home

A

proposal to give Oriental a fast track to a new Town Dock by way of a land swap is raising some questions. Several Town Commissioners who say they find merit in the plan also said in the past week that the current proposal gives the town less harborfront (and riparian rights) than they thought the Town would be getting.

Shown here, much of the 4,100 square feet the Town would get in the land swap. It includes 46 feet of harborfront. The price would be relinquishing control of 14,000 square feet of right-of-way and approximately 90 feet of waterfront.

Chris Fulcher, a businessman who owns the fishing operation at the outer edge of the harbor, proposes a swap in which he gives 46.47 feet of harborfront, a 4,100 square foot lot and a dock. To acquire that, the proposal calls for the Town to abandon more than 14,000 square feet of current right-of-way and about 90 feet of harborfront.

Commissioner Larry Summers describes the 46 feet of waterfront in Fulcher’s proposal as “unacceptable” because it doesn’t give visiting boats enough room to maneuver.

Meanwhile, some members of the Oriental Parks and Rec Committee are suggesting the Town was “selling ourselves short” by giving up as much right-of-way as Fulcher proposes the Town abandon.

The Proposal

In the proposed swap, Chris Fulcher would give the Town a 4,100 square foot parcel next to the Oriental Marina. The lot extends 46.47 feet along the harborfront. It includes commercial grade pilings built for his fishing boats; that provides the framework for what could become Oriental’s second Town Dock.

Mayor Bill Sage and Town Manager Bob Maxbauer have spoken of the swap as a good deal for the Town. The advantages, they say, are that Fulcher would “donate” — as their press release put it – property that includes commercial-grade pilings going out almost 80 feet for a new Town Dock. (Planks would need to be laid to make it functional.)

In addition, the water off of that dock has been dredged to allow for full-keeled boats to come in. The land has been bulkheaded. That means the Town would not spend the money to do those things, which it would have to do to build its planned dock at South Avenue.

Further, the Town Manager and Mayor and others have noted, since that lot, in legal terms, could be owned ‘fee simple,’ the Town could erect public restrooms on the site. It already has water and sewer hookups.

South Park, the end of South Avenue. This is where the Town has been planning to dredge and erect a 100 foot long dock. The right of way includes almost 90 feet of harborfront. Giving this up, the Town would get, in exchange, 46 feet of waterfront and a partially built dock and clearance to build bathrooms.

The Mayor says the Town cannot erect bathrooms on the nearby South Avenue right-of-way and harborfront it currently lays claim to.

Rights Of Way Going Away?

Giving up that South Avenue waterfront is part of the deal. In order to get that 4,100 square foot lot from Fulcher, the Town would give up approximately 90 feet of waterfront as well as the 60-foot wide right-of-way near the end of South Avenue.

The square footage on South Avenue is not stated in the proposal but calculations using past surveys and current maps indicate more than 8,000 square feet of South Avenue right-of-way would be given up and become Fulcher’s.

The Town would also give up more than 6,000 square feet of right-of-way to all of Avenue A.

Avenue A is the road that extends more than 200 feet from South Avenue toward the Neuse River. Years ago, a fence was erected across Avenue A, lending the impression that it’s the entry to Chris Fulcher’s fishing plant property.

Avenue A. It extends toward the Neuse (obscured by the pile of rip-rap rock.) The fence is on Town right-of-way. This land — more than 6,000 square feet — would become Chris Fulcher’s if the Town abandons the right-of-way, as is proposed in the land swap.

Despite that appearance, Avenue A — on both sides of the fence — is still the Town’s right-of-way and the public has aright to walk that 30-foot wide swath for its entire 200+ foot length. Once abandoned under the terms of the proposal, however, it would become Fulcher’s since he owns the land on both sides of it.

That would leave Chris Fulcher in control of all the land between Wall Street (to the east) around the point at the entrance to the harbor, past South Avenue and up to the 4,100 square foot lot that the Town would get in the proposal.

Parks and Rec Committee Takes A Look

That and some other issues sparked a spirited discussion at last week’s Parks and Recreation Committee meeting. This is the group that has been working for more than a year to get a new Town Dock built at the end of South Avenue, extending out from the Town’s 90 feet of waterfront there.

At the February 1 meeting, the committee compared the offer of a lot with a dock to building one from scratch, the committee calculated that to put in bulkheads, dredge the waters and build a dock off of South Avenue, would cost about $70,000. (About a third of it has already been set aside from the town’s Occupancy Tax fund; word on a state grant for much of the rest is expected in March.)

Some members said being able to put in bathrooms and an information center was a plus. Another questioned how big a facility could be built land on the 46-foot wide lot given the CAMA setback lines and restrictions.

Town Commissioner Barb Venturi told the Parks and Rec Committee that a swap had been her idea for some time and that she had given it to the Town Manager to work out with Fulcher. But the proposal made public in recent weeks, she said,“is not what the (Town) Commission sent him off with.”

Venturi said that an earlier iteration of the proposal — before the Town formally said it would consider one — had Fulcher giving 55 feet of waterfront to the Town. Fellow Town Commissioner Larry Summers says that would be needed so that boats tying up to the dock there had room to maneuver.

Questions About Negotiating

Two members of the Parks and Rec committee — Regina Dubiel and Jim Edwards — cast an even more skeptical eye on the proposal and said the Town should be seeking even more than 10 more feet. Why not, they asked, seek both of the lots between South Avenue and the Oriental Marina?

Diagram of the proposed deal. The dark green is the right-of-way the Town would abandon. The yellow lot is the one Chris Fulcher would give in exchange. The light green lot between the two as with all the light green lots represent land that Fulcher would keep. Diagram provided by Town Manager Bob Maxbauer who says it is not drawn to scale.

Edwards, the committee’s chairman, noted that if the Town gives up the Avenue A right-of-way and the one at South Avenue, so that Fulcher can then claim it, “it really increases the value of his property.” Edwards said that by not being divided by a town road, the property would be more attractive for future development. “Contiguousness is of huge value to him.”

“Tell me that that doesn’t improve his property more than $70,000. I’m sorry. That’s huge.”

“I don’t know that it’s fleshed out to be the best deal on the Town’s behalf.” Keeping in mind the value of those rights-of-ways, says Edwards, should put the Town in a better position to negotiate.

“We are selling ourselves short,” said Regina Dubiel of the current proposal. She asked why the town didn’t seek both of Fulcher’s lots next to South Avenue.

“He’s going to gain a lot. If the town is going to help him, he needs to be fair.”

Combined, Fulcher’s two lots appear to add up to about 95-100 feet on the harborfront.

Barb Venturi said she’d be working to get a deal in which Fulcher give 10 more feet along the waterfront.

“He’s a businessman. He can add and subtract,” she said of Fulcher. “Maybe we haven’t added and subtracted as we should.”

When TownDock.net asked last week about the Town seeking more land in the deal, Town Manager Bob Maxbauer said that he thought the Town was getting “the better end of the deal.”

“We shouldn’t look a gift-horse in the mouth too closely,” he said.

The press release issued by Town Hall on the swap says that “The Town Board will take up the matter at its February 7 Board meeting at which public input will be welcomed.”

The meeting starts at 7p and takes place at the First Baptist Church across the street from Town Hall. The Board has said it may go in to closed session to discuss negotiations, but a public comment session precedes that item on the agenda.

Stories On The Land Swap Proposal

Chris Fulcher Proposal To Town – January 31

Questions Arise On Fulcher Land Swap Proposal – February 7

Mayor Says Relationship With Fulcher A Benefit Of Land Swap – February 9

Town Board Accepts Fulcher Land Swap In Principle – February 12

Letters On The Land Swap

Posted Tuesday February 7, 2012 by Melinda Penkava