Wrightsville Beach will likely appeal FEMA’s preliminary flood zone designations for Harbor Island, Mayor Bill Blair said.
The item is first on the agenda for the board of aldermen’s Sept. 10 meeting, and preceding the vote is a presentation of the independent study the town will use to make its case to FEMA.
When FEMA introduced its preliminary flood zone maps last fall, town leaders and residents questioned why inland Harbor Island was placed in a higher-risk flood zone than beachfront properties. The town hired coastal engineering firm Advanced Technology and Management to perform its own flood zone study using different methods than FEMA.
Blair said the study’s findings, which the town received last week, are very positive.
“It would appear to me that all but about a half percent of Harbor Island got put in the [lower-risk] AE zone,” he said Sept. 8. “Just a teeny little piece did not get AE, but I think all of the residential did.”
Those residents will pay less in flood insurance if FEMA grants the appeal. Commercial properties would benefit too.
Businesses in a VE zone must be elevated on stilts as high as 11 or 12 feet, but buildings in an AE zone can be constructed on the ground, director of planning and parks Tony Wilson said.
“For businesses only — not residential units — they have the opportunity to flood proof the building,” he said Sept. 8. “Let’s say they didn’t want to build on pilings, if they can engineer a design to be flood-proof they could build on the ground.”
That flexibility is valuable to those trying to build commercial or mixed-use developments that successfully meet the town’s 40-foot height limit, an issue that has hindered multiple projects this year.
The Work Shop applies to open
The board will also decide whether to allow local resident Audrey Longtin to open a gourmet coffee and sharks’ tooth jewelry shop in downtown Wrightsville Beach.
Her store would be called The Work Shop and would share the building located at 86 Waynick Blvd. with Kohl’s Frozen Custard. The ice cream shop currently occupies most of the building except for a storage room, which Longtin hopes to renovate to house her business.
A coffee shop is permitted in that location, so Longtin only requires a parking exception. The board will also decide whether to amend town code to allow coffee shops to sell accessory items like jewelry.
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