By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
Owners of Tamarac Marina wanted a permit to exceed noise standards, but they ended up in hot water with the county.
Tamarac LLC, the company that owns both the marina and the adjacent Tamarac Campground, is putting on a fundraiser today and Saturday to aid a 16-month-old child with several health issues and birth defects. The family lives in Salisbury.
When the company sought a permit to exceed the county’s noise ordinance Friday and Saturday night, county planners pointed out that the owners had never fully complied with the conditions for the campground permit. That permit was granted in September 2005.
Ed Muire, county planning director, said as of 3 p.m. Monday, Tamarac had never paved the 18-foot-wide interior roads in the campground ó a condition of the permit.
Commissioner Jon Barber said he couldn’t support giving Tamarac a new permit when they hadn’t complied with the nearly three-year-old permit.
Barber and Commissioner Jim Sides joined in a motion to reject the noise permit.
Chairman Arnold Chamberlain directed the planning staff to begin revocation proceeding against the campground.
Chamberlain said the county might as well do away with the conditional use permit process if it doesn’t enforce it.
He asked Muire to have someone check the campground Tuesday.
“Pull the permits,” said Chamberlain, if the roads weren’t paved. The board unanimously backed his position.
Senior Planner Shane Stewart said he talked with Dan Black, owner of Tamarac, on Tuesday and informed him of the board’s decision.
Stewart said paving was under way at the campground late Thursday.
The fundraiser, Rally at the River, will go on as scheduled without a permit to exceed the noise limit. Bands will be featured both days, along with events for children.
Stewart said enforcement of the noise ordinance is complaint-driven and noted that previous events at Tamarac have not generated complaints, according to the Rowan Sheriff’s Office.
For more information on the event and the charity, check the Web site www.rallyattheriver.com and the Children with Unique Disorder Foundation at www.cudf.org.
Since the county instituted zoning in 1998, the county has revoked only one conditional use permit. That permit was issued for High Rock International Raceway. Dave Risdon, owner of the proposed track, opted to have the property annexed into Spencer, taking it out of the county’s jurisdiction.