George “Corky” White’s shrimping company, would like to expand his business. However, more than 40 homeowners in Coffin Point Plantation oppose the expansion. They also are asking Beaufort County to remove a zoning designation from their properties, arguing that the current “commercial fishing overlay”has no place in a residential neighborhood.
The plan shows that White has the ability to expand his business with few obstacles. If the overlay were removed, he would have to apply to the county for special permission and could be denied. Ed McTeer, who owns an inland home and stable on Orchard Road in Coffin Point, said that they are not trying to hurt the commercial fishing industry. He added that they don’t deserve to be in the overlay.
It is informed that the commercial fishing village overlay was designed in 2000 to preserve existing and historical commercial fishing enterprises, seen as part of the fabric and culture of the community. At one end of the zone was Shipman’s Wharf, where the broken-down remains of a once-thriving shrimping operation and the Shipman’s Wharf residential development now stand.
County planning director Anthony Criscitiello wrote in a memo about Coffin Point, that properties in between the two fishing sites were included in the (overlay) though they had historically been developed for residential, or, in one case, equestrian uses.
