Betty Wallace

for Mayor

Oak Island, N.C.

ANNEXATION

I don't believe in involuntary annexations at all.  If a municipality spends so much they end up with a heavier budget than their townspeople can afford to pay, they need to look at cutting their spending, not reaching out and forcing their neighbors to pay for their poor fiscal management.

Voluntary annexation requests from property owners who wish to become members of a municipality should have their requests approved only by voter referendums including the members of the town to which they are making their request. 

In the case of the annexation requests made to the Town of Oak Island by those on the mainland, the far-reaching effects could be more residents off of the Island than on the island itself.  Those people would probably not hesitate to vote to increase height limits and revise zoning to once again allow condos on our beach, to get more property taxes from high-rise resorts.  We keep hearing from our elected officials that they don't want our Island to become another Myrtle Beach, but if they keep adding to the future population on the mainland, that may be exactly what we will look like in the next 20 years.

If the Town Council accepts the voluntary annexation requests scheduled for public hearing in their October 2009 meeting, the areas shaded in brown and in red will be the corporate limits of the Town of Oak Island.  A 106% increase in total acreage, with only a 1% increase in total tax base ! 

Of course, there is expected development of the New Bridge Corridor on Midway Road to Hwy 211, but that development may be as far as 20 years out for residential.  In our Capital Improvement Plan, approximately $5 million to $6 million dollars is estimated to build a new fire station and equipment.  What is the Town's plan for providing infrastructure such as water and sewer?  What will be the cost of that infrastructure?  Until that area is built out, the current taxpayers will be paying the bulk of the necessary property taxes to provide the infrastructure.

We currently have height limits on our beachfront that can only be changed through amending the Town Charter through voter referendum.  When the "mainland" portion of these newly annexed areas are built out, there may possibly be more voters on the mainland than on the island itself.  Those voters could possibly obtain a majority vote to remove our height limitations, allowing more buildout of the beachfront and increasing the tax base on the beachfront to give the mainland residents relief on their tax bills.

It concerns me deeply that within the near future, our beachfront is going to be just another Myrtle Beach, with high rise condos, hotels and end-to-end gift shops.  We do need our visitors to help the island businesses thrive and survive, but we may end up in the foreseeable future with nothing BUT tourists and tourism on the island, squeezing out our permanent residents and creating just another tourist trap on the island side of the two bridges.