Holden Beach Property Owners Association

The Holden Beach Board of Commissioners will be looking carefully at the terminal groin at their meeting on Friday, April 6, at 7:00 PM.  The agenda includes speakers in favor of and opposed to a terminal groin on the east end of the island. The packet for the meeting was released last night.  HBPOA will be speaking and presenting information from the Easter Meeting where members voted to oppose the groin.  For more information on the groin, including where you can download and read the Final Environmental Impact Statement click here.

The Commissioners will also meet Friday morning at 9:00 AM to discuss audit committee business, hear from the Town’s environmental attorney, Clark Wright, and review the revenue portion of the proposed FY 18-19 Town budget.  You can click here to review the agenda and the meeting packet.

The Holden Beach Property Owners Association has concluded that the nourishment efforts performed by the Town over the past 15 years have been very successful and cost-effective in protecting the east end of the island, and that the additional costs and risks associated with a terminal groin are not justified.

The attached material provides the basis for this position, and includes the resolution that was passed by the HBPOA members during their meeting on March 31^st urging the Board of Commissioners to continue with the same nourishment and Lockwood Folly inlet strategies from the last 15 years, and to stop spending the Town’s money and resources in pursuit of a terminal groin.

Terminal Groin Committee Report and Resolution

Terminal Groin Fact Sheet

The Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District will receive written comments pertaining to the proposed groin until 5 PM, April 16, 2018. Comments should be submitted to Mr. Mickey Sugg, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office, 69 Darlington Avenue, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403,  (910) 251-4811.  HBPOA has requested an additional 30 days for comments, but it is not clear that the extra time will be granted.  Visit our Terminal Groin Page to learn more about the proposed groin.

You may join or pay your dues by sending your check to HBPOA, PO Box 376, Supply, NC 28462.  Dues are $15 per year.  Please include your email address(es) and the Holden Beach property address along with your permanent address and phone number.  You can also fill out and print this Membership Form to mail with your check if that is easier!  To pay your dues online go to our website here. See you Saturday morning at 10:00 AM!

Click here for a short summary of the results of Tuesday night’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting.  You can listen to a recording of the meeting by clicking here.

The March regular Commissioners’ Meeting has been moved to April 6 at 7:00pm.

As always, feel free to email us at [email protected] with your comments and questions and we will get back to you.

The Town of Holden Beach Board of Commissioners will meet Tuesday, February 20, for their regular monthly meeting.  Highlights include the annual audit, possible action on parking and establishing an Inlet, Beach and Environmental Protection Board.  In addition, there is also a Special Meeting scheduled for 6:45PM prior to the monthly meeting to interview candidates for the vacancy on the Planning and Zoning Board.  Click below for more information.

 
As always, you can drop us an email at [email protected] if you would like for us to ask a question or speak on your behalf at the meeting.  

As a stakeholder on record as opposed to wind turbines visible from our beach, HBPOA was invited to a meeting in Wilmington, NC with representatives of the Consensus Building Institute.  The meeting was for confidential conversations to explore HBPOA perspectives on wind energy development off the coast of the Carolinas. The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1993 by practitioners and theory builders in the fields of negotiation and dispute resolution.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has designated three Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) for commercial wind energy leasing off the coast of NC.  One area is off Kitty Hawk, the other two are off Brunswick County, roughly south of Holden Beach and off Frying Pan Shoals. The Wilmington East site — which begins about 17.3 miles from Bald Head Island and runs 20.7 miles southeast — spans 133,590 acres. The Wilmington West site (Holden Beach), which is slightly northwest of the eastern one and separated by a shipping lane, begins 11.5 nautical miles from shore and covers 51,595 acres.
• The two Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) off our beach have been grouped with the South Carolina WEAs.  South Carolina is proposing a HUGE wind turbine farm off Myrtle Beach, which may be so large it might make the Holden Beach wind turbine farm unviable.  There are so many wind turbines planned they are concerned there will not be enough wind for the area off our beach to make the turbines worthwhile.  (Not sure what this means for our summer sea breeze)

Discussion with the representatives of Consensus Building Institute included:

1. Overview of Holden Beach including island size and population during various times of the year
2. Demographics of Holden Beach: permanent residents, “weekend warriors”, rental home owners, seasonal renters and “family-oriented” environment.
3. Overview of HBPOA resolution to oppose turbines if they were visible. https://holdenbeachpoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HBPOA-Windfarm-Resolution-signed.pdf “Resolution in Opposition to Issuance of Wind Energy Leases Within 30 Nautical Miles of Holden Beach Shores”, September 5, 2015, HBPOA Membership Meeting
4. Property Owners’ Concerns – offshore Holden Beach view of wind turbines and impact to tourism, potential negative impact to rentals and property values, potential impact to tourism tax income, and impact to the service economy. Also discussed potential view from Holden Beach of Myrtle Beach wind turbines.
5. Discussed differences such as demographics and economic drivers between Holden Beach, other Brunswick County beaches including Bald Head Island, Myrtle Beach, and Kitty Hawk.
6. Discussed why Myrtle Beach is supposedly enthusiastic about wind turbines versus concerns of Brunswick County beaches.
7. Discussed NCSU study on visible wind turbines and the negative impact it would have on vacation rentals/property values. The report – “The Amenity Costs of Offshore Wind Farms: Evidence From a Choice Experiment” showed that 54 percent of survey participants would not be willing to rent a home if the turbines were visible at all, regardless of their distance from the coast. The issue is particularly resonant for North Carolina because our state is considered to have the best coastal and offshore wind resources along the East Coast.
8. Discussed precedent set by agreement with Kitty Hawk to move wind turbines 30 nautical miles offshore. The area currently under development off the Outer Banks was moved out so they would not be visible from shore. Initially, the proposed site in Kitty Hawk was as close as six miles off the beach. But in response to the town’s opposition to any project less than 20 miles from shore, the lease unit area was moved further offshore. The overall size was also decreased to stay 34 miles from the historic Bodie Island Lighthouse, part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
9. Discussed the potential for greater wind efficiency further offshore of Holden Beach based upon wind efficiency maps.
10. Discussed willingness to meet with federal and state agencies and other local communities to discuss options (YES).

The CBI report summarizing shared concerns by all interviewed stakeholders will be available for review by end of May 2018.

For more information, go to the Wind Energy page under Hot Topics by clicking here.

Thanks to HBPOA Board Member Woody Tyner for representing HBPOA at the meeting!

BOEM simulation of what the Wilmington West wind farm would look like from Holden Beach.

Work is set to begin on dredging the Lockwood Folly Inlet with near-shore placement of beach-quality sand on the East End of the island.  The Currituck, a trailing suction hopper dredge, should be off the Lockwood Folly Inlet by the middle of February and work until the beginning of March.

The plan is to dredge the navigation channel 10′ deep and 100′ wide.

The project is estimated to cost $504,000 with two-thirds coming from the State’s Shallow Draft Inlet Fund and the remaining third split between the County and the Town.  The Town’s portion will be $84,000.

Read More:

Memo from the Corps of Engineers

http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20171219/county-approves-funding-lockwood-folly-inlet-dredge-project

Lockwoods Folly Inlet dredging approved, work expected to begin in January

No matter what you think about drilling off our coast, now is the time to comment.  President Trump’s proposal to open nearly all U.S. waters to offshore drilling has opened a 60-day public comment period. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will accept comments until March 9, 2018.

To submit a comment to BOEM click here.

HBPOA voted to oppose oil and gas drilling as well as seismic testing off our coast.  You can read more about the issues here.

Click here  for a short summary of the results of the January Board of Commissioners’ meeting.  Click here to listen to the audio recording of the meeting.

As always, feel free to email us at  [email protected] with your comments and questions and we will get back to you.