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Friday, March 29, 2024

North end beach residents hope for relief from inlet costs

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Donald Getz counts in tens of thousands of dollars as he calculates his required contribution to Masons Inlet maintenance in 2013.

The total price tag is more than $27,000 for five rental properties he owns with his wife on the north end of Wrightsville Beach. Getz, an orthopedic surgeon, said he and his wife rent the properties because they love the island.

“We’re in the hobby of hospitality. We rent the places and we get enough money to pay the dues, but it really kills us,” Getz said during a Sept. 19 phone interview.

Getz is one of 1,044 property owners on the north end of Wrightsville Beach and Figure Eight Island who shoulder the cost to maintain Masons Inlet. When the inlet’s rapid southern migration threatened Shell Island Resort and other north end condos and homes, affected property owners from both islands joined forces as the Mason Inlet Preservation Group (MIPG) to lobby to move the inlet 3,000 feet north in 2002.

Hotel and rental property tax revenues were used by New Hanover County to pay for the initial inlet relocation costs. Figure Eight Island and Wrightsville Beach property owners agreed to reimburse the county by paying a special assessment on their properties for dredging maintenance to prevent the inlet from migrating again.

This group has paid more than $13 million through county tax assessments. The town of Wrightsville Beach is also assessed for its north end property, which includes parking lots and wellheads.

George Melita, MIPG co-chair and Shell Island homeowners association board member, said multiple attempts to secure federal or state relief for maintenance costs were unsuccessful. When a reserve of room occupancy tax collected in unincorporated areas of the county, or District U, became available to offset inlet maintenance costs, it seemed like a long-awaited solution.

Then the group learned the money was allocated with Carolina Beach Inlet in mind.

“After years of paying through the nose for this thing that has basically become a public works project, privately funded, and then we get to this point where there is money available for inlet preservation, we are again denied access,” Melita said during a Sept. 19 phone interview.

The previously untapped money was allocated in a 2014 law introduced to the N.C. General Assembly by Rep Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover.

Getz noted that he also pays occupancy tax on his property rentals.

“The properties for us are rental properties, so we pay a lot of room tax. … Just the occupancy tax we pay, you’d think it would come back in some manner, to encourage occupancy,” Getz said.

Because his properties are within Wrightsville Beach town limits, room tax he pays goes to that ROT pot of money. Room tax collected from rentals on nearby Figure Eight Island go to the District U pot.

Local officials have contested proposed guidelines for use of the fund, which currently contains more than $1 million and is expected to accrue approximately $50,000 per year. Wrightsville Beach Mayor Bill Blair has stood up to ensure Masons Inlet is explicitly and equitably included in the guidelines.

The money was originally proposed to be split with 75 percent earmarked for Carolina Beach Inlet and 25 percent for Masons Inlet. The town of Wrightsville Beach would have been required to pay $12,500 in addition to assessments already paid for Masons Inlet to qualify for assistance.

Blair said the distribution established in the agreement is important as the unincorporated areas grow in coming years.

“The U district is the only place where there’s land available for development, so the U district future growth enters into my equation. Down the road, if the U district continues to grow and that money pot becomes bigger, that 75-25 split becomes more egregious,” Blair said during a Sept. 18 phone interview.

An updated draft of the guidelines, hashed out during a Sept. 22 discussion with stakeholders, preserves the percentages available to the inlets when accessing the $1 million collected before July 1, 2014, but money collected after July 1, 2014, will be split evenly between Carolina Beach and Masons inlets.

The required contribution from the town was dropped from the new draft.

Masonboro Inlet was not explicitly mentioned in the original guidelines. The guidelines now deem the inlet eligible for assistance if federal support is ever eliminated.

Blair said the agreement staked out during the discussion should satisfy all parties involved.

“It wasn’t perfect, but it’s as good as it will ever get,” he said during a Sept. 23 phone interview.

The guidelines could be revised again before the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority board votes on them in October.

Getz hopes the final guidelines will be equitable.

“This is an issue that gives us a glimmer of hope. I think that we should get in there as much as we can,” Getz said.

The tourism development authority board will meet Oct. 29 in the New Hanover County Government Center, 5:30 p.m.

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