Neighborhood around Salty Acres Park, furious over disruptive noises and lack of help from county
Rocky Point, NC (WWAY)– The salty acres off road excursion event was this weekend and was held on Carl Meeks Road. It brought in crowds and dirt bike enthusiast from all over the area. Salty Acres serves as an air bnb, with a dirt track on the property for visiting dirt bikers to enjoy. Chad Nichol, the property owner, allowed people to bring in their own bikes and ride around dirt tracks from two to six PM to have the time of their lives
“Today we got a guest from Wilmington, the owner at Ducati, or Cape Fear Motor Group, who rented it out. They are letting their customers come and check it out the new dirt bike Ducati just released”, said Nichols.
Although the event was fun for everyone participating, it wasn’t for neighbors who live around it like Julie Walker who wanted a noise ordinance for the dirt bike noises near her farm.
“We are protesting the lack of noise ordinance for the county, because it was adopted for three days, but there was a news article that was left by Chad, and also a viral Tik-Tok that influenced people to bombard the county. After three days adopting the noise ordinance, it was dropped”, said Walker.
Pender county commissioners had originally made a change to the county’s noise ordinance back in August to prohibit dirt bikes and other motorized vehicles louder than 70 decibels on private property. But just a few weeks later, commissioners rescinded the change and approved an advisory committee to help determine future changes to the ordinance.
According to Bill McAbee, many neighbors not only feel unhappy about the dirt bikes making disruptive noises but also felt that the county let them down due to their decision.
“Pender county commissioners, and also the permitting, it goes back again to how in the world you get a permit for an event like today. With all the battles we have been battling for three years, they get a permit for an event today”, said McAbee
Despite the anger from community, Nichols says they are doing nothing wrong and actually want to help the area with tourism
“One thing is tourism, its huge. Tourism is amazing on how it impacts the area, Rocky Point specifically”, said Nichols.
The neighbors believe Nichols is running a commercial business, in a residential neighborhood and has already been given a notice of violation related to that. This matter will go before the board of adjusters of Pender County on November nineteenth.
