As a follow up to a post below. I would seriously be interested in knowing the opinion of our friends here on the board.

Please post your response: How many of you would be willing to pay a higher tax on your rental, or hotel room on the outer banks if that would mean local legislators could enforce current zoning laws. Another words, how many of you would be willing to pay a little more to save the outer banks!

Just curious!

In my opinion it is the locals problem in the towns that want to change the zoning laws not the tourists.

I for one stay in Southern Shores and I can assure you the residents and their local government who run Southern Shores aren't going to let anyone build high-rise hotels now or at any time so your question would not apply to me.

It will always be that way Arnold mainly because Southern Shores is a residential township. Most of the commercial property we have here in Southern Shores has been developed, and speaking of local government most of the wonderful things about this town were implemented by the pass Mayor of many terms “not present”
We now have new blood in the town council tho as of the last election(thank god)

I would pay extra for the overall good of the OBX even though I stay in areas where it is extremely unlikely that high rise structures will ever be contructed.

I think thos additional tax must be clearly defined as to its use and then be a dedicated tax so the revenues don't get thrown into the general budget.

I'd be hesitant to agree to a new tax for such a lofty purpose. Kinda like new gas taxes going to improve roads, and we never really see an improvement. Based on what I've learned, local governments in NC have very little power compared to what those of us in the NE are used to.

That being said - if I truly believed that end result would save the OBX, I'd gladly pay the extra tax. But we'd have to be careful not to raise taxes and fees to the point where lower and middle class folks can no longer afford to visit. As it stands now, there's a nice mix going on, from relatively poor to the super rich.

I have to agree with Ace. Being tourists we can't involve ourselves in your government so we may never know if those extra dollars are being utilized in that way. I too would hate to see rental costs get to out of control. 'Course you could always have a OBX Lottery to offset costs like we do here in Ohio. Example, to pay for our schools so we don't have to have tax levies. And if you believe that I've got some ocean front property here for ya'll to buy.

It seems every time you go to rent there are new charges being added on by the realtor. I wouldn't pay the addtional tax or whatever is proposed. The local elected officials should be diligent enough to know if there is to be a negative impact by allowing high rise hotels. If they don't care or are immune to resident's input then they are not there for what they were elected to do. Can you explain what "that the local legislators could enforce current zoning laws" mean? In our town the town council can amend the zoning laws but the zoning board, an authority board which means council cannot over ride their decision, has final say in zoning hearings. So if the developer who wants to build his 10 story high rise hotel and goes before the zoning board for a variance and it is granted town council has no recourse other than to appeal the decision to the county court system.