is free game and this isn't right for Sunset Beach. If you pass this ordinance, it will have a detrimental impact on several island businesses and only benefit one who already has brick and mortar on the island and has push carts on other Brunswick County beaches. I ask you to vote no on this. Year after year, each Town Council takes a little bit away of Sunset Beach what it was originally founded on. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next.

Do I have to give my address like the Council members?

Please, yes. Please name and address. Tracy Jones, 418 29th Street. Um my first one is about the portal questions, which is 8.1. Um my question is, who responds to those questions? It was stated that they were supposed to be part of the minutes. I don't see those in the minutes and I've never received a response to the questions that I put in last month. So, that's why I'm asking, what happens to those questions that go in? Um the next is I want to follow up on the vendors on the beach. Um I know I have read what Sunset Slushy has posted, how they won't play music, they don't contribute to the trash, etc. But that doesn't mean other carts won't play music when they're going down to the beach. I also want to know where are they allowed to push it? Is it all over the beach? Are they just in the emergency section? Where are they pushing the carts? And um [clears throat] how are you deciding who gets a permit? Um and um I didn't see where it said that you could not sell alcohol. So, are we going to allow selling alcohol on the beach? It wasn't in there. Um at the end of the trial, um how are you deciding it was a success? What is your performance measurements? How are you going to tell the taxpayers that it was a success and that you're moving forward? So, I'd like to know, how are you measuring that? Um the budget ordinance amendment that's in there, I think it's incorrect. It shows it as a decrease of 30 34,000 out of your budget. You're actually

adding in 34,000. So, you need to fix that slide. And I also think it'd be a little bit beneficial if you put the um totals at the end of each column, so you can actually show to the public very easily that we are going from a 31,000 budget to a 65,000 budget. So, it doubled in size by bringing on the director, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. I'm just want to show that it it added a lot more because it's not just the salary. We added a lot more things on here. And um we I noticed that there's a uniform them a number in there. What is that for? A shirt with a logo? I don't know what kind of uniform the director would be wearing. Um it also has on there gas and oil. So, I'm assuming that this person is going to have a vehicle. And is it a vehicle that's parked here? Or is it something that's driven back and forth like the police get to do? No. Okay.

[laughter]

So, um and then um the last thing I know that at the previous and this is going to be people aren't going to like me for this, but at the previous council it was agreed to not um roll out trash cans on the island. And I just want to say first of all, I didn't know that the town went under the house to push to pull out trash cans. I was always told we're just pulling them back. So, um so it was the comments were made, well, you can ask your neighbor. Well, I have a part-timer next to me, part-timer diagonal, part-timer part-timer and rental. Who am I going to ask to put my trash can back? And I don't know what companies pull back trash cans. So, um so what's going to happen is I'm going to put my trash in my trash can and 5 weeks later when I come back down and it's been 90° weather and I pull my trash can out, that trash is going to smell delicious. So, um I just I'm very disappointed that you guys decided on that and that you're going to do contracts to do mowing and landscaping and you're going to do a contract to take care of the trash on the on the strand. Well, that leaves up some time on employees that are already working for public works. I don't see why somebody can't push the trash cans back. And if you don't want it done, put a no trespassing trespassing sign up. But, I'm just I'm disappointed in that. That was something that I liked about the town and um I just want to express my disappointment. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. James. Who's next?

Stewart Jones, 1410 Canal Drive. Can you hear me all right? Yes, sir. Um just want to say that I'm here in support of on the led agenda item 11.1. I'm here in support of the planning board version of the UDO amendment. I think you you've got two versions in there and I'm in support of the planning board version. Um and just a quick statement and I did check and I did find out that as it stands right now, our UDO is in full compliance with state statutes 160D. So, there's really no argument that we need to change it for some UDO um general statute compliance. Um couple of other things, the what you what the council proposed was taking away site plan and approval and subdivision approval and giving that to the UDO administrator. But, that UDO administrator can really only ask for items that are in the UDO. So, a plan may be compliant with the UDO, but I will say in my two years on the planning board that we have improved site plans and development plans by asking for additional things. Citizens have asked for additional things that we've brought up at site plan approval and the developers have mostly agreed. Now, there's some things we've asked for and they say no. Which that's fine. That's their ability, but to take that away from the citizens, to take that away from the planning board, I think is a detriment to the town. And I don't understand why we would want to take that away.

Um one thing in the original proposal was there was a statement in there about um that the members of the planning board, and this also applies to the board of adjustment, may be removed at any time with or without cause by majority vote of the town council. So, in my mind that becomes political intimidation. Um we really should have the right to express our opinions and feelings without feeling like there's going to be retribution. And I think that the planning board and the board of adjustment, the ERC all provide checks and balances across the town. I mean, we're all doing different functions, but we don't need to be controlled by one town council that can is just going to pick us and pick us off and replace us at at will. Um we the planning board is not political. I know you guys are political, we are not political. And like last thing I wanted to say on here was that one of the items in your original proposal also was um to promote public participation in the planning processes and provide opportunities for community input regarding planning matters. So, I found one. It's to leave the planning board alone and let the citizens still have input. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. James. Who's next? Come on.

Lori Thomas Vass, 620 Kingfisher Lane, Sunset Beach. First of all, let me say thank you um Mr. Mayor and thank you, town council for creating this public forum. This is so much better for citizen participation. I wanted to bring to your attention today um public two public policy issues that I'm going to talk about and bring you. Um it has to do both of them have to do with the eutrophication of um sun of um Osprey Lake and Metcalf Lake. Um The first public policy issue you can see there has to do with fire protection in our in our subdivision. We have approximately 80 houses and the initial thought of the fire department, we're in we're regulated or supervised by the fire department here even though we're not part of your town. Um the initial thought was to put um pumps into the lakes, either lake, and pump water out of the lakes. And that process is not going to work because the weeds are so thick all the way from the bottom to the top that they can't draw the water out. And so, you can see that. And if you'll turn to page two, you can see where the eutrophication is coming from. We're downstream from Sea Trail. And the nitrates and phosphates are coming in and creating a terrible um eutrophication problem. So, I I presented that map so you can see what I'm talking about. If you'll go to the third page of my handout, I've taken pictures of the two lakes. This is Lake um Osprey and you can see that the eutrophication is all the way from the top to the bottom and you can um come out and look at it for yourself. If you'll go to the fourth page,

that's Metcalf Lake and it's completely eutrophied from uh the nitrates and runoffs. So, the second policy issue and I the first public policy issues go ahead and figure out how to put four hydrants and serve those active hydrants either from Calabash or from Sunset Beach. But, right now those citizens, those 80 houses, are left unprotected and we need to create a better pathway for them. Secondly, is a ecological disaster going on. I live there and the the alligators are turning upside down and dying, the turtles are dying, the fish are dying. Citizens can't get onto the lake. The other day one of my neighbors tried to put a boat in there and they couldn't go forward. So, it's an ecological disaster and I would say to you that the regulatory authority for correcting the runoff is right here with this town because Sea Trail is in your jurisdiction. So, the public policy issue that I'm I'm raising there is um let the [clears throat] town of Sunset Beach regulate the runoff and let the town of Sunset Beach um figure out what to do about the weeds just like this town did with Twin Lakes and that would be my solution. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer those. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Vass. Thank you. All Anyone else? Yes, sir. Uh Gary Green, 1615 Canal Drive, Sunset Beach. Um I'm going to get on this. It's not really on your agenda items, but I'm going to take advantage of this because I'm I'm part-time resident, and I think most of the people on the bay and the canals are part-time residents. And so,

one of the things I wanted to start out with is has to do with Majestic Oak Park. Um when we look at dredging, when we look at our next dredging event, hopefully that would not be too long in the way considering the last event, um we're going to need to have be able to store equipment. We're going to have to have the ability to be able to have, let's say, in case one of the trucks or something hauling spoils to the site, there's difficulty in that. So, let's say he can't get he can't get back in time. You still want that the the home water equipment running. You want them working because we have limited windows in which we can operate in, and we want to try to keep that narrow down. So, I would think it would be wise, especially if we can use Majestic Oak, to try to be able to do temporary spoil, not a lot, but maybe something if we have to, if he gets behind because, like I said, we want to be able to keep the the dredge working. So, I wanted to get that in with you on that. The second thing with dredging is that basically, if you look at that whole dredge of the canals, you we were we were promised or told when we when we voted for this that we'd have a 20-ft wide canal, 4 ft deep. I think the widest one we have, and you need that. You need that because typically the boat the boat beam widths are basically 8 ft wide for most of the boats we have in there. So, you need, say, 20 ft so they can pass each other. You can't have it one way. And we do not have any section in the canal that's 20 ft wide, 4 ft deep. We have one section that is 6 ft wide, 3 ft deep. That's in the in one of the canals, and it's so basically, we're not getting any benefit out of all the money we spent. We're still having to wait on tide to come up to be able to to actually use the canals. And so, I'm hoping something will get done on that. I would like I would I'm willing to volunteer on that. Basically, I started out as an engineer for the port authority, so I've been involved in dredging for 40 years. And so, I'd like to help you with that. I think the DCM sort of got you guys sort of cornered in that, and there's some ways we can get around that to be able to get to where we can get the canals where they need to be.

And so, that was from the one thing I wanted to do. The second thing, um it's about 2 years ago when we when the council passed passed or approved wanted to try to get no wake zones in the Jinks Creek area. The reason why we want that is there's a lot of kids out there on paddle boats, uh small small kayaks, and we don't really need a lot of boats coming through there at high speed. Uh yes, you probably don't have the ability to enforce it, but at least putting up some signs or some some some type of reference on the water would help. At least try to get to alert the boaters to slow down. I mean, uh we do we don't really have a lot of no wake zones that are enforced in North Carolina. So, that's that last thing, and uh this has to do with parking. We've got 90 spots for golf carts, and what I would like to see if we might maybe do is try to monitor what the usage is, and see if we can maybe call some of those spots back if we're not actually utilizing 90 spots on a regular basis. And lastly, with that on parking is hopefully hopefully you can take some of the money from parking to maybe try to look maybe sort of improve the aesthetics of the uh parking on on Main Street. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Green. Floor's open. Yes Yes, ma'am. Um Lynn Neece Smith, 210 Shoreline Drive East. And I just wanted to come to this cuz I was in town, and I think it's such a great opportunity. I just wanted to say the parking is surprisingly working well, and I'm very impressed with what you did being hand handed a mess. And I agree with the gentleman that just spoke. It'd be great to review the golf cart usage as opposed to the regular

usage, and see if that could be adjusted next summer depending on how the golf cart spots are used cuz it seems like there's some areas that could be easily converted back to parking for cars if that turned out to be the case. And then I'm just going to go through because I heard everybody speak, and I just had opinions, and I wanted to use my 3 minutes. Majestic Oak should be a park for people, for animals, to protect that tree. And I just feel like over the last years, however many years it was used for industrial staging, dumping, industrial waste, horrible situation. We need to move ahead and turn it into something that's an asset, not a liability for the homeowners and the town, and to make sure the the the oak is protected because heavy equipment, spoils, all those things are not good for the one oak that does seem to survive. And then vendors, I would agree with the gentleman from the pier that it's a terrible idea. Um I've lived and visited other beaches, and I grew up coming here, and it just is the wrong direction for Sunset Beach to take in terms of one thing, but then the what it would lead to and open the door for more and more vendors. I think we just really should put that Y'all should put that on hold if you can. And the no wake zone, I hadn't thought about that, but that's a fabulous idea because if boats weren't trying to go 90 mph down Jinks Creek, maybe they would could see the shallow water, and it might help with some of the navigational problems. So, I think that's a great idea. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Neece Smith.

Next. Anyone else like to speak? Uh yes. A good job. Listen. Um my first comment would be I would I would request that the town um redesign their landing page, the website, so that the portal nobody know your name, sir. We got to Hi, I'm John from Sunset Beach Trading Company, 423 Sunset Boulevard South.

Thank you. Um the the community portal input portal is very helpful. Every time I have gone to find it for a customer in our store, or for myself, I have had just to use Google to say portal Sunset Beach. It'd be really nice if it was right on the front page, like talk to us here, portal here. Otherwise, you have to know to click on government, mayor and council, scroll to the bottom. Now, put your input information there. It's not very user-friendly. Um regarding the application for a push cart vending on the beach at Sunset Beach, it is the right of every citizen and business owner to ask the council to make changes to the ordinance. Um it's very nuanced, this new one coming up. You're You're cracking the door in the town of Sunset Beach, and the citizens who elected you should be aware of what they are cracking that door to. Um I'm not happy about the trial period. It's less than 1 month away. If I had been interested in doing a push cart, I have to procure a cart, get it decorated, make sure it works, ready to go, less than 1 month heads-up. Um if you had knew about this in December last year, November last year, January this year, February this year, it would have been nice. You're not required to give other businesses heads-up of what you've been contacted about, but if this opening the door for other business to participate in a trial period, who is ready today to do a trial period? Only one business from what what my assumption is. Um like I said, I could throw something together real quick, I'm sure, but um it's not what I need to be doing right now with my time. Um I'm not here to knock Sunset Slesh at all. Best friend does Sunset Slesh in Raleigh. I know other people who does do Sunset Sleshes franchisers around this country. It's a delicious product, but I just am not happy that the town didn't

give any heads-up to a potential trial period for someone like us or any other business to um the text the text in the notice is copy and paste more or less straight up from Holden Beach. Uh Holden Beach and what uh Sunset Beach is produ- uh proposing is a 10-ft long cart maximum, 8 ft 5 and 1/2 ft wide. The apex of this ceiling is 20 ft. So, you're going to get two carts in here if someone wanted to be that person and make a 10-ft cart. I might be that person. My cart might have shaboomies. Might have shark tooth necklaces. Might have our best 10 designs with t-shirts. I would hope that the town would not prohibit me from having my bill- sorry, not my billboard, my cart out on the beach selling products. I hope that someone like the pier would be allowed to sell whatever products they would like to sell on a cart. Ocean Isle Beach allows five permit holders, six uh carts per permit for a total of 30 potential carts. I'm not saying that they max that out every year. Holden Beach has five permits, unclear on what the number of permits for cars. Unclear on how many carts per permit you're allowed to have. Oak Island, I'm not sure about them. Their ordinances are a little wonky. Uh Topsail Beach, you can have 10 licenses, five car seats. So, Tops- North Topsail Beach, 50 carts potentially on that beach. Every beach is different. Um Ocean Isle Beach doesn't allow bicycles on the beach during the summer. We do. Um Oak Island allows bonfires on the beach. We don't. I mean, do we Do we need to be like everyone else? If if the citizens of Sunset Beach decide through you folks that this is the direction you want to go in, that's fine. It's the The people have spoken. Um but listen to the citizens of Sunset Beach. Um I tried to crowdsource people to

contact the previous council regarding paid parking. They listened to the citizens for some reason instead of the customers and the tourists. If you put this out to the tourists, I'm sure that most people will be in favor of pushcarts on the beach cuz they're here for 1 week. Listen to your customers or turn around and put the parking question back out to the tourists and see if they would sway you to change paid parking and do away with it. That's your decision to do. Um when do the applications for this trial period carts when does that application period start? Because if the pier and I want to put in our two applications and we get them in first, I'm assuming that one application one permit has not already been issued. So, when does the period for applications for permits start? I know the trial period starts on a certain day, but when is the application deadline or opening date for applications for those permits? That's what I would like to know. Thank you much. Good luck in your decision-making. Thank you, sir. I hope I did good. That was not a threat, I promise.

[laughter] Anyone else? Jan Dahl?

[snorts]

Richard Deisinger, 704 Fairway Drive East. My family's owned property here in Sunset Beach since 1991. I'm going to speak on two things. First, about the pushcarts on the beach. I think it really breaks the historic character of the beach. Um I serve on the planning board, so I tend to think of things in terms of zoning. And the beach is essentially zoned as recreation. Now, we're essentially rezoning it to be recreation and business. And I think that opens up a can of worms that's going to be difficult to get back in the can. Uh we're a family-oriented beach destination. The people that come here have a tradition of bringing what they needed to the beach in and taking what they've used out. So, I don't think the advent of a cart commercial entity really is going to improve their experience of the beach, and I think it's actually going to serve as somewhat of a beacon of commercialization that actually on the beach that is at this point somewhat pristine. And that's what's unique about Sunset Beach, and I think we ought to preserve. The second issue I'm going to raise is about the text amendment to the planning board. I am a citizen as a taxpayer, and I speak today as a citizen as a taxpayer, even though in full disclosure I've served on the planning board for 4 years. The planning board is the one time that a site plan, a development plan is faced in a form where the public can come and share their views. Number one. By giving this power to a UDO

administrator, you are taking away that opportunity. Second, a UDO administrator does not live in Sunset Beach. The current one that we have lives in Wilmington. Chad, who was the previous planning director, lived in Belville. We've actually had a planning director that was recruited by the developer and went to work for the developer. A UDO administrator's role is to facilitate the application of the developer to present to a body that will review it. And while the planning board is very limited in what we can do because of the way North Carolina law works, we do have the opportunity to ask for and quite often get changes that based on the expertise that the group of us have, 30 years as a business development executive, 36 years in the development business, we can improve not by force of ordinance, but by, "Hey, this seems like a good idea. Do you think you can do this?" We have huge issues with what I call sidewalks to nowhere. It's a huge problem in Sunset Beach that presents what I think we all want, which is a more pedestrian-friendly, which would improve commerce, environment in Sunset Beach. The UDO prevents us from doing this, but quite often we can ask and say, "Listen, could you just extend that sidewalk so it reaches the sidewalk in the parcel next to you?" We don't always get it, but sometimes we do. I'll give you another example of how this worked. There was a huge controversy about the hotel and the text amendment that had to do with allowing the developer to put their mechanicals on the roof

as opposed to on the ground. In those discussions, we realized that there was nothing in ordinance that required a developer to create masking in the mud district between the residential properties and the commercial properties. So, potentially you could have a commercial property backed right up to a residential property with no masking. We brought that to the attention of the developer. The developer came back with a preliminary plat with 12- 18 ft hedge masking between the back of the hotel and High Market. That's something the planning board can do because we are in the community. We understand. I understand that all the people in High Market had big concerns about the hotel, and we tried as best we could to address them given the fact that that developer had development by right to build a four-story hotel. What we were able to accomplish is the environmental impact of those mechanicals are not going to disturb those neighbors. We were able to address the issue of masking and get 12- 18 ft masking. This is something planning boards can do, and it also allows the public to have some reach, and we are community members. All of us live here. A UDO administrator doesn't have the benefit of that historical knowledge of what Sunset Beach has been and hopefully aspires to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Drew Sellers, uh 426 Sunset Boulevard. I am one of the owners of Sunset Slush, so I'm just here to talk a little bit about the vending ordinance. Um it was brought up before wanting to know

when this has been brought up to everybody. My answer would be almost every year for the past 20 years. Uh we come every year and try to propose. Um Ocean Isle Beach and Oak Island have going on their 22nd year of beach vending. Holden Beach is going on its fourth year of beach vending. Um Holden Beach decided to change once the parking come in. Um that's when uh we made our pitch, and they liked it and voted for it, and that brings me to now with the parking our brick-and-mortar business saw a significant decrease in our daytime uh customers. Uh people do not leave the beach and walk that far because they are paying to, so they want to stay out there. So, it's another good reason. We are not here to hinder the beach. We are Brunswick County born and raised. We are here to enhance the beach experiment or experience for everybody. We are not anti competitives. We are pro-capitalism. We are here for all businesses, especially local businesses. We hope everybody has the support. And so, we are There's nothing to hide. There's nothing shady. We are here if anyone wants to ask me any questions outside of here about how we do things and have been doing things for 20-plus years. Um we are open book. So, one, I just want to say uh council, thank you for being open to at least discussing this and giving it an opportunity. Um and if all we're here pro-business, we're for everybody, we're here for Sunset Beach, and just want to have a better experience for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Last call. If not, we'll have a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I'll have a second. Any discussion on the council? All in favor? All right.