THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 8, 1994 TAG: 9408080059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY AND MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
Some Kitty Hawk residents say the town is not doing enough to protect its maritime forest, and they've asked the state for help.
They contend the town violated its own ordinances when it granted Outer Banks developers John Lancaster and Paul Shaver permission to build a 98-acre condominium time-share development in the eastern edge of the maritime forest.
Town planners say they're wrong.
The squabble is the latest episode in a controversy among preservationists, developers and officials over who should have authority and what should take priority in shaping the future of maritime forests along the Outer Banks.
Unhappy residents say by allowing the development, the town violated an ordinance that requires a minimum lot size of 80,000 square feet in Kitty Hawk Woods. And they say that while existing land-use plans call for the preservation of the maritime forest, the town has been too quick to develop the area.
Kitty Hawk Town Planner Richard Reid disagreed. ``That's not true. They're mixing apples and oranges here.''
He said the Lancaster-Shaver tract lies in the multifamily or Beach Residential-3 (BR-3) zoning ordinance, not the Kitty Hawk Woods zoning district.
Both zoning areas are located in the maritime forest.
``The 80,000 square feet they're referring to applies to the Kitty Hawk Woods zoning district, but doesn't apply to that project'' he said.
It could not be immediately determined what year the area was zoned multifamily, and what, if any, zoning classification it was given before this.
But Shaver said Friday his company did nothing at any time to get the zoning designation changed, that it had been zoned that way for years before they chose to buy the site, and that they bought the tract expressly ``because it was zoned multifamily.''
Parts of the Shaver-Lancaster site are wetlands, said town planning board Vice Chairman Ward McCreedy. Homes cannot be built on those sections without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Cliff Winefordner, Corps assistant branch chief for the Wilmington district, said no decision on the permit had been made, nor would one be made until residents had the chance to comment.
``We issue permits after a public interest review. Or, we deny permits after a public interest review,'' he said. ``A public interest review would have to precede any decision on the permit.''
But Marlo Shedlock of Kitty Hawk said she has fought the developers before and felt she wasn't treated equally by the decision makers.
Kitty Hawk officials don't give the same consideration to residents as they do ``the developers who have legal authority behind them,'' she said. ``They chose, in my opinion, to side with the developers, whether they're local or from out of town.
``When someone applies for a permit to fell or develop parts of the woods, zoning ordinances are changed,'' she said.
Shedlock recalled a public meeting earlier this year at which a Town Council member told her, ``We can't stop progress.''
Some developments are not consistent with the town policies of Kitty Hawk, Shedlock said. In May, she asked the Coastal Resources Commission to ``reassess whether the town of Kitty Hawk provides enough protection for the maritime forest.''
At its meeting earlier this month, the commission's Planning and Special Issues Committee reviewed efforts under way to protect the forest in Kitty Hawk but took no action on the issue.
Members of some environmental groups have encouraged the state to speed up acquisition of the remaining maritime forests, and they are urging local governments to develop and implement management plans to protect forests in their jurisdictions.
But, they say, it may already be too late to protect the bulk of the state's maritime forests.
``In some places, particularly along the southern coast, there's been a lot of maritime forest that we have lost,'' said Merrill Lynch of the state's Nature Conservancy chapter. ``That's why we are focusing on these four areas - Bald Head Island, Buxton Woods, Nags Head Woods and Kitty Hawk Woods - that we still have a chance to protect in a large contiguous block.''
Maritime forests of sprawling live oaks, loblolly pines and laurel oaks once blanketed the Outer Banks. Vegetation in maritime forests helps stabilize the dunes and sandy soils of the barrier islands, and the forests help absorb wind and water energy from hurricanes and other storms. In some areas of the Outer Banks, aquifers in maritime forests provide sources of fresh drinking water.
The squabble over the Shaver-Lancaster project is not the first time residents have sought help in protecting the state's maritime forests.
With about 3,000 acres, Buxton Woods is the largest remaining maritime forest in the state. But at about 1,900 acres, Kitty Hawk Woods was one of the largest remaining maritime forests on the Outer Banks, according to a 1988 survey of maritime forest sites in North Carolina.
In the late 1980s, several coastal environmental organizations and some coastal regulators began calling for stricter environmental regulations to protect the state's remaining maritime forests - including Kitty Hawk Woods - which then totaled about 12,000 acres.
The groups sought protection of the remaining forests from the Coastal Resources Commission as ``areas of environmental concern.'' That move, which would have placed tighter restrictions on development in certain maritime forests, was opposed by coastal developers, among others.
In September 1990, the commission, in a controversial decision, delayed further consideration of maritime forest nominations, instead opting to rely on local governments to protect maritime forests within their jurisdictions.
The environmental groups' proposal to the Coastal Resources Commission represented ``the last opportunity to step in and protect the areas that were left,'' said Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation in Swansboro. ``Really, what was needed was action 10 to 15 years ago before they became valuable to developers.''
In September 1992, the state was granted a conservation easement to a 462-acre tract of Kitty Hawk Woods by the Kitty Hawk Woods Partnership in exchange for permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a shopping center along U.S. 158. This 462-acre tract has since been dedicated as a state nature preserve.
The state is also working with the Nature Conservancy to buy additional sections of Kitty Hawk Woods and associated natural areas. In December 1993, the state acquired 433 acres of marsh islands in Kitty Hawk Bay and last May the state received $500,000 from the N.C. Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Fund to buy a 144-acre tract due west of the state nature preserve.
Lynch said ultimately the best chance of protecting the remaining maritime forests probably lies in buying the property from private landowners and dedicating those lands as state nature preserves.
``This is the most powerful level of protection for maritime forests that we have under current statutes,'' said Lynch. ``This puts the power of the state attorney general's office behind . . . the property.''
Others say state and local governments need to do a better job of managing the forests that still exist.
``One of the most critical needs is to go ahead and develop specific management plans,'' said Miller. And local governments need ``guidance from the state to maintain the integrity of these management plans and to make sure that zoning ordinances are enforced.''
Miller said the management plans not only need to take into account uses of the forests, but also they need to ensure that adjacent land uses do not destroy the integrity of the ecosystem.
Plans call for Kitty Hawk Woods to be added to the N.C. Coastal Reserve System, which currently includes a portion of Buxton Woods on Hatteras Island.
Until then, Kitty Hawk Woods will be preserved and managed by the Town of Kitty Hawk, in cooperation with the Division of Coastal Management. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Kitty Hawk resident Marlo Shedlock has asked the Coastal Resources
Commission to study whether the town is providing enough protection
for its maritime forest, Kitty Hawk Woods. She says town officials
favor developers over residents.
KEYWORDS: NORTH CAROLINA COASTAL RESOURCES COMMISSION
KITTY HAWK TOWN PLANNING COMMISSION
ZONING OUTER BANKS DEVELOPMENT
by CNB