Corolla residents voice support for exploring incorporation

Commissioner Tony Angell, who represents the Corolla area, said he will support the incorporation effort.

(Photo courtesy of Currituck County)

Two weeks after the Corolla Civic Association (CCA) announced a survey to gauge interest in “exploring incorporation for Corolla,” the CCA has closed the survey and announced that 923 responses had been collected.

According to the CCA statement, 70.6% of the respondents “favored studying incorporation,” although many “remain undecided or want additional information before forming an opinion.”

The strong positive response to exploring incorporation for Corolla did not surprise Tony Angell, the Currituck County Commissioner for the area. “I never really doubted the fact that it was going to be that popular,” he told the Voice. “I’m not opposed to it by any means. If the people of Corolla want to do this, the people of Corolla should pursue it, and I’ll support them as best as I can.”

In an email to the Voice, CCA Board President Barb Marzetti said that “several commissioners have publicly encouraged us to proceed.”

Back in 2002, Duck was the last municipality on the Outer Banks to incorporate—and is also the last town in North Carolina to do so successfully.

Duck Mayor Monica Thibodeau was part of the group that worked to incorporate Duck and told the Voice that “we were very fortunate to have support from Dare County.”

The current effort by the CCA is the second time incorporation has been considered. In 2007 residents petitioned the General Assembly for the incorporation of Corolla. The request was denied by the Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporations, which cited “overwhelming opposition…from nonresidents property owners” and “clear dissent among members of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners.”

The process for incorporating a municipality in North Carolina is complex, requiring legislative action approving the incorporation as well as petitions and surveys indicating support for it. Even after the right to incorporate is granted, there is considerable work to be done.

“It’s a complicated process,” Thibodeau said. She pointed to the services that a town is expected to provide—police and fire protection, planning and inspections and solid waste management.

“That’s a heavy lift for a [new] community,” Thibodeau said, noting that a newly incorporated town has to pay for those services but “you don’t get your [tax revenue] till the end” of the fiscal year.

Incorporating a town creates the need for tax revenues—almost always a property tax. “The County is responsible for property tax,” Angell said. “If you want to set up an incorporated town, you then charge a town [property] tax.”

That is what has happened in the six incorporated towns in Dare County. The county’s base property tax rate is currently $0.2632 per $100 of assessed value and every town places an additional property tax, ranging from Southern Shores’ $0.1629 to Manteo’s $0.2829.

Angell said those additional taxes that towns charge are needed to pay for a “town manager, police chief, police department, all of those other things that currently Currituck pays for through property tax, you’re throwing an additional layer of government on it.”

Incorporating as a municipality does give a community the ability to make zoning and planning decisions that may differ from the county’s choices.

Thibodeau recalled there were concerns about overdevelopment and a community desire to create a pedestrian-friendly shopping district. But when Duck incorporated, she recalled that it was the “autonomy” that was important to her…It was a lot of volunteer time. I would say it was a real big adjustment, but there was a good civic involvement. Civic involvement was the huge thing.”

According to the CCA, 287 respondents to the recent survey indicated an interest in working on the study that would examine incorporation. “The interest is large, but so too is the work this will require,” Marzetti noted.

Corolla residents voice support for exploring incorporation

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