P&Z pumps brakes on Whiskey Creek expansion

9:37 p.m. Aug. 5, 2025

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

The Moore County Planning and Zoning Commission delayed preliminary plat approval on Tuesday, Aug. 5, for a proposed 14-lot expansion of the Whiskey Creek development, citing unresolved concerns about utility approvals, lot sizes, bridge safety, and road surfacing standards.

The Phase Two proposal, submitted by Oakstone Land & Capital – the same developer behind Whiskey Creek’s 79-lot first phase – would extend the private, HOA-maintained subdivision deeper into the property. All lots are zoned R-1.

But before the project can move forward, the Planning and Zoning board wants several issues resolved – including a performance bond, a written sign-off from the water utility, and plat notes restricting secondary access to emergency use only.

The meeting opened with questions about a reserved access point connected to the property at 975 Main St. The developer said a traffic study by Bhegani Engineering found it met all requirements.

Still, Highway Department Superintendent Shannon Cauble made it clear they did not want the route used for construction traffic. “I’m not OK with using that for anything other than emergency vehicles,” she said. “It’s not even suitable for one person’s driveway … it’s a horrible location for a drive.”

Cauble insisted that the restriction be spelled out on the plat.

Chip Hayes, the President of Oakstone Land & Capital, agreed. “Based on our conversation with you, we marked it as restrictive access for emergency vehicles. … We’re not looking to utilize it. We just don’t want anything left unsaid or unwritten.”

Board member Jeff Ross questioned the developer’s plan to surface the subdivision’s roads with tar-and-chip rather than asphalt. “This subdivision needs to be just like a regular road,” he said. “If I go out here and do a subdivision, I can’t do tar-and-chip – I have to do asphalt.”

Hayes noted that Whiskey Creek’s roads are private and maintained by the HOA, not the county. “If we’re doing them as private roads and we’re responsible for them, I don’t see why tar-and-chip’s an issue. That’s the whole idea of the community – for us to maintain it,” he said.

The board also questioned whether the proposed lots meet updated minimum lot sizes and maintained that the plat should reflect the revised standards. “Everything I’m seeing here – there’s not even lots that are equal to a quarter acre,” Chairman Dexter Golden said. “Each lot would have to be a half acre.”

Oakstone’s Rance Frye noted the plat was designed using information the company received “a couple of weeks ago” from the county, and added the developer would reconfigure based on the revised county standards for a subdivision.

Much of the evening was spent debating whether the development’s one-lane bridge could handle the traffic from both phases – 93 lots in total.

Ross voiced safety concerns, referencing a bridge in another county that had to be closed to vehicles. “If this bridge falls in … you’ve got all them people back there trapped,” he said. “You can’t get out … two people can’t pass, so if one’s coming in, you might have six, seven cars waiting.”

Hayes responded that the bridge was built for an RV park, has a 15-ton weight limit, and was inspected by an engineer less than a month ago. “We had a full-size fire truck fully loaded sitting on the bridge,” Hayes noted. “It was approved by the state when it was built.”

When asked about concrete trucks, Hayes said they would use smaller “pup trailers” and already were transferring gravel using smaller dump trucks to protect the structure.

Before considering preliminary approval, Golden reiterated that the developer must provide written water utility approval, an updated plat, and a performance bond. “We want to make sure we do it in order,” Golden said. “Get the water on there first, then the bond.”

Golden reminded Hayes of the commission’s frustrations during Phase One, when water service disputes delayed the project for months.

“There will be more than one ‘T’ crossed and ‘I’ dotted when this is all said and done,” he said. “You have to understand the reserve feelings we have as this board. We were being blamed for holding y’all back.”

Hayes pushed back, blaming the earlier delay on miscommunication with the utility department and claiming an attempted “double-dipping” overcharge of “half a million dollars.”

Hayes also emphasized the economic benefit of short-term rentals. “We help your businesses, we help your taxpayers, we bring in a lot of revenue, and you have to do very little for it,” he said. “We’re not going to schools, we’re not drawing on a bunch of the town resources. These are tourists … giving your businesses more income.”

Golden responded that the commission had guidelines in place from the start. “When you originally came in this room, we said we have subdivision guidelines … you stated, ‘We are not a subdivision.’ We sat in here for months to try to help accommodate you.”

No vote was taken on Tuesday. Hayes will return to the board after securing water utility approval, revising the plat to reflect access restrictions and lot size requirements, and posting a performance bond.