THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407210410
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
EDITOR'S NOTE: Kill Devil Hills plans to build a 44-car parking island in the middle of East Hayman Boulevard, now a quiet, unpaved road. For the street's 13 homeowners, the town's plans could shatter their peaceful setting. This is the last in a three-part series.
One a recent summer day, lifeguards at the Hayman Boulevard beach in Kill Devil Hills kept watch over sunbathers, sandcastle builders, swimmers and boogie boarders jockeying for position on one of the town's narrowest playing fields.
This little strip of beach figures in Kill Devil Hill's plans for East Hayman Boulevard. The beach access serves one of the most densely populated areas on the Outer Banks but has only five parking places. The town's west side residents - who now must walk for blocks or drive to other area beaches - want more room for cars.
Residents of East Hayman Boulevard object. They say funneling more bodies onto the beach will lead to the crowded conditions that most vacationers come to the Outer Banks to avoid.
But crowded beaches are a secondary issue. East Hayman homeowners' main beef is what the town wants to do with their road. Plans submitted by the Street Improvements Committee and approved by the town's Board of Commissioners in spring call for paving East Hayman Boulevard this year to its full 100-foot width and building a parking island for 44 cars down the middle.
Previous columns have examined some of the historical and legal issues raised by this improvement project. Now it's time to look at what East Hayman homeowners say is the real crux of their problem: politics.
East Hayman is an enclave of 13 second-homes, whose owners spend as much time as they can at the beach. Only one house is in a vacation rental program. No East Hayman property owner votes in local elections because all maintain legal residence elsewhere.
``We're being ignored,'' says Tom Salp, who bought his Hayman Boulevard home in 1990 and has been the homeowners' spokesman for three years.
Kill Devil Hills has considered improving East Hayman Boulevard since 1989. Salp and nine neighboring property owners formed the East Hayman Boulevard Homeowners Association in 1992 and hired Outer Banks attorney Starkey Sharp as their liaison with the town.
In August 1992, W. Alden Hoggard III, then town manager, wrote to Sharp: ``The Town has and will continue to give serious consideration to your clients' concerns in its overall planning for the entire Hayman Boulevard area. In accord with the Board's response to your clients, you will be notified of any future proposal which may appear upon the Board of Commissioner's agenda for action relating to the improvement of the Hayman Boulevard area.''
At a Street Improvements Committee meeting in December 1992, Sharp spoke on behalf of the homeowners' association. He told the committee that the association favored parallel parking over a parking island. He suggested that the homeowners would pay a special assessment to offset the cost of an alternative parking arrangement.
No documented agreement was reached between Sharp and the streets committee, and Hoggard's letter is not legally binding. Still, homeowners believed the town intended to negotiate a plan for reduced parking.
When the town eliminated Hayman Boulevard from its list of projects in early 1993, the homeowners' association viewed the move as a victory.
In spring 1993, Hoggard resigned, and a new streets committee and Board of Commissioners took office.
This year, the streets committee revived the East Hayman Boulevard plan and submitted it as part of its 1994 road-improvement package. The Board of Commissioners approved the package.
The town did not publish a notice itemizing the projects, nor did it inform the homeowners association, Sharp says. But for street improvements, the town is not legally obligated to do so.
``We were dealing in good faith with Kill Devil Hills,'' Salp says. ``We find it disconcerting that they take their agreements so lightly.''
Debora Diaz, Hoggard's assistant and the current town manager, declined to comment on Hoggard's letter agreeing to negotiate with East Hayman residents.
Duncan Wright, chairman of the Street Improvements Committee, says he received a petition signed by more than 60 west side residents supporting the parking project.
``I had nothing to do with any agreement in the past,'' he says.
Wright, a town commissioner since 1993, has come under fire from East Hayman homeowners. He lives on the west side of U.S. Route 158, a block north of Hayman Boulevard. Homeowners say he favors the project because he will be able to use the beach-access parking when it's built.
Wright says he would use the parking, but his support for the project reflects the position of most of his constituents.
``I may be a commissioner, but I am also a resident,'' he says. ``I'm just being truthful.''
Besides, he says, the commitment to more beach parking existed before he moved to town three years ago. Hayman Boulevard improvements were also proposed before that time.
``I am committed to having that street done,'' Wright says. ``I sympathize with these people, but you have to provide parking where it's available.''
Salp says the town is setting a disturbing precedent when it provides parking for west side owners at the expense of east side owners. West side owners, he said, chose to pay less for their property by living farther from the beach.
``No one on this street is a wealthy person,'' Salp says. ``We chose to spend more money for our easy access. We opted to wait until we could afford it. Now they're taking away our peace and quiet.''
The town's commitment to the only mid-street parking lot on the Outer Banks is a ``steep and unreasonable price'' for East Hayman homeowners to pay, Salp says. Association members have identified nearby streets with adequate rights of way to allow curbside parking.
``I just don't think they've looked at this proposal hard enough,'' says Page Worrell, an East Hayman homeowner since 1974. ``They could spread the parking out. That would be better.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Drew C. Wilson
Today, a five-car lot marks the end of East Hayman Boulevard in Kill
Devil Hills. But the growing demand for beach access may bring more
parking spaces, and more crowds, to the road.
by CNB