THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606150327
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLINGTON HARBOUR LENGTH: 111 lines
Sailors with the Roanoke Island Yacht Club have run into turbulent waters at this guard-gated, private Outer Banks community.
For 20 years, boat owners have enjoyed sailing the sounds between Manteo and Colington Island - often slipping silently along the sandy shores, sometimes tying up at the wooden docks near Colington Harbour's private beach, occasionally hosting races and regattas.
But this month, candidates for Colington Harbour's Board of Directors began making waves about outsiders using their facilities.
They circulated a one-page letter accusing incumbent board members - who also belong to the Roanoke Island Yacht Club - of opening the guard gates and the community's common areas to people who don't live in Colington Harbour. They warned of intruders disrupting the seclusion of their 4,000-resident subdivision.
``In addition to losing our privacy,'' the letter said, ``there is a good possibility that a proposal by a Roanoke Island Yacht Club commodore to line the harbour with boat slips and lease the slips to non-property owners would result in Colington Harbour losing its non-profit organization status.''
Roanoke Island Yacht Club members - about 70 percent of whom own property in Colington Harbour - say they have a right to invite guests into their community to use the beach, docks and facilities. They say they pay to host events for their boating organization. And their 100-member club has no intention of ``taking over'' Colington Harbour - only of sailing through public waters and occasionally holding races around the island.
Last weekend, three incumbents on Colington Harbour's seven-member Board of Directors - whose families also belong to the Roanoke Island Yacht Club - were defeated in their bids for re-election by the challengers who charged them with trying to invite outsiders into the private community.
The new board members say they wanted to make sure the Roanoke Island Yacht Club didn't gain control over their community. ``I'm not looking forward to having outsiders come in here and use our common areas without paying anything,'' said Jack Bowens, the newly elected Colington Harbour secretary-treasurer.
The ousted Colington Harbour board members - and other members of the Roanoke Island Yacht Club who live in Colington Harbour - say that was never their intention. ``We're not going to take this lying down. We're still fighting,'' said Bob Buchanan, who founded the Roanoke Island Yacht Club and has lived in Colington Harbour for 10 years. ``To single out our yacht club and banish us from the community most of us live in is unacceptable and just not right.
``They're going to try to make it difficult for us to use these facilities,'' Buchanan said of the new board members. ``But we're not going to go away. Their actions won't curtail us one bit.''
Located west of Kill Devil Hills at the end of dead-end Colington Road, Colington Harbour was the first private, guard-gated community on the Outer Banks and the largest subdivision on the barrier islands.
Eve Trowe, who manages Colington Harbour, said all the waterways in the development are public - open to any vessel or person regardless of their residence. The facilities, however, are maintained by property owners' dues. Each lot or home owner contributes $130 annually to keep up the picnic area, roads, bulkhead, playground and boat ramp and to pay guards at the gate.
Residents also have the option of paying another $150 per year - plus a $100 initiation fee - to join the Colington Harbour Yacht and Racquet Club. Despite the name, members of that group do not host boating activities. But they have rights to use Colington Harbour's tennis courts and swimming pool - and control the clubhouse.
``There's some sharp difference of opinion among property owners in the community about the use of facilities by people who don't live here,'' Trowe said. ``Property owners can have parties in the soundfront park and invite outside guests to those activities if they pay a $25 clean-up fee. And as far as I know, the $150 clubhouse rental fees have been appropriately paid over time.''
Buchanan and other Roanoke Island Yacht Club members say they need their group as an outlet for boating activities, because the Colington Harbour Yacht and Racquet Club doesn't host any races or regattas. They don't mind paying to use Colington Harbour facilities.
Other groups - from the Coast Guard Auxiliary to outside swim clubs - also come into the community to hold events.
``We paid $700 to use Colington Harbour facilities in 1995. That money should go into the general fund. And it went right to the Colington Harbour Yacht and Racquet Club,'' said George Kendall, a former Roanoke Island Yacht Club commodore who lives in Colington Harbour. ``We'll be glad to keep paying to use the common properties. But that new board is going to be detrimental to the whole harbor.
``Already, they've voted to charge $10 docking fees to anyone who stays on their own boats overnight at the picnic grounds - even property owners. The Colington Harbour Yacht and Racquet Club has taken over the board now. And they have a lack of consideration for the rest of this community.''
As a goodwill gesture this spring, members of the Roanoke Island club built a $5,000 pavilion in Colington Harbour and donated it to the private development.
Some sailors say issues brought up against their organization are trumped-up reasons for the entire community to remain isolationist and exclusive.
``The main bone of contention is that the Colington Harbour Yacht and Racquet Club runs the pool, the tennis courts and the clubhouse,'' said Buzz Roepcke, a former Colington Harbour board member who lost his bid for re-election this month. ``They think the Roanoke Island Yacht Club is trying to take over their clubhouse. It's a sad state that people believed that.''
Len O'Connor, a member of the Roanoke Island Yacht and Racquet Club who has two years left to serve of his three-year election to the Colington Harbour Board of Directors, agreed. ``We're still members of this community who have a right to use the facilities. I think it's ridiculous to try to exclude us and our club members.
``It runs counter to any type of progress this community could make.''
Colington Harbour's Chairman of the Board Dan Beall, however, said the recent election will allow his community to keep outsiders out. ``The message is clear: We will maintain a private community,'' Beall said.
The Roanoke Island Yacht and Racquet Club ``has reservations for a couple of events here later this year,'' Beall said. ``We'll have to honor those reservations. But there will be action by the board to preclude any events like that from taking place in Colington Harbour in the future.'' by CNB