Carolina Beach residents weigh in on future of Freeman Park

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — The future of Freeman Park was the focus of three public hearings in Carolina Beach on Monday, August 24th, where more than 70 residents shared their ideas for how the popular natural area should be managed.

For Debbie Taylor, who has lived in Carolina Beach for more than three decades, protecting the park’s natural character is a top priority.

“I don’t want to see any type of commercial use up there. Some of the vending suggestions that was taking place, I’m not for that,” Taylor said.

Freeman Park is located at the north end of Canal Drive and provides access to a largely undeveloped stretch of the coast.

Residents offered a range of suggestions for the park’s future, including expanded four-wheel-drive access, camping opportunities, possible commercial vending and rentals, expanded beach, boating and jet ski access, a historical memorial and flag, and primitive trails. Others emphasized conservation efforts, like protecting the park’s ecosystem, biological diversity, and the creation of educational programs.

“We need to look at trash collection, we need to look at having restrooms available, but then allowing access to continue to Freeman Park for those of us that enjoy it,” Taylor said.

The public hearings come after years of debate over the property’s future.

Several years ago, a development proposal for Freeman Park called for more than 100 beach homes and three apartment complexes, each more than 180 feet tall, at the north end of the park.

Steve Shuttleworth was serving on the Carolina Beach Town Council when the development proposal was introduced. He said the town ultimately worked to acquire the property and preserve it.

“What the town put up was a copy of a map that was presented to Carolina Beach a number of years ago as a potential development for Freeman Park, which stirred a lot of people up and put us on the road to acquiring the property,” Shuttleworth said.

Shuttleworth said the town planned to purchase Freeman Park without using general fund money.

“The good news is what we said from the very beginning was we would not use town general funds to purchase Freeman Park. It was going to be done with grants, room occupancy tax and user fees,” he said.

The town is now required to create a land management plan after receiving a grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

Carolina Beach Mayor Pro Tem Deb LeCompte said conservation will be a major focus of the plan.

“A lot of it’s going to be about conservation and just preserving the property the way it is and keeping it pristine because if you do walk out on the end now, as Steve alluded, it’s basically a boaters paradise out there and it’s a walkers paradise,” LeCompte said.

She said the lack of vehicular traffic in some areas of the park also helps protect wildlife, including nesting sea turtles.

“There are no vehicular traffic out there, we have sea turtles that nest out there and you don’t want vehicles running over areas where sea turtles are nesting,” LeCompte said.

Taylor said preserving the park’s natural beauty is important to her and other residents.

“It’s the beauty of the environment that we have down there, and so I think everyone is interested in keeping that protected,” she said.

LeCompte said the initial land management plan will be developed using feedback collected from residents during the public hearings.

The plan is expected to be presented to the Carolina Beach Town Council sometime early next year.