Moore County approves 14 SROs, advances 134-unit rezoning and Flock camera study

At the Oct. 6 meeting, Moore County Commissioners approved 14 additional school resource officers, advanced a “denied” 134-unit apartment rezoning to a public hearing, formed a committee to test Flock cameras and scheduled hearings on subdivision and Uniform Development Ordinance (UDO) changes.

Commissioners approved 14 more full-time deputy sheriff roles for school resource officers (SRO), costing $680,000 and totaling 27 positions. One captain, one lieutenant, three sergeants, and 22 deputies will be assigned to provide law enforcement for Moore County Schools beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

The board appropriated $584,914 in funding to support the $1,364,914 project for SQ Civil Contractors, doing business as Southern Quality Farm, LLC to build a fire department and emergency services building and a pole barn at 1052 J Dowdy Road in Carthage. The new rural location facilitates insurance coverage and expedites emergency services.

During the discussion on adding the SROs, Chief Deputy Eric Galloway attributed the 15% drop in the animal shelter’s euthanasia rate to staff intervention, and the audience applauded.

Commissioners formed a Flock camera committee. Picerno said they would test the Flock camera system. The members are Picerno, Cook, Galloway, and citizens Ellis Dominic, Amanda Toyota and Matt Wolf. During public comments, Picerno arranged for Amberly Webber to join the committee.

The board scheduled a public hearing on Oct. 20 for the conditional rezoning of 8003 North Carolina Highway 211, West End. The land tract is 11.73 acres of vacant wooded land owned by MB Equity LLC. Rhetson Capital, LLC requested rezoning to multifamily conditional zoning for two buildings with 134 apartment units.

In Aug., the planning board recommended denial six to zero because the existing plans were inconsistent with the land use plans.

The land is within the highway corridor overlay district with existing infrastructure and schools, but they are near and over capacity.

West Pine Middle School, West End Elementary and West Pine Elementary schools are near capacity.

Moore County Schools classified West Pine Middle as a capped school, meaning enrollment is at least 95% of capacity. District projections showed West End Elementary reaching 100% utilization, while West Pine Elementary was projected to reach about 100% utilization.

The above photo is 8003 North Carolina Highway 211, West End, on Oct. 6, 2026, from Google Maps.

The board scheduled public hearings for two UDO amendments on Oct. 20.

The commissioners and planning board held a joint work session on May 18 and offered updates to the subdivision sections that included removing the special use permit requirement for major subdivisions and making them permitted by right in RA-20, RA-40, & RA-USB zoned districts, rather than a special use permit process, and the reviewing authority for major subdivisions.

If “by right” is adopted, there will be no quasi-judicial hearings and no public input on major subdivisions.

During joint meetings, the boards reviewed changes for minor subdivisions, concerning the number of lots that define a minor subdivision, a language update to define the parent track, separation between minor subdivisions and to omit the three-year build more allowance.

On Oct. 20, the board will hold a public hearing to change the appeals language in the UDO. The UDO amendments need to align with the adopted Future Land Use Plan and Map. The UDO appeals section had to be updated to reflect the major subdivision review moving to SRB approval instead of quasi-judicial decisions.

Chairman Nick Picerno opened a discussion on the room occupancy tax and minimum revenue guarantee. He said the board doubled the tax from 3% to 6% because they were told the revenue would fund capital projects to attract tourists. But the revenue has been used for small projects, like a mural in Carthage, which was not a bad project. However, Picerno said the tourism authority needed to refocus on its original plans for a convention center, or amphitheater or something similar.

Commissioner Kurt Cook said Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, the tourism authority, should give them a presentation.

Commissioners approved a $1.149 million contract with SQ Civil Contractors for a new scale house and a second scale at the Moore County Landfill. Southern Quality Farm, LLC submitted the lowest responsible bid among the three received. The project intended to upgrade landfill service, reduce delays, and expand facilities with office space and a second scale. Funding includes $227,135 from Solid Waste White Goods revenue and $1,108,953 from the Capital Reserve for Governmental Projects, totaling $1.336 million.

During public comments, John Misiaszek spoke on the land use plans, saying that Moore needs additional “by right” industrial land. There are 177 vacant acres of such land in Moore County. A couple of years ago Moore had a study done, and it showed residential properties return about $1.50 in revenue for every $2.50 spent on infrastructure. Commercial and industrial on the other hand, returned about $1.50 in revenue compared to costs 75 cents.

As for those 177 acres, about 125 are owned by two mining companies. There’s another 47 of those 177 acres are at a place called Parkewood. Back in 1870, two brothers had a corn mill business. Obviously, nobody is making those corn mills anymore, but it’s still among those 177 industrial acres in Moore County.

In an email, Misiaszek writes, “In Moore, there’s 170,000 acres of trees, all in a PUV being taxed at $360 per acre X the tax rate. Moore County has to pay $250,000 for Forestry Service protection. The county nets about $35,000 on 170,000 of land.”

Amanda Toyota said criminals make up a small percentage, 10 out of 1,000, of the county population, canceling the need for Flock cameras. She said enemies of America search for military members’ locations, and they could breach security measures.

Ellis Dominic said he’s been saying the same thing for four months and will repeat himself again during the committee meetings. He said the commissioners who did not speak against Flock were for Flock. He said Picerno did not want Flock.

Picerno said if the claims Flock opponents made were proven true during the Flock camera committee hands-on study, they would stop using Flock cameras.

Cook told Dominic not to assume things just because he had not heard them speak.

Flock opponents continued, saying there had been security breaches, and that mass surveillance violated personal rights and was an unreasonable search, which is a constitutional violation.

The next meeting is Oct. 20.

Oct. 7, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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