New sand plan calls for a townwide tax increase
Taxpayers townwide will share financial responsibility for pumping sand onto the beach under another new funding plan informally endorsed by the Nags Head Board of Commissioners and likely to be included in the upcoming budget.
The plan, which is similar to an approach rejected in a 2007 bond referendum, now calls for an extra 2 cents on the townwide property tax rate and another 16 cents in two special oceanfront districts.
Mayor Bob Oakes told a standing-room-only crowd at Wednesday night’s board meeting about the plan for funding beach nourishment as commissioners were moving forward with establishing the oceanfront districts.
The board seemed committed to the distribution of 2 cents and 16 cents but left open the possibility that it might be adjusted.
Meanwhile, Nags Head resident Reed Fisher, a consistent critic of beach nourishment plans, has filed a lawsuit with other individuals challenging the town’s procedure for quickly obtaining easements for the 10-mile project, Town Attorney John Leidy said.
The litigation is likely to complicate the town’s push to get the project started by early to mid-April of this year.
Oakes said the town would not settle on a new tax rate until it approves a budget for fiscal year 2011-2012, which starts in July. But he said the board had reached a tentative agreement on the tax rates at a retreat last week.
“There was consensus on our board that it is a project that benefits everybody in the town and everybody should have some stake in it,” Oakes said.
Property owners now pay 15.75 cents per $100 of value. Two cents would add $60 a year to the tax bill on a $300,000 house. That, plus the 16 cents in the special service districts would add another $1,800 to the annual tax bill for a $1 million oceanfront house.
The money would pay back a $10 million bond that the town needs to cover the balance of the estimated $36 million cost that will not be covered by the Dare County Shoreline Management Fund. The town is in the process of soliciting bids for the work, which entails pumping 4.6 million cubic yards of sand from offshore onto the beach.
In 2007, Nags Head voters rejected a $24 million bond referendum that would have added 5.54 cents to the townwide tax rate and another 32.08 cents along the oceanfront to pay for beach nourishment over a five-year period. At the time, the cost of the 10-mile project was estimated at $32 million and the town was planning to cover the bulk of it.
A bond referendum was required to guarantee that the town would be receiving the revenue to pay back the loan.
To avoid another bond referendum and still place more of a financial responsibility on oceanfront owners, commissioners have rolled out several proposals in the past year. The town was banking on a petition asking oceanfront owners to legally commit to picking up the tab by paying a little less than 19 cents per $100 of value annually for five years. But it has failed to reach the legal requirements for buy-in.
The latest plan has the town guaranteeing a bond with the share of occupancy tax revenue that it receives back from the county. The town argues that the occupancy tax revenue is historically consistent enough to use as collateral to guarantee a bond.
But the idea still has to pass muster with the state’s Local Government Commission, which keeps tabs on local budgets. The occupancy tax revenue is the equivalent of about 6 cents of the annual property tax. The new tax proposal is aimed at picking up that difference.
It would also build up a beach nourishment fund for future maintenance, Commissioner Renee Cahoon said. A maintenance plan, including funding, is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before a locality can qualify for federal money to rebuild engineered beaches after a declared disaster.
The estimated cost of the project is now $36 million. On Wednesday the town passed a resolution formally asking Dare County for $18 million out of its Shoreline Management Fund, which has grown to about $24 million from 1 cent of the occupancy tax.
Another $2 million year to pay back a $10 million bond would come from an additional 1 percent on the occupancy tax, which has been authorized by the General Assembly but not yet enacted by the county. The rest of the cost would be covered by the $10 million bond being financed by the town and which commissioners formally agreed Wednesday to seek.
The crowd had shown up for a public hearing on plans to divide a special oceanfront district established for the 2007 referendum into two parts. The town wanted to have the option to tax South Nags Head more because erosion is worse there and it will require more sand.
Nags Head Town Manager Cliff Ogburn said that the 260 easements out of 550 sent to oceanfront property owners had been returned. The rest of the 715 needed were signed previously when Dare County was working on a beach nourishment project. Those have been turned over to the town.
Fisher’s class-action lawsuit follows a mechanism concerning so-called quick-taking condemnations. The easements that were sent out basically inform property owners that the town will condemn properties if they are not returned within 30 days. A challenge to the process must be filed before that 30-day period is up.
It is not known how long it will take for the legal action to be resolved.
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Joe says:
Here’s a unique idea: A requirement that each member of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners that own or have an interest in ocean front property in Nags Head recuse themselves from the beach nourishment process. Oakes, Cahoon….just to name two of them.
ekim says:
I feel bad for the voters of N.H.they voted NO on this an the board just rolls over them like peasants so is this communist or marxist? I hope they get a big NOREASTER right in the middel of this boondoggel thats the only way to shut this down. VOTE THEM OUT N.H.
Sack the NH BOC! says:
Words can’t even describe how angry I am to learn of the commissioner’s latest plan to push beach nourishment, a project Nags Head residents have overwhelmingly opposed for years. The arrogance of Nags Head’s ruling elite is unbelievable. A HUGE thanks to Reed Fisher for doing the right thing. This is one court case I hope stays wrapped up in red tape for years to come!
SouthCreek says:
This saga continues to astound me. That the commissioners have repeatedly seen a lack of sufficient support for such a project, and yet continue to try to find new ways to pay for it. Are they just so arrogant that they do not understand how to govern? You govern at the consent of the people……..and the people are getting very tired of saying NO on re-nourishment.
Carole says:
Don’t people realize that most of us are in some way are impacted by visitors…they come for our beaches, and beaches need sand…we are all in this together, mot just oceanfront against sound front….really
go figure says:
can anyones say TEABAG
Nags Header says:
& to Carole, I realize that folks like you think that you know better of what’s best for the majority of citizens & think that you should be able to force it on us. But… it’s not SUPPOSED to work that way.
Don’t lay down for the corrupt freight train, folks. Stand!
KDH Resident says:
Hey NH Residents, stop complaining, you could be getting a Lowe’s!
It sounds like the whole beach needs an overhaul in regards to elected officials. Everyone needs to remember this come election time.
Robert says:
Reply to Carole…visitors come to the OCEAN and the ocean will always have beaches…the OCEAN controls the beaches, not the dreams of a few humans…If our structures are too close to the OCEAN it is time to retreat from that battle and not waste our time and tax payers dollars for a battle we will never win.
Don Stalpinski says:
I am proud that the Board of Commissioners has the foresight to move forward on beach nourishment to preserve the economic prosperity of the community of Nags Head.
Without the beach, the economy would suffer. Tourism would decline, along with the money it brings in to businesses and to the taxes levied on all of Nags Head.
Bottom line — no beach, no business, no Nags Head as we now know it.
Len Nicademo says:
How will the project impact condemned houses in South Nags Head?
William says:
Beach nourishment is needed, and I appluad town leaders for stepping up to do what is right for the long-term sustainability of the community despite the short-term thinking of some citizens.
Allan says:
The way to improve the beaches is to get the houses off of it. The beach does not come from dump trucks, quarries in Currituck, or big dredgepipes: the beach comes from the ocean. And plain for all to see is a big, beautiful, UN-”nourished” beach in Kitty Hawk, where Isabel forced a string of dune-top cottages out. That’s all that’s required to make wide beaches in Nags Head: get the buildings off the beach. Will there be property losses? Yes. But the good of the many should outweigh the good of the few. Take the monies set aside for coastal maintenance and set up a compensation progam for the owners who will lose their rental properties. Condemn and tear down the beach-blocking buildings, and let nature take its irresistable course of beach-building.
Steve says:
I understand the local opposition, I really do. I would be against this, in principle, too. But, to use an over-used phrase…it is what it is. I just don’t see how you cannot accept how important the visitors are to every part of your lives – and if you don’t have the beach, you don’t have visitors. Yes, it’s easy and cool to bluster about telling the tourists to go pound sand (pun-intended) but is that REALLY what you want?
Zach Broughe says:
Carole,
The question is not how much we may be impacted by the ever growing number of visitors. It really gets down to how much damage are we willing to inflict on the area’s fragile ecosystem in order to sustain a developer driven tax base and how serious are we about being responsible, long-term stewards of what not long ago was a pristine coastal environment. It is the least we can do for our children’s children’s children.
Steve says:
I’ve read the comments from folks re. “let the ocean decide” “there will always be beaches” etc. and they make good points. There’s some good info and thoughts posted on this subject.
Russell Blackwood says:
Attention fellow citizens of Dare County! Remember that the resident and non-resident ‘Rental Machine Owners’run the show around here. I recall from a previous report on this site there are 1086 houses on the edge of the ocean in Dare Co. That’s alot of septic tanks hidden under the sand. And when their contents pour into the ocean every storm it’s no big deal, it just combines with the other toxins and sewage from up north and across the sound.
Maybe the angry citizens of the Middle East can give us some ideas on how to protest corrupt government.
“And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually” – Jimi Hendrix 1967
LA in KH says:
Allan is right. They should come out of NH and take a walk on the beach in KH….. the beach is amazing where those cottages used to be. And there are plenty of accesses to get there. $36,000,000? Really? Are they crazy or what?
Jake Gittes says:
Steve, no one denies the beach is a draw. There will always be a beach here, it just might have houses on it that need to be removed.
“The Beach” is something everybody wants, and loves, and cares about. Propping up homeowners who made a bad investment decision is another story.
We voted beach nourishment down, NH BOC. What part of “NO!” do you not understand?
ekim says:
Jake gets my vote! Oh thats right votes dont mean a thing in N.H.
ekim says:
Go Figure arent thay all DEMS nice try
local says:
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
Coldplay
Jake Gittes says:
From the 50th Anniversary of Nags Head schedule of events:
“May – Every Tuesday and Thursday in May from 2 – 4 pm docents will be available to conduct tours of the Town’s art collection.”
Why does Nags Head have an art collection? Did Town citizens vote to authorize spending taxpayer monies to purchase an art collection? In these tight fiscal times, shouldn’t we sell the art collection and stick to doing things like offering municipal services?
Stepping back, does anyone see a pattern emerging here?
Resident says:
The same people that complain about the sand tax, will be the same ones that complain when there is no beach to walk on.
David says:
It’s funny to see the comments of locals about the cost of beach nourishment. Why people are making a distinction between beach front homes, and any home or business on the Outer Banks is curious to a mainlander. How many times do most Americans see the results of a Hurricane on the news, and shake their heads and say “Why is the government, subsidizing a way of life, that natures wants to take away. Why don’t they just move, when they know that the Hurricane is going to come someday”.
The roads, water way drudging, bridges and man made sand dunes that keep the islands from flooding all have an effect on the natural movement of the sand. Why draw the line at maintaining the beach? I would guess $36 million pales in comparison to the other government subsidize being paid out every day to keep the good life going in the Outer Banks for everybody.
charlie says:
In another hundred years maybe my backyard will be oceanfront. The only constant in the whole debate is that THERE WILL BE OCEANFRONT. Mother Nature will ultimately decide its location….not man.
OOPS… I forgot that mom put in a new inlet down hatteras way and man decided to close it. Who paid for that?
ekim says:
The beach will always be there,its been there for a 100 yrs it will be there for a 100 more! GET OVER IT! It sickens me the way some people think a communist way of taking other peoples money for some one elses property is just!when is enough enough what are thay going to tax us on next? oh I know feeding starving artist.
OBXResident says:
Resident: The beach will always be there. Get the houses off of it. The beach will always move. Some people are too thick headed to understand that we can’t stop the ocean.
go figure says:
taxing is not a TEABAG policy
Stan Clough says:
It is true that a beach is where the ocean meets the land and we will always have beaches. It sounds like many comments here are from people that do not live here and or do not understand our area. After hurricane Isabel the beach road north of the Black Pelican restaurant was re-built and the dune line re-built. Oceanfront dunes are not natural, origionally they were built during the great depression era. Keeping dunes in place is what has allowed people to live along the Outer Banks. Every part of our world and country has some dangers, ours is the ocean. We do not have floods, earth quakes and other dangers. It is rediculous to think that everyone is going to just pack up and move away from here, but that is what many groups would like to see. Nags Head is not acting to just protect oceanfront rental houses but our ability to be able to continue to live here. I applaud their efforts.
ekim says:
STAN sorry all of us wern’t fool enough to build on the beach,You’r not gona bang my wallet for some one else’s property an problem! So know that or votes dont matter, maybe its time for pitchforks an torches! we have nothing else! (YOUR ALL FOOLS IF YOU THINK THEIR GOINGTO USE THAT MONEY JUST FOR THE BEACH)
Andy says:
The history of mankind is first, to protect oneself and secondly, one’s property.
When age ravages the body, we don’t say let mother nature take its course and let that old timer croak. We try to preserve life.
When wild fires, floods, earthquakes and other natural occurrences happen, we don’t say let mother nature take its course and let the houses burn or float away. We try to protect them.
We have always wrestled with mother nature. Why should beach nourishment be any different?
Colleen S says:
I don’t think anyone believes the beach will go away. Isn’t the concern that jobs will go away as the rental home inventory decreases. As the ocean takes Highway 12 and moves toward 158 everyone will have to band together to pay for services & infrastructure without the out-of-town taxpayers. Isn’t this the reason to consider saving properties that create the tax base that pays for services and create jobs? Just asking.
KDH Resident Evil says:
@KDH Resident: Amen
@Allan: Amen
One of the many problems here is that the beach nourishment project is being presented as a long term solution when that demonstrably not the case. Beach nourishment also has a dubious track record and the necessity is largely in question. Dredging Oregon Inlet, by comparison, is something everyone knows has to be done as regular maintenance to keep that waterway open.
ekim says:
ANDY go ahead an protect the beach, With beach props money not OURS! We VOTED NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Jake Gittes says:
There are a lot of moving parts to this issue.
One angle that has not been covered nearly enough is the “We’re smarter than you” attitude of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners.
NH BOC asked for a voter referendum on beach nourishment, got an emphatic “NO”, and have explicitly ignored the results of that vote and
the stated wishes of the Nags Head citizens they were elected to represent.
Midgett says:
If you were to look back on the History of the beach. How many year round residents lived OCEAN FRONT? I always thought they sold out for CHEAP but looking at it now maybe they knew something and got out of it more than it really was worth. Sorry you built or bought a house that you thought would last forever but now second row back looks better than ocean front now eh?
Butch says:
MIDGETT
YOU ARE RIGHT
there are not many or any people that live in the oceanfront homes
So the oceanfront homes have no one- going to school–getting assistance-being a tax burden…
THEY collect 12.75% renters tax from oceanfront homes–and these are the first homes that are rented completely every year..
these homes get nothing out of this tax….
ITS TIME TO PROTECT THEM
If they are gone–the county will have to get the money collected from them-elsewhere—FROM YOU
THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE
Midgett says:
Butch,
The sand moves from north to south on the Outer Banks. The Inlet is almost impassable now! This project is located to close to the inlet and all the sand will end up there! If they were to build a groin on the north side of the Inlet south Nags Head would see an decrease in the amount of sand lost on a yearly basis! Build a groin FIRST then we will Talk about BN!!
Butch says:
Midgett,
i agree with you on the groin too…
they will be pumping sand forever in inlet
Thats where all of South Nags Head sand went!!!!
have you walked north of the inlet on Pea Island –the BEACH IS HUGE
Midgett says:
Butch,
You clearly state “that is where all of South Nags Head sand went” so…….where do you think all the sand that is pumped onto the beach in South Nags Head will go?
Butch says:
to Ray
the sand will be in OREGON INLET!!
It needs a Groin
Makes no sense why it’s never had one??
They have spent Millions of dollars to dredge out the inlet and none for a groin…
They should have pumped the sand back on the beaches at South Nags Head- thats where the sand came from in the first place.
What are they thinking???
skip childress says:
the town does not give a blank about the tax paying non rental property owners and VOTING CITIZENS here in nags head. we vote to oppose it and still here we are again. its time to get rid of the mayor !!!! and anyone else on the board that has any connection with oceanfront property or real estate!!!! we need to take back our town!!!! AND LET MOTHER NATURE TAKE CARE OF OUR BEACH!!!!
Butch says:
TO SKIP CHILDRESS
Yes the mayor does think of non-rental property owners
IF WE LOSE THE OCEANFRONT HOMES –YOU LOSE!!!
DO YOU GET IT??
They take in the most free tax-12.75% tax—357 MILLION DOLLAR 2010 TAX …..none of this money was spent on the beach!!!
YOU PAID LESS THEN 38 CENTS PER HUNDRED DOLLARS TAX ON YOUR HOME..
OCEANFRONT HOMES TAKE IN MORE RENTERS TAX IN ONE MONTH OR LESS -THEN YOUR HOME-CAN TAKE IN A YEAR….
YOUR REAL-ESTATE TAXES WILL GO UP WITHOUT OCEANFRONT HOMES!!!!!!!!!!
Jimmy says:
Alot of people here seem to be missing the point. We( the residents of Nags Head)voted to not do this! If you are a local(family here since early1800s)You know that dumping sand on the beach is a very temporary fix at best.If you want the locals to agree to sand tax pump the sand from Oregon Inlet back onto the beach. Thats where it came from in the first place & solve two problems at one time not add more sand from offshore to fill in the inlet more.
Butch says:
to Jimmy
you dont know if the pumping of sand on the beach is that temporary….
Its never been done !!
Linda O. says:
I think we need to look at where we can reduce tax spending first. Why do we need six communities in short proximity to one another requiring six sets of police personnel, six sets of fire presonnel and all the administative people to go with it. I don’t think we can affort this extravegance anymore. Combine these services and agencies and cut out half the cost.