Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280317
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANTEO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Since November, the Austrian company RIAL Corp. has been developing Heritage Point, a 116-lot subdivision in a maritime forest on Roanoke Island.
Tuesday, county commissioners granted preliminary approval for the second phase of Heritage Point, which will allow RIAL to extend roads and continue its plans.
"The developer had done everything he had to do within the regulations," Louise Dollard, county commissioners chairman, told The Charlotte Observer in an interview published Wednesday. "And we can't stop them."
Members of Congress, who have named the land a historic site, and conservationists say the tract is as rich in history as it is in sand.
On or near this land, they say, the Algonquian Indians left behind relics; English settlers built their first colony in the New World in 1587; Confederate soldiers fought one of the most decisive battles of the Civil War; slaves established the nation's first Freedman's village; and Reginald Fessenden conducted experiments that led to the first wireless radio communications.
"It's black, red and white history," says Sybil Basnight, executive director of Friends of Roanoke Island, a 250-member group opposing the development. "Talk about a melting pot."
Wynne Dough, curator of the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo, calls the RIAL land a potential gold mine.
But a spokesman for RIAL says they're wrong.
"We've already got the roads paved," adds Mearl Meekins, a Manteo surveyor overseeing Heritage Point. "So it's kind of a moot issue."
State archaeologist Mark Mathis says the only evidence of anything historical are Civil War remains that could be barracks.
by CNB