Snow's Cut Monthly
The magazine for Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, North Carolina

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The War of the Wards
(From June, 2008 Snow's Cut Monthly)

 Back in 1966, when Homer Ward bought a piece of land along the Intracoastal Waterway, there was no such thing as a Special Use Permit. He built a pier with a small shack on the end, added fuel docks and a boat ramp and had himself a marina. Homer Ward’s Marina it was called.

“I pumped gas for my dad when was 12 years old,” says the late Homer Ward’s son Tim.

When Homer wanted to expand in 1971 he was required to get a Special Use Permit (SUP) from the county because it was in a residential area. He received just the thirteenth SUP ever granted. Because the marina was an existing use there was no time limit put on the permit.

Homer never did much of an expansion, but now his son Tim, who inherited the property when Homer died, wants to put in a modern marina. Over the last several years he’s made small modifications to the project (which can be approved at the staff level, not by the County Commissioners) which have resulted in him holding a permit to build a marina significantly different from the old 1971 plan.

Over the repeated objections of the neighbors, particularly his distant cousin David Ward (Homer was David’s great-uncle), Tim now has all the permits he needs to start construction on a marina with a two fixed piers with floating docks, a fuel dock, a clubhouse and parking to store about 40 boats on dry land. The problem is, he may not be able to get the boats in the water. While the plan allows for a boat ramp, the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Division of Coastal Management will not allow him to do any dredging because the boat ramp is in a Primary Nursery Area (a delicate marsh where baby fish grow up).

So now he’s preparing to ask the county for permission to build a dry-stack storage unit that is as big as a football field and 40 feet tall and a “forklift” pier to carry the boats out to deep water. A forklift pier is one that is big enough to handle a large forklift carrying a boat. With a dry-stack storage building the marina could accommodate about 100 boaters.

David Ward is certain that this will ruin the quality of life for the quiet neighborhood and negatively impact the environment.

“You see people out here all the time harvesting clams and fishing along the salt marsh,” he says. “As soon as a people start spilling gas and diesel that will be the end of that. It’s not just me that’s against this, it’s the whole neighborhood.”

Just to the north of Tim Ward’s property is a small sandy beach that was deeded to the neighborhood when it was subdivided in 1947. Its character would also be dramatically altered by the marina.

Tim Ward counters the criticism by pointing out that dry-stack storage is the most environmentally friendly of the three marina options, the other two being wet slips and boat ramp access.

“If you put in ten wet slips—and the 1971 permit called for 20—the state will automatically close the area to shellfishing,” he says. According to him the dry-stack system will keep all of the noise, light, dust and pollution contained within a building compared to boat ramp access in which trucks and trailers are dipping into the water every day.

At the May 5 County Commissioners meeting Tim Ward withdrew his application before the commissioners could vote on it. He wants to get a favorable recommendation from the Planning Board before the commissioners make their decision (the last vote was a 3-3 tie). He’s made some changes to the plan and will present it to the Planning Board on June 5.

Meanwhile, David Ward will be at the same meeting where he will be requesting a text amendment to the County Zoning Ordinance. If so changed the zoning ordinance would only allow dry-stack storage in residential districts if it is part of a new development.
The battle continues