Outer Banks nonresidents sue Dare County over coronavirus travel restrictions
Six out-of-state property owners have filed a federal lawsuit against Dare County, protesting travel restrictions that keep them from their beach houses during the coronavirus outbreak.
Four of the six rent their homes as vacation spots and the other two use them as second homes, according to the suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh.
They argue that the county’s March 20 ban keeping non-state residents from entering the Outer Banks violates the Constitution, noting that workers from bordering counties are still allowed.
“It’s their property,” said Raleigh attorney S.C. Kitchen. “You can get the virus anywhere. They have cases in Dare County now. Our clients simply don’t believe the risk is greater with them being able to come in.”
Once the county declared a second state of emergency on March 20, it set up checkpoints requiring a permanent resident permit, North Carolina driver’s license or government-issued ID showing residence in Dare, Currituck, Tyrrell or Hyde counties. Plaintiffs in the case are John P. Bailey; Paul and Sheryl Michael; E. Thompson Brown; and Todd and Babette Edgar.
“The Plaintiffs, John P. Bailey, E. Thompson Brown, and Todd A. Edgar and wife, Babette S. Edgar are owners of rental properties in Dare Counties and will be unable to prepare the properties for the spring and summer rental season if they are unable to enter Dare County,“ the suit said.
The question of allowing nonresidents onto the barrier islands has stirred controversy for weeks, much of which has played out on Outer Banks social media pages.
Dare County Commissioner Steve House made this plea for decorum in March:
“I am posting this simply to say STAY CALM we will get through this,” he wrote. “We are getting several reports of people being accosted both verbally and physically. Just because citizens assume they are from out of the area. One was the wife of a Coast Guardsmen stationed here. This is unacceptable !!!!!”
The plaintiffs are seeking a judgment declaring the nonresident travel ban unconstitutional along with “nominal damages” and attorneys’ fees. The damages would amount to only a dollar, Kitchen said, which keeps the lawsuit alive in the event the ban is lifted and then reinstated.