THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030454
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Residents of the Outer Banks' most remote residential strip don't want to bear the costs of improving their roads.
That was the consensus of some 25 people who came to the Currituck County Courthouse Monday night to rally against establishing a service district within the Fruitville Township's Outer Banks.
The protests preceded what has yet to be a formal proposal that would affect about 2,500 property owners of 3,100 private parcels of land valued at about $160 million.
If a district were established, projects would be paid by those owning property within Ocean Hill, Seagull, Swan Beach, North Swan Beach and Carova communities.
Northern beach landowners pay 73 cents per $100 of valuation in property taxes, which includes a levy for fire protection.
Service districts also are being considered for other Currituck County beach communities, including Ocean Hill, Corolla village and Whalehead, to establish a county water system.
Monday's discussion, launched by a lengthy speech by Commissioner Ernie Bowden, focused on creating a service district namely to improve road conditions and drainage problems within several off-road subdivisions.
Roads overgrown with underbrush ``have gotten to the point where sometimes it's impossible to see oncoming traffic,'' Bowden said.
But commissioner's views apparently are not shared by many of his constituents.
``The only person I've talked to on the Outer Banks that's for a service district is Mr. Bowden,'' said Charlie Pool of Carova, who collected the names of 164 petitioners against the measure.
``It'll cost us entirely too much money,'' Pool said.
Also vocally against the idea of a district was Bowden's brother, Tommy, who reminded commissioners that several developers collected money from lot sales for road maintenance funds.
``Before you come to us, let's go to the guys who got the money and fled,'' he said.
Communities north of the Villages of Ocean Hill lack paved roads and are accessible only by four-wheel drive.
The relative isolation and pristine surroundings are what attracted most of 150 permanent residents and 400 summer residents to these areas. But the popularity and proliferation of four-wheel-drive vehicles in recent years has meant more traffic.
Residents and community leaders have expressed concern about the impact of the increase in vehicles on the family style beaches along a 1-mile strip between Corolla and the Virginia state line.
Dunes have been torn up by all-terrain vehicles, and families driving onto the beach often park too close to the shoreline, blocking commuter traffic. by CNB