Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In early November, a group of citizens came to the Dare County Board of Commissioners about a sale of 4.3 wooded acres off Mother Vineyard Road on Roanoke Island.

Specifically, the citizens are concerned about Dough’s Creek that runs through the middle of the acreage. The creek is mapped as an intermittent creek. The creek drains beyond Rogers Road as well as the Mother Vineyard area, running behind Manteo High School and into Shallowbag Bay.

The citizens expressed concern about aggravating existing flooding if any part of the creek is closed off. They voiced concern about the clear-cutting of trees adding to the flooding issues.

The citizens asked for elevation and traffic studies and clearing out the creek to enhance water flow.

As far as cleaning out the creek, Dare County’s Soil and Water Conservation staffer Charlie Sanders will work on a grant application to accomplish that work.

At the upcoming Dec. 4, 2023 meeting, Dare’s commissioners will hold four hearings, one on a request from Dare County SPCA and three on land use on Hatteras Island.

To comment at these hearings, sign up on the prepared sheets at the entrance to the Commissioners Meeting Room attached to the Dare County Administrative Building, located at 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive in Manteo. Hatteras Islanders can make public comment at the Fessenden Center Annex on Buxton Back Road in Buxton. The meeting starts at 9 a.m.

The Dare County Animal Shelter is operated by the Outer Banks Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA. The county’s ordinance requires a hold time for a stray animal of eight days. The society is asking that the hold time be reduced to 72 hours, or three days. Arguments advanced for approving are that 72 hours is a standard across the state and by reducing the hold time an animal is eligible for adoption sooner.

A proposed text amendment to the R2-A Alternative Medium Density Residential District would add recreation and/or retreat centers to include overnight accommodations as an accessory use to churches, as a special use to areas zoned R2-A. The request is from the St. John United Methodist Church in Avon.

A proposed zoning map amendment would reclassify six parcels on Light Plant Road in Buxton. The parcels, owned by the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative, are currently zone R-2A Residential. The request is to change the designation to C-3 Commercial, which aligns with the business use by the cooperative.

The board will take comments on a request by oceanfront property owners to permanently close a portion of the 60-foot right-of-way of G.A. Kohler Court in Rodanthe By the Sea Subdivision. The closure would gain land for property owners to move oceanfront houses back from the encroaching Atlantic Ocean. The property owners want as much land as possible, but the zoning ordinance requires a 45-foot roadway in a subdivision.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COASTLAND TIMES TODAY!