The annual Association meeting will be conducted on Saturday, Apr 8th starting at 9 AM.  The meeting will be held at Sunset Grille, and we will serve light pastries and coffee/juice.  Please join us if you can.

For owners who can't physically attend, you can join the meeting via a Zoom call.

Attached is the meeting agenda.

Everyone is invited to join Rosemary, Christopher, Julie, Andrew, Haydee and me at 5 PM at our place (1356 Duck Road) to meet and greet neighbors and socialize.  We'll serve appetizers and refreshments.  Please RSVP if you plan to attend so we can be prepared.

I hope to see or hear you on the 8th.
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As you know, last week we conducted two owner Zoom calls and received owner emails from others who couldn't join the Zoom calls.  Well over 50 owners directly participated in these.

The CDA Board then met on Monday to review your comments and feedback.  We also discussed next-steps to take.

In summary, here's what the Board heard from the majority of participants: 

Most owners want:

1. Beach nourishment, lifeguard support and beach maintenance & cleanup and don’t want to give these up or put them at risk.
2. Some legally enforceable document/agreement that spells out specific limits for the Town that can’t be changed by the Town Council.
3. CDA to write/negotiate rules surrounding limited usage by the Town, not the Town attorney or the Town Council to write them.
4. CDA to protect our community.
5. CDA to enforce covenants.
6. CDA to pursue multiple approaches to resolving issues in parallel.

Most owners do not want:

1. Public access to our beaches.
2. The Town to solely decide how it will use the property now and in the future.

In summary, here's what the Board decided as next-steps to be taken in parallel:

1. Actively engage our attorney for assistance and guidance.
2. Prepare for enforcement of our covenants.
3. Engage with the Town to discuss all options and methods to legally document binding limitations.
4. Attempt to explore with the Town options for CDA ownership of 145 BH and write a long-term agreement or lease with the Town that would limit thier usage to beach nourishment, lifeguard support and beach maintenance & cleanup.
5. Continue to assess revisions to our current covenants that would contain strict usage limitations for the Town. 
6. Other steps TBD.

Regarding #3, the Board decided to organize a group that would discuss issues and options with the Town.  The group will be composed of a few Board members and a few property owners.

It is our understanding that settlement on the property has already happened or will happen this week.   

While the Board will keep you posted as events happen, and we will discuss this at the CDA Annual meeting on April 8th, the process ahead of us will likely take some time.  

As always, if you have additions comments or questions, just email them to me.

Regards,

Ron Blunck
CDA President

Here's some information you may find useful.

1. The Town's Spring bulk pick-up date has been set for Friday, April 14th.
2. On that day, no later than 5:00 AM, please leave bulk waste out by the curb for collection.
3. Bulk waste can include all large items that you want to dispose of except the following: refrigerators or appliances that contain hazardous waste (refrigerant/freon), hazardous materials such as paints, solvents, chemicals, etc, building materials or demolition debris, roofing, soil, rocks, concrete and stumps. These materials will not be collected.
4. Yard and vegetative debris will be collected, however it must be bagged or tied in bundles of four foot lengths or less with each bundle weighing no more than 50 pounds, otherwise it will not be picked up.  
5. Questions should be referred to the Town at 252-255-1234.

As a reminder, you can also take bulk waste (regular waste & recycle waste) to the Recycle Center in Kitty Hawk at any time throughout the year.  You will need to get a permit for this from Duck Town Hall and take it with you.  Call the Town at 252-255-1234 to get the permit.  All of this is free, but you have to transport the bulk waste to the Recycle Center yourself.  Vendors are not allowed to use this service.

Here are two important updates:

1. The Town presently anticipates beach nourishment will be starting soon, maybe as early as 3/20/2023. Initially, this will include placement of equipment on the beach and installation of a subline at Dianne Street, slightly north of us.  The dredge boat is currently scheduled to arrive the first week of April, with pumping and movement of sand to begin upon arrival. I think nourishment will begin on the northern end of the nourishment and work south.
2. The Federal Appeals Court upheld the Mid-Currituck Bridge plan.  Thanks to Tom Dorsey, here's a link to an article with more details: www.wunc.org/news/2023-02-23/appeals-court-upholds-mid-currituck-bridge-plan​

Author:  Andrew Blunck

Carolina Dunes Association held two meetings for community members to receive status updates from the Board on the Town of Duck's intention to purchase the property on 145 Buffel Head Rd.

Minutes below.

I received many email responses from you in response to my 2/11 email with a variety of concerns and opinions.  I also received a number of phone calls and personal visits.  While a few owners didn't think the Town's purchase and intended usage is a big deal, most of you had some level of concern over their purchase and potentially expanded use of this property.

After getting your feedback, the CDA Board had another meeting and decided on the following actions:

1. Hire an attorney to give us advice.  The Board then hired Robert Hornik from Chapel Hill.  He reviewed the CD Covenants and sent a letter to the Town stating the Town's stated usage of this property would violate the 'Residential Usage' clause in our Covenants.  That's his opinion.  His letter is attached.
2. Send a CDA letter to the Town identifying additional concerns.  This was completed.  This letter is also attached.

Last week the Town Council had their monthly meeting and one of the agenda items was the purchase of this property.  Here's a youtube link to the part of the meeting where this property was discussed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIiyeSWW8o&t=1977s  

I strongly encourage you to watch this video.  It's not too long.

 

In summary, this is what the Town Council did:

1. They are moving forward with settlement on the property.  They made a motion to move money between Funds in order to go to settlement and to figure out a settlement date.  Settlement will likely happen within a month or so, maybe before the April 5th Council meeting.
2. There was a discussion about a potential Town Ordinance that would memorialize limits on the usage of the property (this was one of the requests in the CDA letter of concerns we sent to Town), but there was no motion to proceed with that.  The Council seemed to want to find another way to memorialize the limits that might be more permanent.  I think the Town staff will explore this, but it's uncertain what they will end up with or what the Council will end up deciding.

We had a CDA Board meeting following the Council meeting to discuss status and CDA options for going forward.  There are limited options available to us:

1. We do not fight the Town in their planned acquisition and articulated usage of the property.  
2. We update our current covenants and include specific language that puts limits and conditions on the Town's usage.
3. We fight the Town using a political approach through organized petitioning.
4. We fight the Town using a legal approach through enforcement of our current covenants. 
5. We attempt to influence the Town into memorializing restrictions on the usage of the property to the best of our ability.
6. Other means.

The CDA Board wants your input and guidance on how to proceed.  To that end, we have schedule two Zoom calls as follows:

1. Tuesday, 3/14, 7 PM
2. Wednesday, 3/15, 7 PM for owners who can't make the first Zoom call.

For any owner who can't join either of these Zoom calls, please email me as soon as possible with your guidance on how you want us to proceed.  

It's VERY IMPORTANT that all owners who have concerns join one of the Zoom calls or email me with your guidance.