THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050239
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 34 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
THE PROJECT, the committee soon realized, was going to be a stretch.
After deciding to upgrade Currituck County's major roadway that connects Virginia and the Outer Banks, a team of 15 citizens began a nationwide hunt for similar models to follow.
The search yield: 0.
``Most of the copies we got dealt with one-block or two-block sections. So we didn't have anything to guide us by for 43 miles,'' said Jack Simoneau, the county's planning director for the past six years.
Other localities with similar goals shouldn't find themselves in the same predicament. Currituck County's ``U.S. 158 and N.C. 168 Highway Corridor Plan'' has been named the best in the state.
It might even turn out to be tops in the nation.
On Thursday, the Currituck County Planning and Inspections Department will receive the Small Community Outstanding Planning Award, given by the state chapter of the American Planning Association.
Simoneau and County Manager Bill Richardson will travel to Durham to receive the prize and give a presentation.
The award also makes Currituck County eligible for national recognition - something no North Carolina locality has received in recent memory, according to the state chapter's awards chairman.
The honor bestowed upon this historically agrarian section of North Carolina is rare.
``This is the first time I can remember in the last four years that a locality has been recognized in the far northeast,'' said David Hennis, the planning director for Mount Airy and chairman of the NCAPA's awards program.
Past winners in the same category have included the town of Cary, city of Burlington, town of Chapel Hill and city of Concord. Last year's recipient was Knightdale, just east of Raleigh.
Judges based their selection on planners' innovations, techniques and transferability to other projects, quality of presentation and project scope.
``This one just seemed to hit every one of those categories much stronger than the others,'' Hennis said of Currituck's standing among the seven nominees this year.
``It certainly speaks highly of our Highway Corridor Committee,'' Simoneau said recently from his office at the Currituck County courthouse.
``This is the first time we'd submitted anything before,'' he added.
Simoneau said he and more than a dozen volunteers met monthly - sometimes more frequently - for about 2 1/2 years before unveiling the May 1994 plan to county officials.
``It just verified that the things we did in this plan were appropriate and could be used by other communities as a model to follow. And that makes us feel good,'' Simoneau said. ``We're very grateful for being awarded the best comprehensive plan in the state.''
Simoneau, who came to Currituck after earning a master's degree in public administration from East Carolina University, is named in the award, as is Eldon Miller Jr., who chaired the committee.
The undertaking outlines ways to promote and control development along Currituck's main highways while also improving safety and aesthetics.
Another key component was to keep the county's trademark rural flavor.
Not only does the corridor plan list general recommendations for the entire stretch, but it outlines dozens of specifics for each community located along both highways.
Suggestions involve everything from underground power lines and billboards to community entrance signs and landscaping. In all, 78 ideas are mentioned, and many already are being implemented.
``So it's not just a plan to be put on a shelf,'' Simoneau said.
Many of the recommendations were influenced by county residents who spoke, called or wrote in their ideas.
``We went around and asked people what they thought of the corridor - what they liked and disliked,'' Simoneau said. ``That's the cornerstone of the plan itself.''
The state recognition for all the effort, he added, was ``extremely pleasing and gratifying.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Sharing the commuity planning award are, from left, Jack Simoneau,
director of planning for Currituck County, Phil Heffernan, Bob
Henley and Eldon Miller Jr.
by CNB