The Pinehurst Hot Mess: Early Morning Sneakiness

 

What’s the best method for sneaking stuff past people?  Do it early in the morning while most people are still sleeping and / or heading to work. You’re less likely to have an angry mob show up at 8 AM on a Wednesday.  That’s likely why the Strickland-Pizzella mafia is eyeing a final vote on their vacation rental crackdown / ban ordinance on THAT particular day THIS WEEK and at roughly THAT time.

Yes, that never-ending fount of bumbling and mismanagement on Magnolia Road is raising its ugly head in our direction once again.  Pinehurst village government has apparently decided to go all-in on exclusively serving the pinkie-raising, chablis-sipping elitists residing in the, um, “Village Proper” at the expense of the rest of us.

The raised-pinkie crowd has done a masterful job of crippling the local economy.  They’ve harassed and chased away any and all attempts at commercial development.  They’ve instituted a never-ending moratorium on residential construction. Now they’re trying to wipe out the long-time, perfectly legal vacation rental business sector. Thanks to the screaming geriatric snobs from downtown, golf tourism is all we have left. We don’t have the hotel rooms to serve all the tourists who visit each year.  Yet, the Strickland cult has succeeded in killing off the Resort’s efforts to build ONE new hotel, and is close to succeeding in crushing the practice of home rentals. Saboteurs and terrorists could not have been more effective in killing our economy.

Apparently, some residents have been giving Strickland and Pizzella what-for.  Those two have been discreetly telling concerned residents that special exemptions, exceptions, and “cut-outs” will be doled out AFTER the current atrocity is approved by the council.  Strickland and Pizzella have been telling us what a disaster vacation rentals have been for the village.  If that is the case, why are they pledging to give exemptions from this ordinance to key players around town? If the rentals are really BAD, they should be treated as BAD for EVERYBODY.

There is no factual basis to support the crackdown and eventual ban on vacation rentals.  The village’s own survey shows overwhelming happiness with the quality of life in Pinehurst — despite the clowns allegedly representing us on the council.  Police reports do not show vacation rentals as a significant source of crime or misconduct.

Strickland and Pizzella have had the nerve to suggest the vacation rental business has been a way for “outsiders” to take over Pinehurst.  Neither the mayor nor any of the council members are natives of Pinehurst, or North Carolina for that matter. (Pizzella just got here last year.) 

These people are so clearly full of crap.  Why are they so persistent in ramming through this indefensible change?  Is the Strickland-Pizzella cabal being blackmailed by the downtown pinkie-raisers?  Are future cocktail party invites at stake here?

Several lawyers have chimed in to point out that the village’s plan conflicts with current state law.  The village’s plan is quite similar to the restrictions and ban enacted by Wilmington that were recently thrown out by The NC Court of Appeals.  Wilmington taxpayers were hit with a very big bill on that one.

The City of Austin, Texas also lost big in court for trying to do something similar.  One of the biggest problems the court had with Austin’s ordinance? It had NO factual basis to support the allegations that the rentals were a problem that needed to be heavily-restricted or banned.

We’re already paying for FOUR lawyers to defend the village before the state Court of Appeals against allegations of Open Meetings Law violations.  At least two lawsuits are in the works over this unconstitutional attack on vacation rentals.  At least one is in the works over the residential development moratorium.

And at least one more is being planned against the village.  One village resident complained to Strickland and his henchman Jeff Sanborn about multiple planning and zoning code violations going on at the construction site next door to her home.  Some of the questionable work has apparently been damaging her property,  as well.  The alleged response from Sanborn and Strickland when she complained to them?  “Go get a lawyer.”

Seriously.   Though, she might as well.  The village government is already driving so many other people to go get lawyers.  

It appears the Village of Pinehurst is returning to its old ways of being a feast for trial lawyers.  It’s a shame that we’ll be left with the bill for all this.

Show up at 8 AM on Wednesday at village hall to view the shadiness and incompetence in person.  Get yourself a good look at what needs to be voted OUT at the next election.  (Or perhaps FIRED after certain folks are voted out in the next election.)