THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090495
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
A controversial pool that Corolla Light officials hoped to locate next to two protesting property owners apparently will be built on a nearby site.
Outer Banks Ventures Inc., the developer of the resort community, has withdrawn its request to rezone a residential lot to accommodate a new community pool.
Instead, the new swimming facility will likely be built in open space just behind the original location - and still within short distance of two property owners opposed to the pool's location.
The newest location actually received county approval in a 1994 sketch plan amendment. It has also been endorsed by the Corolla Light Community Association's board of directors, a county official said.
The new site ``is equally devastating. There's no difference to the McNails and to us,'' said Thomas Moore, a Washington, D.C.-area attorney who owns property near the proposed pool.
``If the board has made that decision, we are deeply saddened,'' he said on Thursday.
Moore repeated his concerns that a pool in such close proximity would greatly depreciate his and neighbor Robert McNail's properties.
``In addition, the intended use and enjoyment of that property has been taken away from us. One doesn't build a retirement home next to a community swimming pool,'' Moore said.
Corolla Light officials have disputed the claim that property values will drop. Amenities like a close-by swimming pool can enhance prices in a rent-oriented resort community, they said earlier.
Outer Banks Ventures owner Richard Brindley was contractually obligated to build another pool after the one at Bell Tower Station was sold and converted to a private inn.
A property owners' survey indicated a pool along the Currituck Sound was favored over an oceanfront one.
The Moores and McNails had protested the proposed site to the Board of Commissioners, which was scheduled to vote on the rezoning at Wednesday's regular meeting in Currituck.
County Planning and Inspections Director Jack Simoneau said at the meeting that the developer and Corolla Light Community Association's board of directors have decided to put the pool in open space behind the controversial lot.
In another Corolla issue, The Currituck Club received another green light after its site plan for a new clubhouse was approved unanimously by commissioners.
Developer Mickey Hayes of Kitty Hawk also announced a second, centrally located entrance into the sprawling golf course community.
Hayes and the developer of neighboring Ocean Sands had been involved in intense negotiations for six years before an accord was reached last week.
Ocean Sands owns a small strip of sand on the west side of N.C. 12 - the only major road on the barrier island - that left The Currituck Club with only one way into and out of the development.
Currituck County officials had raised concerns about only one entrance at the southern end of the planned residential resort.
``The central entrance that we all hoped for, and planned for, has been perfected,'' Hayes said Wednesday night. by CNB