Holden Beach Property Owners Association

Here is the agenda for the April Board of Commissioners’ Meeting.  Highlights include the engineering report on the sewer system, changes to trash pickup, and a report on inlet dredging.

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.

In August 2014 new preliminary flood maps were released for our area.  They showed 92% of property owners would benefit from the maps.  The new flood zone designations would result in savings of thousands of dollars annually for many property owners. Building Inspector Tim Evans did a presentation on the new maps at the October 2014 Commissioners’ Meeting and we posted about it here.  (Note: The Town walked back the idea that the maps were effective immediately.)

To date, the maps have been delayed and there has been no clear expectation of when they will be effective.  At the February 2017 Commissioners’ Meeting, HBPOA Board Member Mike Sullivan spoke about the importance of getting the maps in place and urged the Commissioners to act.  The Commissioners passed Resolution 17-01.  The Resolution has been distributed to all of our representatives.

In addition, several HBPOA Board Members attended Representative Rouzers’ Town Hall meeting at BCCC to communicate the importance and urgency of the issue.

We have heard back from Congressman Rouzer’s staff:

At long last, I have some information for you about the flood maps for Holden Beach.  It looks like they pushed the date back by one year due to ongoing appeals to the proposed maps.  I’m sorry I don’t have better news, but the complicated nature of the flood map drafting and implementation process leaves lots of opportunity for delays.  You can find the email I received from our contact at FEMA about it below.

The good news is, just yesterday Congressman Rouzer signed on as a cosponsor for a bill that would require the Government Accountability Office to review flood insurance rates and flood insurance rate maps under the national flood insurance program within the year of the bill’s enactment and every subsequent four years thereafter.  This would help ensure maps stay up to date and prevent people from paying more than necessary for their insurance premiums.  The bill is HR 879, the Flood Insurance Integrity Act.

FEMA’s Region 4 staff have provided the following information. They are the subject matter experts on specific maps.

• Brunswick County is part of the Lumber Basin, and it has a projected Letter of Final Determination Date of 7/19/17, which makes the Effective Date: 1/19/18.
• It is also part of REG-NC Cape Fear (C) & Lumber (W) Basins Missing Panels: PMR8 which dealt with missing panels from Brunswick and a few other counties.
• The Village of Bald Head was left off the original Flood Hazard Determination Notice (FHD) Notice, so it ran through an Appeal Period by itself.
• NC’s Floodplain Management Program was waiting for the missing panels to go through the Appeal Period and then have them go Effective with the Brunswick county panels in the Lumber basin.
• Supply, NC is an unincorporated community in Brunswick County.

 HBPOA encourages everyone to contact their Federal, State and County elected officials. We have drafted sample letters which you can use, but individual calls and letters are sometimes more effective than form letters.  The letters are for the Congressmen representing Holden Beach.  If you are not a full-time resident you can find your elected representatives here.

Click below for the letters:

Congressman David Rouzer

Senator Thom Tillis

Senator Richard Burr

Check Your Property’s Flood Map Changes

You can check to see what the new flood maps for your property will be by clicking here.  Zoom in to your property and you can determine what your current designation is.  Click on your home and get all the details on the right side of your screen.  Use the drop-down menu in the top right corner to change from Effective to Preliminary.  This is what your new flood rating will be.  Again, click your home to see the changes.  Many properties go from a VE designation to AE – which will significantly lower insurance premiums.  Most properties also have a lower Base Flood Elevation (BFE) which will also lower premiums.

March meeting highlights included a new beach walkway ordinance, inlet concerns and a new contract for the Town Manager with a 39% raise and a severance package.

Click here for a short summary of the results of the meeting.  You can now listen to an audio recording of the meeting. Click here to listen.

If you have not yet paid your 2017 Membership Dues you may do so by:

• Clicking here to pay with PayPal
• By going to our website here
• By mailing a check to PO Box 376, Supply, NC 28462.

Dues are $15 per year and you are welcome to pay more than one year at a time.
As always, feel free to email us at [email protected] with your comments and questions and we will get back to you.

Here is the agenda for the March Board of Commissioners’ Meeting.  Highlights include a discussion about Beach Ambassadors, new rules for beach walkways, and a change to the way hurricane stickers are handled.

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 result of dredging the Lockwood Folly Inlet, Holden Beach is getting even more sand!  The new project is being called the “Eastern Reach” and will place approximately 130,000 cubic yards of sand from 240 OBE down to the last oceanfront house Amazing Grace.  This new project meets up with where the Central Reach started, meaning the whole beach strand as far west as 781 OBW will have been nourished.

Click here for a video!

Congressman David Rouzer

Congressman David Rouzer will host a 7th District Town Hall from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, March 6, to hear his constituents’ concerns.  The meeting will be at Brunswick Community College’s Odell Williamson Auditorium, 150 College Road NE, Bolivia. 

HBPOA Board members will be there to discuss the delay in Flood Map implementation.  The new maps will benefit 92% of property owners on Holden Beach.  Please come join us and lend your support!

We hope everyone is receiving the daily updates on the Central Reach Renourishment Project from the Town.  We wanted to share a few photos of what the project looks like from above.  This project is placing 1,300,000 cubic yards of beach quality sand from 240 OBE to 781 OBW, a total of over four miles.  The cost is approximately $15 million, paid for with BPART funds and increased property taxes for paying off 10-year Special Obligation Bonds.

In addition, at their last meeting, the Board of Commissioners approved the “Eastern Reach” project to place an additional 120,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the Lockwood Folly Inlet on the east end from 240 OBE (where the Central Reach Project started), to Amazing Grace (the last oceanfront home on the east end of the island.  The cost to the Town will be only $76,000 for these 120,000 cubic yards of sand.

Combined, these two projects will renourish the beach strand from the east end to 781 OBW – basically, the entire length of the island that was in need of sand. Both of these projects will be complete this spring, so we will have a fantastic beach strand this summer! 

HBPOA Board Member Mike Sullivan addressed the Board of Commissioners regarding the flood map situation.

Click here for a short summary of the results of Tuesday night’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting.

You can now listen to an audio recording of the meeting.  Click here to listen.

HBPOA spoke at the meeting regarding the delay in implementing the new flood maps.  Implementation of the new maps will bring substantial savings to 92% of the island’s properties.  Working with the Board of Commissioners led to the adoption of Resolution 17-01.   Watch our website, HoldenBeachPOA.com, for more information as we continue to work on this issue.

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

Here is the agenda for the February Board of Commissioners’ Meeting.  Highlights include an update on Flood Insurance, peddling Italian ice on the strand, dredging the inlet and adding more sand, and shark fishing.  

You can now review the whole meeting packet online here. The packet contains the agenda and background information on each agenda item.

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.