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Planning Board mulls building heights
Will have ‘working language’ to study by early September
By NIKIE MAYO
News Editor
The Beaufort County Planning Board soon will have “working language” to study as it crafts a set of building-height restriction recommendations.
Board members on Thursday night charged Eddy Davis, a planner with the Mid-East Commission, to offer language related to countywide restrictions and also location-specific conditions. He also will bring back recommendations for any “structure intended for human occupancy,” which covers residential, office and commercial units.
Beaufort County pays dues to receive planning-related services from the Mid-East Commission, a nonprofit organization that serves local governments in several eastern North Carolina municipalities and counties.
“Height restrictions vary from county to county,” Davis said. “Some have none at all; some have it set up where one number applies countywide. It’s a little bit more difficult or challenging to control heights without zoning, so we’ll be looking at (restrictions based on) either the type of development or the type of place it’s in.”
“There are several reasons people consider limits,” Davis said. “There’s the community character and appearance — the ‘you know, this just doesn’t look right,’ ... or the safety aspect, particularly for fire departments. There’s what we call the ‘view shed.’ We know that as the coastal areas fill up, people start moving toward the Inner Banks and the communities therein, ... so there’s the idea of not blocking out ... the view of the river. There’s also the density factor, because you may not want more than a certain number of dwellings in a particular place.”
“You can adopt the across-the-board height limit and say, ‘No building shall be taller than X. Period; end of story.’ Or you can say that a building must be scaled back, dependent on its nearness to a thing like water,” Davis said.
The Planning Board been tasked with “evaluating the need for height restrictions and offering options” to commissioners, said planning board Chairman Doug Mercer. Thursday’s meeting was “kinda a first step” toward that goal, said board member Jeff Peed.
Again and again, board members termed The Rembrey at Pamlico Shores a “wake-up call” and the impetus of the discussion on building heights. The high-rise condominium project is set for the former Whichard’s Beach property in Chocowinity. It calls for building two 13-story buildings on the land.
“I think we need to do what we can to preserve the character here,” said board member Paul Boozeman. “We need to look at places like Wilmington to see what they’ve done.”
Wilmington limits buildings to 35 feet or 40 feet — between three and four stories high. But in December, that city will implement a “riverfront mixed use” ordinance that will loosen height restrictions on some buildings that meet additional qualifications.
Board member Frank Hollowell said he wants to be careful about what kind of limits the board places on buildings because he doesn’t want the county to “tie too many hands.”
“I may see something and say that it’s too tall and I don’t like it,” Hollowell said. “But it’s not mine. If it was mine, I’d build it like I like it.”
But board member Starlon Credle said a developer shouldn’t disturb the “quiet enjoyment of a neighborhood” with a too-tall building.
Dick Leach, who was in the audience, said he had a petition bearing more than 700 names of people who are in favor of building-height restrictions.
The board should have what Davis called “working language” by Sept. 4.
By NIKIE MAYO
News Editor
The Beaufort County Planning Board soon will have “working language” to study as it crafts a set of building-height restriction recommendations.
Board members on Thursday night charged Eddy Davis, a planner with the Mid-East Commission, to offer language related to countywide restrictions and also location-specific conditions. He also will bring back recommendations for any “structure intended for human occupancy,” which covers residential, office and commercial units.
Beaufort County pays dues to receive planning-related services from the Mid-East Commission, a nonprofit organization that serves local governments in several eastern North Carolina municipalities and counties.
“Height restrictions vary from county to county,” Davis said. “Some have none at all; some have it set up where one number applies countywide. It’s a little bit more difficult or challenging to control heights without zoning, so we’ll be looking at (restrictions based on) either the type of development or the type of place it’s in.”
“There are several reasons people consider limits,” Davis said. “There’s the community character and appearance — the ‘you know, this just doesn’t look right,’ ... or the safety aspect, particularly for fire departments. There’s what we call the ‘view shed.’ We know that as the coastal areas fill up, people start moving toward the Inner Banks and the communities therein, ... so there’s the idea of not blocking out ... the view of the river. There’s also the density factor, because you may not want more than a certain number of dwellings in a particular place.”
“You can adopt the across-the-board height limit and say, ‘No building shall be taller than X. Period; end of story.’ Or you can say that a building must be scaled back, dependent on its nearness to a thing like water,” Davis said.
The Planning Board been tasked with “evaluating the need for height restrictions and offering options” to commissioners, said planning board Chairman Doug Mercer. Thursday’s meeting was “kinda a first step” toward that goal, said board member Jeff Peed.
Again and again, board members termed The Rembrey at Pamlico Shores a “wake-up call” and the impetus of the discussion on building heights. The high-rise condominium project is set for the former Whichard’s Beach property in Chocowinity. It calls for building two 13-story buildings on the land.
“I think we need to do what we can to preserve the character here,” said board member Paul Boozeman. “We need to look at places like Wilmington to see what they’ve done.”
Wilmington limits buildings to 35 feet or 40 feet — between three and four stories high. But in December, that city will implement a “riverfront mixed use” ordinance that will loosen height restrictions on some buildings that meet additional qualifications.
Board member Frank Hollowell said he wants to be careful about what kind of limits the board places on buildings because he doesn’t want the county to “tie too many hands.”
“I may see something and say that it’s too tall and I don’t like it,” Hollowell said. “But it’s not mine. If it was mine, I’d build it like I like it.”
But board member Starlon Credle said a developer shouldn’t disturb the “quiet enjoyment of a neighborhood” with a too-tall building.
Dick Leach, who was in the audience, said he had a petition bearing more than 700 names of people who are in favor of building-height restrictions.
The board should have what Davis called “working language” by Sept. 4.
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tunne rat wrote on Jul 6, 2009 8:55 PM:
that is the biggest propganda word that every came out of butterfields and rino jones mouth in the past hundred years .
just 2 water boys for the obama socalist party , and a hand full of red necks that dont have a clue about whast they are talking about . "