Carolina Coast Online reported that City Manager Chris Turner had a phrase for how Morehead City weighs public reaction to a new proposal: silence is an input. A resident who later reviewed the meeting materials quoted it back in a letter to the editor, and the phrase became part of the debate about how public reaction figured into the proposal. By the time much of Morehead City heard the word "Grander," city staff had been developing the proposal at the council's direction for most of a year, and it had already been costed.
What happened next reshaped the city's government in five months. It also revealed something about how a downtown waterfront proposal can reach into neighborhoods that never see the water at all.
What Project Grander Actually Asked For
The plan, first workshopped inside city hall starting around January 2025, aimed to expand public park space and protect waterway access near Big Rock Landing in downtown Morehead City. On paper, it was a reasonable civic goal. The mechanism to get there was where it got complicated. In August 2025, the city sent a letter to the family that owns the land under Red Fish Grill on Evans Street, asking them to consider selling or transferring the parcel. The restaurant's operator, Konstantinos Manousardis, would later tell WCTI, "It has been very stressful, as simple as that." Robert Purifoy, whose family holds the property, put it more bluntly to WCTI after the plan was finally killed: "I've never seen anything like this."
The proposal never became a formal vote to seize the land. But city documents show the option was on the table, and it was discussed seriously enough that residents describe learning about it as a genuine shock.
The Funding Mechanism Reached Every Corner of Town
Here's the detail that turned a downtown parcel dispute into a citywide fight. Project Grander needed money, and one option city staff presented was selling four existing public parks to help cover the cost, including Mitchell Village Park, a neighborhood park nowhere near the waterfront. Commenters who showed up to oppose the plan didn't talk about Big Rock Landing. They talked about the park down the street from their own house.
That's the part that made this different from a typical downtown zoning fight. A waterfront amphitheater and a family restaurant on Evans Street are, geographically, someone else's problem if you live across town. A funding plan that reaches into your own neighborhood park is not. The scope of what was actually on the table is why a single restaurant dispute turned into more than six thousand petition signatures within weeks.
The Council Retreat and Public Notice
Part of why the plan traveled so far before residents understood it comes down to where it was discussed. The most detailed conversation happened at the City Council's annual strategic retreat, held December 18 and 19, 2025, at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. Under state law, the retreat was open to the public and properly noticed on the city's website, on a City Hall bulletin board, and to subscribers of the city's public notice list. It simply wasn't covered, attended, or discussed the way a normal Tuesday night council meeting is.
More than ten hours of retreat audio was later released after a formal records request from a local news outlet, and that audio is what let residents hear, in the officials' own words, that eminent domain and the sale of neighborhood parks had been discussed as live funding options rather than hypotheticals. Councilman Lee Stiles posted about his own opposition to the plan on Facebook on January 2, 2026, writing that his objection was rooted in how the project was being pursued using eminent domain against a private resident, not in the merits of a waterfront park itself.
The Numbers Behind the Backlash
The January 13, 2026 council meeting became the release valve. More than 165 people packed the council chambers and the foyer outside it, some carrying signs. The council's vote to halt the project passed 5-0, with Councilman Richard Abell making the motion. What city staff had begun developing at the council's direction eleven months earlier ended as a unanimous public reversal.
| Event | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|
| First mayoral election | Nov. 4, 2025 | Stiles 762, Jones 761 |
| Recount | Nov. 2025 | Same result, no discrepancies |
| Council retreat (Project Grander discussed) | Dec. 18-19, 2025 | Held at NC Aquarium, Pine Knoll Shores |
| Council vote to halt Project Grander | Jan. 13, 2026 | 5-0, unanimous |
| Redo mayoral election (state-ordered) | March 3, 2026 | Stiles 1,869, Jones 907 |
| Stiles sworn in | March 16, 2026 | Four-year term begins |
One Vote, Then a Landslide
The mayoral race between longtime incumbent Jerry Jones and city council member Lee Stiles was already the closest in the city's recent memory before Project Grander went public. On November 4, 2025, Stiles won by a single vote, 762 to 761. A recount changed nothing. Jones filed a formal protest over voter eligibility questions, and the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a completely new election.
That gave Morehead City an unusual civic experiment. The redo vote landed on March 3, 2026, two months after the Project Grander backlash had already played out in public. This time it wasn't close. Stiles won 1,869 to 907, taking roughly 67 percent of the vote to Jones's 33. Total turnout very nearly doubled compared to November, from 1,523 ballots to more than 2,700. Jones had held the office since 1999.
It is difficult to separate that swing from the intervening controversy. Both candidates had voted the same way on January 13 to kill the project, but only one of them had been the sitting mayor while city staff developed it, and only one of them had publicly broken from it in real time on Facebook before the vote happened. As one resident who worked to gather signatures against the plan put it while describing the redo election's stakes: "One vote decided this mayoral race in Morehead City."
What Happens to Project Grander Now
The project isn't legally dead. The council's January vote halted "any and all discussions and actions related to the Grander project" indefinitely, but a future council could revisit it. Stiles has said he intends to shut down any resurrection of the plan every time it comes up. Jones, before leaving office, said he'd be willing to let the council decide.
For a small coastal city, the episode leaves a specific kind of institutional memory. Waterfront development conversations here now carry an implicit question that didn't used to get asked out loud: which funding options are being considered and how residents can learn about them. Sworn in on March 16, Stiles told the crowd at his organizational meeting that he wanted to get to work on water infrastructure and public safety, and said simply that he planned to "hit the ground running."
If you're watching how downtown Morehead City's waterfront decisions get made, or you want a read on how a specific parcel or park near you fits into the bigger picture, Melissa Rankin has been tracking these local shifts long enough to put them in context. Schedule a free consultation if you'd like to talk through what's actually changing in this city, block by block.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
