THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190443
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Currituck County officials now have a new tool to control residential growth that should also be more accommodating to small-time developers.
The county's Board of Commissioners on Monday evening unanimously approved an adequate facilities regulation that will require some subdivision developers to provide impact statements before their plans can be approved.
The new measure will require developers of 50-lot or larger subdivisions to show how new neighborhoods will affect county facilities and services, such as schools, police, water, fire and rescue.
That figure is higher than the 20-lot minimum recommended by the county planning board.
``The planning board simply recommended this as an additional way to review 20-lot or larger developments,'' said Jack Simoneau, director of planning and inspections.
The proposal had been criticized at a recent public hearing for discriminating against small, presumably local developers who could not afford to produce impact statements as easily or affordably as larger developers.
These statements must include analyses of housing markets and traffic, plus fiscal, physical and environmental studies.
One of the first developments to be put to the new test most likely will be a 601-lot subdivision to be called The Plantations. A vote onthat Moyock-area proposal was continued at Monday's meeting.
Chairman B.U. Evans III had asked the board to postpone a vote on the impact statements until he returned from his vacation this week. But other members said approval urgently was needed.
``We're under the gun as far as what we're going to do with the future of our county,'' Commissioner Jerry Wright said.
Commissioners and other county officials have been grappling with ways to control spiraling residential growth, particularly in the Moyock area.
New developments there have begun to strain the county's roads and services, particularly its schools and emergency medical services.
``My feeling is, with the urgency in this county today, that we don't need to table this matter,'' said Gene Gregory, the commissioner who made the motion for approval.
The lot minimum may again be changed once a long-range capital improvements plan is released next spring or summer.
``People are going to come here,'' Wright said. ``We cannot shut the door. We just want to make sure that the people who come here will have a positive impact on the county.''
In another matter, the commissioners unanimously approved rezoning an 18.7-acre triangular strip of agricultural land to general business.
That strip will combine with another parcel owned by Acey Properties of Virginia Beach, which plans to build a shopping center in the Moyock Township.
KEYWORDS: CURRITUCK COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
CURRITUCK COUNTY PLANNING BOARD ZONING
by CNB