Community's pier plan to benefit coffers

Last month, the Sunset Beach Community Improvement Association voted to allow resident Kenneth McHoul of Granada Road to build a pier. McHoul will then pay the association - which owns 113 acres of beach on Stoney Creek - $1,000 per year to lease the pier from the community. He also will carry a $1 million insurance policy on the pier.

McHoul said this week he got the idea after chatting with friends in nearby Riviera Beach, which has a similar setup.

"I get to put my boat out there, and it would allow more cash flow into the community," McHoul said. "All the rules were followed. We did this 100 percent by the rules."

Sunset Beach is a nonriparian community, meaning that residents who live on the water don't own the waterfront - the improvement association does. About 20 other communities in Anne Arundel County fall into the same category, according to McHoul's lawyer, Kathleen Burns of Annapolis.

To Michele Conrad, association board member, the agreement seems like a win-win situation for Sunset Beach.

"This is all just to maintain our community and give us some income," Conrad said.

Others aren't so sure.

"I don't think it's a benefit to the whole community," said Krista Hutchinson, one of the residents opposed to the agreement. "I don't want to sit here and not do anything. ... Our main purpose is to inform the whole community that this is in the works, so we can rescue what we have here."

A handful of Sunset Beach residents are circulating a petition throughout the neighborhood, lambasting association leaders for not letting the whole community know they would be voting on McHoul's proposal at a special meeting July 2.

"The notice to the residents was at best one day. Some didn't get the notice until the day of the meeting," the petition reads.

Those opposed to the agreement paint an image of a shoreline meant to be enjoyed by the whole community, but instead dominated by only a few.

"Don't forget, if one homeowner is offered this, then all the homes along the water have the same right," the petition reads. "This would eliminate the cove where many of the children play and which is actively used by many community members."

They also say McHoul and others interested in building piers will benefit from increased property values. McHoul scoffed at this.

"You have a few people here who just don't want to see change," he said.

Sandy Dimler, the association's treasurer, said the group's meeting times are posted on the community's Web site. The meeting schedule also is posted at the beach, and a monthly newsletter is sent out to residents.

Those complaining the loudest about the agreement are the residents who never attend meetings, Dimler said.

"Sometimes we don't even have enough people at meetings to vote on anything. In March, only five people showed up," she said.

The January meeting usually is the only one to draw a crowd of residents, because that's when the association votes on pier fees for the upcoming year. The community charges boat owners $18 for every foot of boat for the larger pier, and $10 per foot for the smaller pier. Ramp key rentals are $50.

Dimler and Conrad say those fees have remained low even as other costs have skyrocketed.

"Every January, we talk about raising fees and they shoot everything down," Dimler said. "I don't know where they think the money to maintain the property is coming from."

Residents wishing to use the piers must put their names on a waiting list that's about six years long. McHoul said he signed up for a slip three and a half years ago, shortly after he moved to the area, and still is waiting.

The $1,000 the association will make off McHoul annually will go toward services that proponents say the shoreline sorely needs, including an erosion control plan and security cameras. Thieves broke into boats stored down at the water in early June, and there has been some drug and alcohol use on the private beach, Conrad said.

Dimler, who also lives on Granada Road in a house overlooking the water, said she also fears that another tropical storm like Isabel could strike the area and the community won't have enough money to repair any damage done to the shoreline.

"If anything like that would happen, we wouldn't have enough to rebuild the pier," she said.