Comments on: No more beach referendums, commissioners say

By: Bob O

Bob O — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:19:59 +0000

Dear Bill,
I like your ideas about a town center. Nags Head is reviving a Beach Road committee, 1st meeting March 6. I hope you’ll come out.
Local government collects about $30 million a year from sales and occupancy taxes. I think it’s a prudent move to protect that stream of revenue. It is generated largely by oceanfront homes – what is it worth to insure 10 years of that revenue?

By: Rob Morris

Rob Morris — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:12:29 +0000

I’ve read the comments with great interest. Please don’t make them personal.

By: Butch Stone

Butch Stone — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:34:07 +0000

Mr. Newjake
First,I will come clean if you do! I think some people on this site have two names and don’t use their real names. Yes this is mine. Yes I have a oceanfront property in Kitty Hawk.
When you own a small, one-person business,you have to think about the future and try to invest and take a chances. I am certainly not wealthy like you think all of the owners are,and maybe some of them are, I don’t know?
I love the Outer Banks, so much that, I would love to come here to live, retire, and that has always been my goal.
Yes when I bought my oceanfront home, I always thought that the people here would always try to do something to save the beach and the homes here. I never knew they would just rape and use the beach for their own gains and never take care of it. The beach belongs to all Americans, and not just me, because it is in my backyard. Just because it is in my backyard doesn’t mean i own it. If I want to move my sand next to my house, I have to get a permit. I cant ask you to leave if you are in my backyard. I have no rights. But I pay for beach pushes, to protect my property and it also protects the beach road.
If I lose my property, the people lose. I collect a great deal of renters’ tax for Dare County, and still pay real estate taxes also, just like you. But I have no one living in my home full time to overcrowd the schools, collect welfare or use any of the money I collect for you. One penny tax is nothing to ask the people on the Outer Banks to pay to save their beach.
Think how much all of you have made because of the beach and it affects everyone here. This is why the tourists come here. Wealthy? I am having a hard time just like everyone, if I lose my home, I lose my life, my dreams of ever living here. If we lose the first row of homes here, then we will soon lose the second row. Maybe the beach road will be next. Please, people, save the beaches, not for me, but for you!!

By: newjake

newjake — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:23:49 +0000

I think there’s a difference between a family home and a business that is called a rental home.
No local families live in those homes, Butch, you know that best of all b/c you rent them out for the wealthy owners.
Move them, build a dune, vegetate it, then watch the beach come back. The “madness” is a town with no money trying to spend 36 million they don’t have, and trying to tax people that are suffering to pay for it.
Southern Shores didn’t tax your citizens to dredge their canals. Duck didn’t tax Nags Head to build its park.

By: Butch Stone

Butch Stone — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:27:13 +0000

This tiny drop in the bucket are peoples homes!
Please, you run the numbers and tell all of us what you came up with.
We will never have towering skylines. There is a height restriction. Yes, the best beaches we have — there are no homes there — sure.
But do we just let these homes fall in the ocean? And then when we get to the next row, we do the same? Where does the madness stop!!

By: newjake

newjake — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:15:10 +0000

Those few homes bring in a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket when it comes to tax revenue. Probably less than a tenth of a percent if we ran the numbers. That’s not a good argument.
I think a better one might be, “We need to keep as many houses as we can right on the beach, that’ll keep even more and more people crowded onto the sand. This way, we can accurately recreate the towering skylines and population density of inner city ghettos right here on the Outer Banks.”
Seriously though, who would argue that the best beaches we have are uncrowded, with loosely spaced houses you can’t see, hidden by dunes on one side, complemented by the ocean on the other . . .
Maybe Pete’s right, Nags Head is ruining its own vacation experience by keeping so many homes crunched in there.

By: Butch Stone

Butch Stone — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:16:38 +0000

Pete
You would never say this if you owned one of these homes. These people worked hard to get them and work hard to keep them. The McMansions bring in a lot of taxes that keep your taxes low. Pray that they dont lose them.

By: Pete H.

Pete H. — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:24:31 +0000

newjake @ 7:43 am 8 Feb. said,
“. . . tourism is the key; we are on the same page. But those few, misplaced houses are not tourism. They are a small, small percentage of tourism.”
Right; and think of how much more beach there would be for all the tourists if the McMansions weren’t there!

By: Ray Midgett

Ray Midgett — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:01:16 +0000

Mr. Bill, you have said it well…………kudos to you.

By: Brenda Perry

Brenda Perry — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:19:22 +0000

TO BILL
everything you said–maybe needs to be done
But the whole thing is— the beach and the oceanfront homes won’t be here soon —the ocean will breach the sound— your home will not be here if you keep fighting a one penny tax— the beach is why the tourist come here and spend there money—if the beach is in bad shape–they will not come and a lot of people here will be out of jobs—
please look at our neighbors Virginia Beach–it works there