Busco Battle: A local woman, the city and the recreation park jockey over rights, enforcement
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on July 5, 2017 5:50 AM
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Yvonne Stanley continues her ongoing battle for property rights while living near the Busco Beach and ATV Park along Bryan Boulevard.
Yvonne Stanley spends her days riding a tractor and maintaining her near 3-acre property along Bryan Boulevard.
And she spends her nights with the television on trying block the noise she hears from all-terrain vehicles she says ride throughout the night.
It's a concern she's voiced for years, as long as she can remember, following the addition of the Busco Beach and ATV Park nearby.
"What I'm looking for is someone to stop them from riding." Stanley said. "Those ATVs are getting more at night. The only time I can get to sleep is by leaving the TV on."
Stanley has voiced her concerns to city and county officials for years, most recently during two Goldsboro City Council meetings.
James Rowe, Goldsboro planning director, sent a letter to the owner of Busco Beach on June 7 about ATV activity violating city zoning restrictions, which prohibit the use of ATVs and other sporting vehicles from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night.
The 678-acre park, campground and recreational area is within the city of Goldsboro's extra-territorial jurisdiction, which allows the city to enforce zoning regulations. The city extended its ETJ to cover 246 acres at the manmade beach in 1994 and added another 432 acres in 2013 that expanded the property's use as a recreational area for motorsports, ATVs, racetracks and mudruns.
City officials took up the issue of potential nighttime vehicle use violations in 2014 by mailing an ordinance violation letter to the ATV park owner. A similar letter was mailed in June, which ordered the owner to cease allowing park clients at Busco Beach to operate motorized sporting vehicles after 11 p.m.
DIFFICULT
TO ENFORCE
Owner Jimmy Pierce said he has worked to reduce the nighttime activity, with hour restrictions listed on the business website, signs posted throughout the park and by private security.
"It's just a big area to enforce," Pierce said. "We're doing the best that we can do. We have security out here that try to enforce it."
The terrain of the property is filled with trails, wooded and swampy areas, making it difficult to fully enforce the hour restrictions, Pierce said.
"They do ride in the night, sometimes," Pierce said. "If we can, we enforce it."
Stanley said she'll continue to seek resolution and isn't planning on moving, after paying off her house and investing in elevating the single-story home, which has weathered several hurricanes.
"It's elevated 9 feet in the air, and I'm not going anywhere," said Stanley, 81. "My house is paid for, and I love where I live. Do you think I'm going to pull up and move at 81? No."
Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, resulted in many area properties becoming part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation buyout program. Stanley is one of few remaining residents living near Busco Beach and the ATV Park, which is surrounded by the Neuse River.
Rowe said the city's planning department does not have the capacity to enforce city zoning rules, which would mean fining anyone violating the city's ordinance.
"It's hard to enforce it," Rowe said.
The city could take legal action against the property owner, but has declined to take that step.
Scott Stevens, Goldsboro city manager, said the Goldsboro Police Department does not have the authority to enforce city zoning regulations in the ETJ, where the city does not collect property taxes or provide services.
"For us, my police don't have authority in the ETJ," Stevens said. "It's unfortunate for Mrs. Stanley. She's in a tough situation."
Stanley reached out to the Wayne County sheriff, in 2014, and was notified in a letter that deputies do not have the authority to enforce Goldsboro's ETJ zoning rules.
Municipalities typically establish extra-territorial jurisdictions in areas where future development is likely and where voluntary annexations are possible, Stevens said. The city only has the authority to establish zoning rules and regulates development, such as construction of properties or buildings.
ETJ REMOVAL
The city's inability to effectively enforce its zoning rules at Busco Beach is leading officials to consider moving its ETJ line to the Neuse River and removing the 678-acre property entirely.
Rowe presented the proposal to the Goldsboro City Council on June 26, without any opposition from the council. The change would remove the city's zoning control, and the property would fall under the county's jurisdiction.
Removing the ETJ would also eliminate the city's conditional-use restriction that prohibits the use of ATVs and other sport vehicles after 11 p.m.
"Once we delete it from the ETJ, it's in the county's jurisdiction," Rowe said. "It would be up to the county commissioners and how they would want to enforce Busco Beach."
Chip Crumpler, Wayne County planning director, said the property is in an area of the county where no zoning exists.
"Our county doesn't have countywide zoning," Crumpler said. "If they relinquish the ETJ, it will be they're giving up their zoning and their building inspections in that area.
"It would fall back to the county's jurisdiction."
Because the property isn't zoned, there are no regulations for its use, Crumpler said. The county has a noise ordinance, which can be enforced by Wayne County sheriff deputies, he said.
PROPERTY
RIGHTS
Stanley's concerns regarding the ATV Park are more a matter of personal property rights between her and the owner of the park, Crumpler said.
"It's a different situation," he said. "It's private property owner rights."
The city planning department plans to move forward with notifying area property owners of the city's plans to remove the ETJ from Busco Beach. A public hearing will be held, and the city council has the authority, by state law, to remove the ETJ border, Rowe said. The process is expected to take at least two months.
"Our ETJ into Busco Beach doesn't make any sense to us anymore," Stevens said, since development is unlikely within the floodplain area. Construction and other development is also not allowed on nearby properties owned by the city and county that were part of the FEMA buyout program.
In addition to removing the ETJ, city leaders may also ask the Wayne County commissioners if the county will take ownership of several city-owned FEMA buyout properties near Busco Beach.
"That would give one government entity control over the area," Stevens said.