BY STEFANIE JACKSON BOWMANN, Eastern Shore Post —
As construction of Exmore’s new sewer system nears completion and creates opportunities for the town to expand, elected officials must determine how much growth is in Exmore’s best interests.
“We need to decide as a group how big a town you want Exmore to be,” Town Manager Robert Duer told the Exmore Town Council on Monday, Sept. 9.
At a joint meeting of Exmore’s planning commission and town council on Aug. 19, Duer had noted that the town has the potential to increase its population by double or more — if Exmore officials want to pursue that level of growth.
Chris Carbaugh, of the Atlantic Group, attended that meeting and proposed a development of nearly 500 homes for buyers of varying income levels.
Exmore’s current population is under 1,500, but it could grow to about 3,000, like Chincoteague, or 4,000, like Pocomoke City, Duer said in August.
Since then, “I’ve done a lot of thinking,” he said on Monday.
Duer suggested growing Exmore from 1,473 to about 1,950 people, which would mean the construction of roughly 125 new homes. The town would have a total of about 900 to 950 homes.
This would allow Exmore to expand without sharp increases to its costs of living.
If the town’s population surpasses 2,000 people, it will lose the special rate for sewer service that it obtained through negotiation with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.
Exmore’s sewer rate would approximately double.
By limiting population growth to about 1,950, the town would keep its sewer rate, and it would need to hire only one or two additional police officers and one or two more public works employees, Duer said.
Exmore could grow commercially, adding new restaurants or another hotel, without impacting the population and sewer rates, he noted.
“We need to up our game a little bit,” Duer said.
He clarified that he does not want to “gentrify” Exmore — a phenomenon involving the proliferation of housing that is unaffordable for average-income families in the area.
Even families who already own homes could be priced out of town through gentrification because the new, high-dollar housing could cause property values to increase throughout the entire neighborhood, resulting in real-estate tax bills that may be unaffordable for some.
However, the town needs to attract people with “disposable income,” Duer said.
The average annual household income in Exmore is around $39,000, compared to about $47,000 in Onley and nearly $52,000 in Onancock, according to the town manager.
“That’s $12,000 more a year those households have to spend,” he said.
Multiplying $12,000 by 900 homes equals “a lot of money that could go (into) the community,” Duer said.
He cautioned the town council against focusing solely on building housing “without retail to support it.”
Duer said, “Let’s not jump, and let’s not build our town too fast, because we’ll not survive it.”
