OAK ISLAND — A Brunswick beach community is grappling with ways to balance its desire to be a year-round municipality and a summer season destination, but its planning board isn’t unanimous on whether house size limitations will solve it.
READ MORE: ‘It’s out of control’: OKI to explore limiting house sizes per council directive
The Oak Island Planning Board unanimously voted to request more time to review a June council directive to explore ways to limit house sizes.
Town council member Bob Ciullo proposed two options for doing so at council’s June meeting; one would be to lower square footage on homes constructed to 3,500 square feet and eliminate residents’ ability to apply for special-use permits to exceed that amount. The second approach would be to limit home size as proportionate to lot size.
The planning board is tasked with outlining the logistics of both options and developing a recommendation for either or none.
Last Thursday was the first time the planning board met to discuss and several issues were raised on additional limitations. Board members pointed out the negative effects to OKI residents as well as visitors — and the majority weren’t convinced either option would satisfy council’s true aims.
“I don’t understand why people think taking a little bit off of the maximum house size is going to solve the problem,” planning board member Melanie Morgan said.
OKI has been exploring how limit house sizes in some way for years. Larger homes on the island tend to be vacation rentals, which can bring out-of-towners and potential noise violations, trash concerns, and overparking.
“Oak Island residents and homeowners have asked us to limit house size and maintain the small town feel of our community,” Ciullo said at the June town council meeting.
Right now, the town limits house construction to 4,000 square feet. Homeowners can apply for a special use permit to go up to 5,000 square feet, the maximum allowed under CAMA guidelines. Although, most homeowners would need to acquire two lots to build a 4,000-square-foot home.
Planning board member David Purser disagreed with Morgan’s statement, though he said he supported keeping the town’s house size limit at 4,000 square feet and repealing the allowance of special use permits.
“I think the house size is at the heart of the problem,” Purser said. “The town has tried to attack the size of a house in every angle possible, so right now, house sizes are limited by setbacks, stormwater, parking spaces, impervious area. Now we’re actually going to attack the actual, true thing that everybody’s after, supposedly after — smaller homes.”
The town could be using house sizes as a scapegoat, per comments made by planning board member Durral Gilbert. He called it an “easy-to-see issue” that isn’t the crux of the problem.
“Is the issue something bigger than that, like the number of occupants in a home and things like that?” Gilbert asked.
Planning board member Gene Brooks pointed out large gatherings will happen regardless of a home’s footprint — just as many people can be packed into a smaller space.
“I can have a living room and put six bunk-beds in it if I want to,” Brooks said.
In a several-minute speech, Morgan negated the notion the majority of larger groups will cause problems. She said most of the occupants she sees are families and have wholesome gatherings that often take place in vacation rentals.
Next door to her home on Beach Drive, she said she happily witnessed six weddings in one summer, despite the house only being 2,600 square feet. Morgan added she made diverse friends from across the nation, including a group of Orthodox Jews celebrating Passover who found “a safe sanctuary” in Oak Island.
Morgan said, aside from special occasions, some families, including hers, number into the dozens.
“So for large families that aren’t lucky enough to live close enough to [gather] every Sunday, you know, what are their options? They got to find a way to get everybody together — so take a vacation together,” she said. “And so if you oppose large homes with a lot of bedrooms, then that’s what you’re opposing. Grandma wants to get all her kids and grandkids together for one week a year and you want to take that away from her?”
Morgan said she was unsupportive of any change to current rules.
Gilbert advocated for a balance between full-time residents and visitors; similarly, vice chairperson Kerri McCullough brought up the maintenance of affordability.
“My biggest fear is, five years from now, everything south of the Davis Canal is going to be rental property and there’s going to be no one that lives on that part of the island,” Gilbert said.
Still, Gilbert said he doesn’t know if limiting house size is the answer. If the council decides to restrict homes proportionate to lot size, each house on the island would need to do the math on their own property. Those not in compliance would be labeled “legal, non-conforming uses,” opening up issues when it comes to subdividing lots and rebuilding damaged property.
Council requested several pieces of information to make their recommendation, which was supposed to be delivered by the end of August.
It includes:
- Breakdown of homes per house size
- The number of houses that would become legal nonconforming upon a change
- How square footage would be calculated
- Example site plans per a rule house footage be proportionate with lot size
- How different coastal communities limit house sizes
The information will be provided at the board’s next meeting in August. If council grants the planning board an additional month, members will have the August meeting to deliberate and the September meeting to decide on a recommendation.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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