| Proposed
Neuse River Pier Off Oriental
Condotel
Developer Proposes Putting Public Pier Away From Park
April 9, 2006
Oriental’s Town Board has voted
to apply for a grant of more than $24,000 to build a 100-foot
long fishing pier near Lou Mac Park.
That vote came at the April 4 meeting after more than 45 minutes of comment from the public both for and against the pier being built at Lou Mac Park.
The
public pier would extend 100 feet in to the Neuse from
the curve in this photo, where Freemason Street meets
the river and the eastern edge of Lou Mac Park. Some
oppose the location, saying it would drastically change
the view. |
A pier once stood in that area, but was demolished by a storm
decades ago. It was not rebuilt, in part because of past histories
of public drinking and public nuisance there. That was
the basis for some opposition for seeking the state grant now.
At least one adjacent property owner who opposes the pier
off of Lou Mac Park was never notified of the meeting. Another
adjacent property owner says he was first contacted just hours
before the meeting. He too had reservations about the pier.
But a compromise could be in the works. And it centers
on the River Neuse Motel, just a block away from Lou-Mac Park.
Compromise Solution Offered:
Neuse
River Condotel Owner Offers Money, Waterfront
As the pier issue was
percolating in recent weeks, the River Neuse Motel, just
down South Avenue from the proposed pier site, changed hands. And
the new owners, who plan to make condotels of the motel,
are offering an alternative.
TownDock.net has learned
that the new owners of the River Neuse Motel will offer the
waterfront in front of their property as the site for the
public pier. In
addition, they will offer the funds to help build it.
Marvin Bullock, a realtor
representing the new owners of the soon-to-be-condotels,
says they are willing to give the town $7,500 toward the
building of the public pier “on the
condition in be built in front of the condotels.”
That $7,500 represents
the amount the town would have to pay toward the pier's construction. The
grant the town is seeking from the state requires the town
to pay a quarter of the estimated $31,000 cost.
Marvin Bullock stands near the old pier in front of the old Neuse River Motel. The public pier could go here if the town of Oriental accepts the condotel developer's offer. Putting the pier here, a block away, Bullock says, would preserve the pristine nature of Lou Mac Park . |
Under the plan outlined by Bullock,
the pier could be built near the corner of Mildred Street and
South Avenue. There, the remains of the old River Neuse
Motel pier pilings still poke up through the water.
That would address the concerns raised by some
residents who said the fishing pier would detract from the
quiet park atmosphere at Lou Mac.
Putting the pier a block away, Bullock
says, would preserve the "pristine" look of Lou-Mac
Park.
It would be better, he says, than the
plan to put the pier right next to the park, which Bullock
says "would be like putting a scenic tower at the Grand Canyon" and
destroying the view for those not in the tower.
Dawn
as now seen from Lou Mac Park. The remnants
of the old Neuse River Motel pier can be seen in background
at left. The pier the town is seeking
a grant for would have the 100 foot long pier extend
in to the Neuse from the edge of Lou Mac Park, where
the riprap curves in this photo. |
Bullock
says he would like to present the condotel-developers' offer
to the Town Board at its Monday morning meeting. The town board has a special budget planning session scheduled for 8am, at which time some items left over from last Tuesday’s meeting will be considered. Bullock
hopes to speak to the board then.
Contentious Plan, Contentions Over Lack of Details in Plan
For the moment though, the plan is
to proceed to seek a grant to build at Lou Mac.
That decision was reached at the Tuesday April 4th meeting
at which there were few details offered.
There was no sketch of what the pier would look like, only verbal descriptions that it would be made of hog slats, the concrete slabs now used on many docks in the area.
The placement of the pier has wavered, too. At a March 30th run-up to the regular meeting of the board, it was proposed that the pier extend from the middle of Lou Mac Park. Tuesday night, it was proposed that it jut out from the eastern point of the park, at the end of Freemason Street.
There was no discussion of what the ongoing
maintenance costs would be, nor what the town’s policy
would be on replacing the pier should a hurricane batter
it. Nor on what extra liability, if any, the town would incur.
The
end of Freemason Street (at the electric pole at left)
is where it meets Lou Mac Park's eastern edge, and where
the pier would go as initially proposed by the Town Board. |
Absent those details,
the informal public meeting -- it was not a public hearing
in the strict sense of having been advertised two weeks in
advance -- focused on residents’ feelings, pro and
con, about the pier.
The towns' initial paperwork with CAMA,
in a run-up to the grant application, stated that Oriental
did not have "a quiet, safe place for folks to enjoy a few hours of fishing.”
While some have noted that the town already
has that, with anglers using the kayak launch dock at the
end of Midyette Street, Town Commissioner Candy Bohmert says
the town needs a fishing pier off of the South Avenue waterfront.
Fishermen have been casting their lines
from that waterfront for years, standing either on the South
Avenue asphalt or on the rip-rap that lines the shore, but
Bohmert says that is "dangerous" and that people could "break their necks on the rocks." Bohmert
has led the charge for the fishing pier grant, with the town's
tourism board supporting the idea.
Planning Commissioner Grace Evans has
been a long-time champion of the pier at the park. At the meeting Tuesday Evans said that it would be good for the town to offer people the chance to “walk
out on a pier and be over the water."
"A lot of people,” she said, "don’t
have that access.”
Noting an earlier pier at Lou Mac had
washed out in a storm and never been rebuilt, Evans made
reference to Oriental’s
African-American residents wanting the pier restored years
ago.
"People inboard deserve to be able to
go out there" on
the water, Evans said.
Some of those who spoke against the
pier at Lou Mac Park said they were concerned it would be
used 24/7 and could become noisy at night and a problem to
police as an earlier incarnation had been. Others questioned how much tourism it would draw. And
several said that the pier would detract from the now quiet
park.
Some of the strongest opposition to the pier-at-the-park came from two residents who live within shouting distance of Lou Mac Park.
Jennifer Roe who lives on South Avenue,
one lot away from Lou Mac, described the park as “a serene spot” where people sit to read, have lunch or just take in the river. Roe suggested that a fishing pier so close by would change things for the worse. She asked the Town Board to “not
lose sight on how the park is presently used.”
The
view today from Lou Mac Park
|
Kirk Nelson, who
lives on Neuse Street and whose back porch has a view of
the park, told the board that the pier project was, “the wrong idea, the wrong place, the wrong time,” and
that the town had not considered the full liability.
Of the $7,000 to $8,000 that the town
will have to provide as part of the matching grant arrangement,
Nelson said it was money the town could spend on things that
the town’s infrastructure committee had laid out as priorities. Nelson called it “insulting" that the pier ‘jump to the head of the line” without
having been thought through.
Nelson also noted that there was a place
to fish on the river. He said that county tax dollars had paid for a fishing pier “7/10ths of a mile as the crow flies, and 2.2 miles by car” from
Oriental at Styrontown Beach Road.
Trish Keegan said she worred about the
noise, as she notices "cars and kids hanging around" at night even now. If a pier is built there, she says, "it would encourage more of that." Keegan
questioned whether Police Chief Jeff Casassa could police the
pier and the rest of town.
And yet another question of a pragmatic
nature came up. “Where are people, “ Toni Leavitt asked haltingly, “going
to pee?”
What Do The Neighbors Think?
Given the past issues with piers in the area, the town commissioners indicated that they wanted to hear the views of nearby property owners. At the March 30th meeting, the town board said it wanted the town to contact nearby property owners so they could give their views at the April 4th meeting.
At the April 4th meeting, two of those property owners said they favored the pier.
Kip and Ron Nicholas live in the house at the corner of South Avenue and Freemason, which some may know as the site of Sunday afternoon croquet games, and others as Garland Fulcher's house. The Nicholas' were in favor, they said, though Kip said she had concerns about the absence of a bathroom.
Carl Baxley, representing the United Methodist Church whose parsonage sits on the other corner of South and Freemason, said the church had no objections.
Lou
Mac Park |
Town Manager Wyatt
Cutler told the board that he contacted Keith Crisco who
owns the house on the water at the west side of Lou Mac and
that Crisco said, as Cutler put it, “’he does have some concern.’” Cutler
also relayed that Crisco was asking the board to hold a public
hearing on the matter.
In question now is whether the board took an accurate pulse of all those who live closest to Lou Mac and the proposed pier.
Two Neighbors Opposed, Two For
Contacted
afterward Crisco told TownDock.net that his statement that “he
had concerns” should
not have been construed as favoring the pier, or going forward
to seek the grant money.
Crisco, who lives in Asheboro, also says that he was only notified of the Tuesday meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Calm
places to sit and enjoy the view from Lou Mac Park. In
the background and adjacent to the park is Keith Crisco's
home. |
Gordon LeGrand, meanwhile, says he was
never contacted. The Raleigh resident and frequent weekend
visitor owns the lot next to the parsonage and across from
the park. Going in to the weekend, LeGrand says he still
had received no notification. The town manager says LeGrand’s property was listed as an LLC and the town didn’t
know how to contact the owners.
Had he been asked, LeGrand says he would
have told the town that he opposes the pier at Lou Mac Park.
For one thing, he says, it would ruin “the beautiful river view” from the park. LeGrand also says that he is concerned about any activity “that
would attract large crowds to an area that has limited space
for parking and other public facilities.”
But at the meeting, LeGrand was not heard from because the town never contacted him.
It appeared that as
the board voted in favor of proceeding with the pier, commissioners
were under the impression there were only three adjacent
property owners and that two of them favored the project.
(The views of Jennifer Roe and Kirk Nelson, who lived in
homes one lot away and opposed the pier, seemed to be given
less weight.)
But there were four property owners facing or adjacent to the park and pier proceed for the end of Freemason Street and two of them were opposed to the town seeking the grant right away with out a public hearing or further review.
Keith Crisco told Town Dock that he wished
the town board had sought “greater input and done further analysis” of the project before seeking the grant. Crisco says the board should more closely consider the impact on the “affected
parties, the vista and the general quality of life."
Crisco requested a publicl hearing and
there would have been time to hold one before the grant application
deadline on April 28th. But Crisco’s request was rebuffed
when Commissioners Candy Bohmert, Nancy Inger, Warren Johnson
and Barbara Venturi voted to proceed with the application
for the $24,000 grant.
Commissioner Al Herlands did not vote
because he said, he felt he didn’t have enough information.
There was some conversation among the board members that the town could rethink the pier project later on. That is, that even if the grant came through, the town could reject it. But that strategy came with warnings that doing that could mar the town's reputation the next time it sought a grant for anything.
 The
remains of the pier now off the Neuse River Motel |
In to this mix, has been added the prospect
of the River Neuse condotel owners giving the town the waterfront
a block away from Lou Mac and the $7,500 that the town
would need to pay its share of the buidling.
Marvin Bullock says he would like to talk to the Town Board Monday morning at its special meeting, about that offer.
Also, when told late last week of of
LeGrand’s and Crisco’s concerns about putting the pier at Lou Mac Park and the process itself, Town Commission chairman Warren Johnson told Town Dock that he might re-raise the pier issue at Monday’s
meeting as well.
As with all town board meetings, this
one is open to the public.
|
