BUXTON, N.C. — A proposed zoning change that could impact Buxton Woods has people concerned. Enough concern, that at a public hearing in early May, the Dare County Board of Commissioners tabled the issue for 90 days.
“The last thing I want to see is development that's going to hurt Buxton Woods," said John Fairbanks, a Buxton resident.
For John Fairbanks and many others, Buxton Woods is a special place.
“My connection with Buxton Woods is I've spent quite a bit of time, especially in the wintertime, during duck hunting season, but actually all year long. Walking the dogs, going on hikes, bike rides," said Fairbanks.
A recent public hearing was held at the May 5 Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting for a zoning text amendment request to amend the current special environmental district zoning ordinance, specifically to eliminate current verbiage that only allows three single-family units per acre.
Fairbanks and other residents aren't worried about what this specific developer wants to do with his property; they just worry that a change to the zoning overall will open up the area for future developments.
"Lifting the amendment would, in my opinion, and a lot of other people's opinion, just open it up for housing developments, condos or apartments, and multi-houses. So, that's a huge concern."
The ordinance in question goes back decades.
"There were several citizens of Buxton that came together and formed a group called Friends of Hatteras Island back in the 1980s that were very concerned about development proposals that were put forward that would affect Buxton Woods, and we represented them in some various efforts to protect the forest," said Derb Carter, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Carter shared what happened when that development was proposed almost four decades ago, unsuccessfully.
“When development was proposed back in the '80s, two things happened: the state got involved and began a process to regulate the area under the state Coastal Area Management Act and began a process to acquire the property to permanently protect it. The county also got involved and adopted an ordinance that affected the type of development that could occur and included measures that protected the forest for all development in terms of minimizing the amount of trees that could be cut," said Carter.
The ordinance has become a big part of the discussion, as Dare County Manager Bobby Outten explains.
“When they adopted the rule back in 1988, they did not index it in the ordinance book, nor did they put that overlay zone on a map. The question is, does that old zoning thing that someone stumbled across apply when it wasn't properly indexed and it wasn't properly put on the map, and it's never been enforced?" said Outten.
In Outten's opinion, he doesn't know if it would even be enforceable if the developer decided to go through with building a new unit on the property.
"He (the developer) would have to obligate whether that ordinance is enforceable or not. I say it's not enforceable and that if he built it, there wouldn't be anything we could do about it," said Outten.
Carter feels differently.
“The concern is the ordinances are currently in the code. They must be in the code and recognized to be in the code if there's an attempt to repeal them. And in our view, they're currently enforceable. Does it provide protection for all types of development? No. Does it require minimizing the amount of disturbance to the forest for all types of development? Yes. And there are citizens in Buxton who were involved 35 years ago in this, and there are citizens there now who think that's important and should be retained," said Carter.
Outten shares that the commissioners' options might be limited with the passing of Senate Bill 382 in December, which requires unanimous agreement from all property owners for down-zoning, which could limit local governments' ability to manage zoning requests like this one.
“If the board went back today and tried to properly index and do the text amendments in, say, the commercial district that I just used in my example, they'd be changing the zoning ordinance, and they would be creating nonconformities. And by creating nonconformities, they violate the statute that was just adopted back in December," said Outten.
For now, we’ll have to wait as the Dare County Commissioners have delayed taking action on the issue for 90 days. Fairbanks hopes the commissioners are able to keep things the way they are.
"If we go and lift this, it's going to be on the news, and you're going to have how many developers buying up land? As much property as they can in between Frisco and Buxton to develop it. And that's the scary thing; I don't think anybody wants that," said Fairbanks.
