Surfrider appeal puts Access 33 fence on hold
On Friday, Dec. 7, Sean Ahlum, chair of the Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, successfully filed an appeal with the Wrightsville Beach Planning Department to protest the construction of a fence at the Murchison property, located at 301 S. Lumina Ave., which would effectively block off Public Beach Access 33.
“Surfrider Foundation-Cape Fear Chapter, on behalf of the general public, opposes the issuance of a fence building permit issued to close off Public Beach Access 33,” Ahlum’s appeal states. “This is and has been a public beach access for over 40 years. We believe it should remain open to public use.”
On Monday, the town of Wrightsville Beach revoked Alex Murchison’s fence permit and notified him and Seegars Fence Company to halt construction of the fence, said Wrightsville Beach code enforcement officer Kelly Traynham. Last week, a Seegars representative said work on the fence was scheduled to begin Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Staff photo by Joshua Curry
On Dec. 7, Jim Mincher and the Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation successfully filed an appeal with the town’s planning department blocking construction of a fence at Public Beach Access No. 33.
Jim Mincher, member of Surfrider-Cape Fear Chapter, said the organization’s appeal is based on the issue of prescriptive easement. A prescriptive easement is a right-of-way over private property established by a municipality if it can show the right-of-way has been used by the public for 20 years or more. During the Nov. 9, 2006, board of aldermen meeting, town attorney John Wessell said he believed the town had a strong claim for a prescriptive easement, but the board voted 3-2 to abandon the claim.
“It’s a property ownership issue,” Mincher said. “We just feel the public has a right to prescriptive easement. Surfrider Foundation knew once the fence was put up, it was going to be real hard to get it down.”
The board of aldermen will have to set a date for the appeal to go before the board of adjustment, Traynham said. With today’s (Thursday’s) board meeting devoted to the swearing in of Mayor-elect Stephen Whalen and newly elected Aldermen Bill Blair and Lisa Weeks, Traynham said she expects the item to be placed on the board of aldermen’s January agenda, with the matter to come before the board of adjustment some time in February.
The board of adjustment will make a finding regarding the fence permit based on Traynham’s interpretation and administration of town ordinances in the issuance of the fence permit. The board of adjustment’s decision is final, but Surfrider has the right to appeal its decision to New Hanover County Superior Court, according to the town’s zoning code. It will take a vote of four-fifths of the members of the board of adjustment to uphold the appeal.
Surfrider’s appeal references a 1962 resolution by the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen to close off the east and west ends of Seashore Street in conjunction with the purchase of the Blockade Runner site by the East Coast Hotel Company. According to state law, when a municipality closes a public street, ownership reverts to the adjacent property owners. At the November 196