Oriental’s Town Board
heard Monday morning of two offers by private individuals to
finance all or part of a pier at the South Avenue waterfront.
But the board voted 5-0 Monday morning to proceed with plans
for a fishing pier off of Lou Mac Park and to seek a $24,000
state grant from CAMA to pay for it. That arrangement would
require the town to pay one quarter, or approximately $7,500
of the cost.
Town manager Wyatt Cutler told the board that local developer
Sylvan Freedman had offered to pay for the entire pier. Meanwhile,
there was a separate offer from Neuse River condotel developer
Michael Rogers, who said he would give $7500 to the town to
build it in front of his property one block away from the park
at or near the corner of Mildred Street.
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. |
In the wake of last Tuesday’s Town Board
meeting, Mike Rogers’ suggestion and offer had extended
hope to those who said they didn’t oppose a fishing pier
at the waterfront but worried that a pier at Lou Mac Park would
detract from the view and the tranquility there.
The issue of accepting private money aside, some commissioners
seemed resistant to discussing an alternative to the Lou Mac
Park site. Commissioner Candy Bohmert who has led the charge
to put the pier only at Lou Mac Park, said that parking would
be an issue for a Mildred Street Pier.
But Planning commission member George Duffie, in the audience
for the Town Board meeting asked why parking was being raised
as an issue over a Mildred Street pier when the Town Board
a week earlier did not take steps to ensure new parking spaces
when backing a pier a block away at the end of Freemason Street.
The 14 parking spaces on South Avenue that start at the edge
of the park run halfway up the block from Freemason toward
Mildred. The last parking space would be about 150 feet from
the Mildred Street pier.
Mayor Sherrill Styron said he thought
that the existing spaces would be adequate, “People
could park and walk 50 yards.” to
a pier off of Mildred Street, which he said he thought “would
be the best place” to put the pier.
Commissioner Bohmert also suggested there would be ADA --
(Americans with Disabilities Act) -- challenges with the Mildred
Street site compared to Freemason. At Freemason there is currently
a sloped incline up from the asphalt to the park.
But Town Manager Wyatt Cutler, who in
an earlier life worked in construction, said it wouldn’t
be difficult for the town to remove one of the concrete barriers
now at the end of Mildred Street to make the pier opening
wide enough to let people through and conform with ADA.
In the discussion, it emerged that both Mildred and Freemason
Streets had enough town right of way to meet CAMA requirements
for a pier.
Candy Bohmert defended putting the pier
at the park, "You'll
always have people against anything" and said that the
proposal for the pier at Lou Mac was what the town wanted and
that "after the pier was built the controversy would go away."
But some who oppose the pier at the park
say that if the pier is built there, the open vista now enjoyed
from the park, making the river an extension of Lou Mac,
will go away. That’s
why, they say, an alternative should be explored.
But at Monday’s meeting, Bohmert pressed to proceed
with seeking the grant that would specify the pier be at Lou
Mac Park, at the end of Freemason Street. “We voted
on it,” she said, referring to the Tuesday night vote.
But at that April 4th meeting, while two of the adjacent property
owners said they had no objections to a Freemason Street pier,
one adjacent property owner was never notified by the town
about the issue and a fourth said he had concerns. Two residents
who lived one lot away from Lou Mac said they opposed the pier
at the park.
And since the April 4th board meeting, there were those offers
of private financing.
Town Manager Wyatt Cutler reminded the board twice Monday
morning that they could still hold a public hearing on the
matter with time to spare before the grant application deadline
on April 28th. What might be discussed at such a hearing: what
is the best spot for the pier? But no commissioners moved to
hold a public hearing.
Monday morning all five members voted to proceed with seeking
the CAMA grant specifically for the Freemason Street pier.
As with the earlier vote by the board, there was no sketch
or diagram of what the pier would look like, nor an overview
of how much of the river view from Lou Mac Park would be blocked
by the pier at Freemason Street.
This
map shows the the location of the proposed pier in yellow
at left, and the alternative location in blue to the
right. |
Absent an official sketch,
TownDock.net took an aerial photo from the County’s map collection and drew to scale a
100 foot pier off the edge of the park at Freemason Street.
Given the angle that the Lou Mac waterfront presents to the
river, the pier extending from Freemason Street would block
the park’s eastern view.
Marvin Bullock, a resident
and realtor, said at the meeting that he supported the idea
of a pier. “I think a pier
would be a great nostalgic draw as far as tourists go,” Bullock
said, “But I really think there’s a better place
than Lou Mac Park.”
After the meeting Bullock
said that even if the board wasn't
receptive to the idea of taking private funds, he hoped the
board would still --even after Monday’s meeting and vote
-- take a closer look at Mildred Street as an option.
Contacted after Monday
morning’s
meeting, South Avenue Jennifer Roe said she was surprised
the Town Board turned down the alternative offer to put the
pier at Mildred Street.
Roe, who lives one lot
away from Lou Mac Park, said putting the pier at Mildred
Street would help the town, “utilize
the whole waterfront. Why are we cramming it all in one corner,” at
the park?
Roe said that putting
the pier at Mildred Street was “the
perfect opportunity to use the water front. You spread the
tourism around instead of bunching it all up at one little
end.”
As for the private money being offered to offset some or all
of the cost of the pier, Town Commission Chairman Warren Johnson
said the appreciated the generosity, but felt inclined to not
accept it.
Johnson says that since both of the men
offering the private funds were developers, he was concerned
that “more than
likely they would have plans that came before the board one
day.” For instance, he said, Mike Rogers may come to
the town with plans that bring up parking issues. Wanting to
avoid possible misperceptions in the future, Johnson says he
thought the town should not take the private money. “I
don’t want that cloud hanging over me,” he said.
The prospect of the pier being paid for with something other
than the CAMA grant would present the town other options.
From the audience at Monday's meeting,
Planning Commissioner Dee Sage, noted there were a number
of other projects the town could use the CAMA money for.
And earlier in the meeting Town Commissioner
Barbara Venturi said she had thought of seeking that same
CAMA grant money for a long-range planning project for the
town, but didn't
do that when she learned only by chance that the town’s
Tourism Board was going after that same grant money for the
pier project. As a result, Venturi’s planning project,
which she estimated would cost $10,000 -- will have to be paid
for by the town.
Venturi has suggested that the town should
better coordinate boards and bodies seeking grants.
