The candidates’ responses are presented without edits (except for formatting).
Below are the responses from Democratic candidate Jonathan Damico.
Many residents worry that infrastructure in the Cape Fear Region can’t keep up with the rapid pace of development. What strategies do you suggest to improve infrastructure and manage development?
Myself and Bob Fulton and Tom Simmons (who are also running alongside me as a slate for the 3 commissioner seats up this fall) would agree and the immediate things that can be done is update the Unified Development Ordinance. Developers know that Brunswick County has some of the most lax and easy to work with requirements, and we simply need to raise the bar. End clear cutting which removes swaths of our necessary trees and canopy that help to protect us from flooding and potential wind damage and also do what we can to protect our wetlands which also provide natural protections. We also need to focus our attention on our infrastructure which is lagging behind our rapid development. As a simple measure of this, since February 2024, approximately 1M gallons of untreated water has been dumped into our rivers and streams. This is simply unacceptable and we need an immediate plan to address these issues and get our infrastructure systems caught up.
Rampant development is creating concerns around stormwater flooding in existing areas of Brunswick County. How will you address the problem of flooding in the unincorporated areas where you manage development?
Again a lot of this can start to be addressed with an updated UDO- we’ve heard from so many neighbors who have lived in Brunswick their whole lives and are seeing flooding like never before, due to neighboring properties being clear cut and water being poorly or incorrectly diverted. Also, we need to make sure we are attending to more simple things like culverts and ditches, making sure they are being cleaned out and maintained, as well as retention ponds in the county. Additionally in regard to flooding, we need to make sure new developments are not being approved into flood zones or areas that were formerly known to be flood zones, as these maps can be updated, sometimes incorrectly.
New Hanover County leadership have suggested its the role of neighboring counties to accommodate the rocketing population growth in the region. What role should Brunswick County play in accommodating expected regional population growth?
Obviously, New Hanover is running short on space, and naturally, people will look outside NHC into neighboring counties for more housing options. We can’t stop people from coming here- many of us did at some point, myself included. The balance specifically for Brunswick County is to make sure we have the infrastructure and services available to serve the population, which, according to what we hear from our neighbors (and has been recorded in the Brunswick Blueprint 2040 Appendix C, community survey) we do not. We need expanded medical services, we will need more schools and all the staff that comes with that. So, I understand what New Hanover leaders are stating, but this is not a simple solve. It’s going to take creative leadership.
Housing Affordability is top of mind for many voters this election – housing is driving up the cost of living for many North Carolinians. What steps will you take to address the housing crisis and provide more affordable housing?
We are experiencing a housing crisis, both nationally but also in Brunswick County. The national average of vacancy is approx 11%. In Brunswick county it has been reported anywhere from 30-37%. So, with all of this building taking place, how can this statistic be? We are simply lacking something known as “missing middle” housing, housing that is affordable and geared to the workforce. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are counties in North Carolina who are already offering housing opportunities from the county in partnership with local organizations as a carrot to lure new teachers and essential workers to come to their county. We can pursue options like this, but also incentivizing developers to offer workforce housing in new developments (within that “missing middle” housing type,) and we can also work with organizations that are in the workforce housing space and find additional options. We need a toolbox to meet this crisis.
What’s your stance on taxes? When is it appropriate to raise them, and if you’d like to lower them, where do you expect to find cuts?
Nobody likes taxes, but we also have to acknowledge that a rapidly growing population will require a growing amount of services and infrastructure and those things cost money. Without the general assembly reimplementing the ability for counties and municipalities to collect impact fees from developers, governments are left to again get creative. The county staff has done a lot of great work in recent years stretching the budget and keeping taxes low, so I would want to work with them to continue that practice. Beyond that, we are going to need to increase our revenue to provide necessary needed things. I would want to explore any options possible to keep taxes from simply being put on the shoulders of the residents of Brunswick county. There is going to be some hard work ahead of us.
Traffic is a serious problem in Brunswick County, particularly over the bridge into New Hanover County. What future do you see for public transit in Brunswick County, and will it be tied in with Wave Transit to create a regional network?
Obviously, we will be seeking approval of a replacement for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, which will help alleviate some of the traffic (sidebar- I am staunchly against a toll. A toll on a critical, already existing piece of infrastructure is a regressive tax on the working and fixed income population that rely on the bridge, not to mention all of the port traffic that uses the bridge daily. No toll.)
I would support ideas for a regional transit system but of course that always comes down to cost and can it work for people/scheduling, etc. But I obviously where public transit is supported and built out, it’s a positive for those communities. I do think public transit would make sense if connected into a system with NHC. Within Brunswick, I would love to see a county/municipalities/NCDOT partnership to expand walking/biking paths throughout the county to make the county both able to be traveled by residents for recreation but also to make Brunswick County a destination for recreational bikers/hikers.