THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230060
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER MCMENAMIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 107 lines
Jeannie Carver was alone in her Kill Devil Hills home when she heard voices. After a brief search, the artist found six adults and several children on her deck, overlooking Kitty Hawk Bay.
Seated in Carver's brown and beige outdoor furniture, were strangers who had climbed two flights of outdoor stairs to the deck so they could get a better view of the sunset.
The unwanted visitors reluctantly left the Bay Drive residence at Carver's request. But she worries that such upsetting occurrences will increase with the paving of Bay Drive and the possible routing of a bike path through Kitty Hawk onto her street.
``If you label a route that brings tourists through here, there is increased liability, crime and danger to children,'' she said.
Carver and Kitty Hawk resident Madonna VanCuren have been leading the neighborhood fight against what town officials call a ``feasibility study'' of a Kitty Hawk bike path.
The route that is being eyed by the Department of Transportation would link with the Southern Shores bike path at Kitty Hawk Elementary School on U.S. Route 158. It would bring cyclists, walkers and joggers across Woods Road, Kitty Hawk Road and Moore Shore Road - passing the house where the Wright brothers stayed during their flight tests on the Outer Banks.
A footpath between Moore Shore Road and Windgrass Circle would be widened and paved. The path would come out on Bay Drive in Kitty Hawk.
Bay Drive runs along Kitty Hawk Bay through both Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. Jejac Drive is the dividing line between the towns.
But contrary to speculation in area neighborhoods, Kill Devil Hills doesn't have bike-trail plans, insisted Mayor Duncan Wright, Planning Director Greg Loy and Planning Board Chairman William Schmidt.
``I think what we're talking about here is the difference between a bicycle trail vs. a bicycle route,'' Loy said. ``If you're talking about taking your bicycle from point A to point B, that's a bike route. If you're talking about a planned improvement, that's a bike trail.''
Kill Devil Hill's only plan for Bay Drive is paving a nearly 2,000-foot sandy section of road. The paving, which Schmidt said is the No. 1 road improvement priority for fiscal year 1996-1997, has been in development plans for almost five years. It will improve emergency access for police, fire and ambulance traffic, cut down on liability from flooding and reduce maintenance costs of the dirt portion.
But Schmidt said that although the work is aimed at cars and not bikes, people will still use Bay Drive as a bicycle route.
``On any road people can ride their bikes,'' he said. ``Nobody said you cannot ride your bike on the road unless there is a separate stripe that says it's a bike path.''
Tim Owens, Kitty Hawk's code enforcement officer and planner, said his town's bike path project is in ``really, really fledgling stages.'' ``Right now we are engaged in preliminary studies,'' he said. ``We're testing the feasibility of it to see if there is enough right-of-way.''
Jerry Jennings, a district engineer with the Department of Transportation, said, ``We have to see if there is enough property along the side of the road or if additional private property must be purchased.''
Although widening the shoulder of the road for an adjacent path would be more economical and have less of an impact, Jennings said a separate facility, or a non-adjacent bike path, would be more desirable to the path's users.
But given the location of Moore Shore Road - which sometimes comes within three feet of the sound - such a path might not be possible.
And that would be OK with Charles Hardy, president of the Wheelers of Dare Bike Club and a member of the Department of Transportation North Carolina Bicycle Committee.
Simply widening the shoulders of Kitty Hawk Road and Woods Road would satisfy Hardy, an active Outer Banks cyclist of five years.
He said Carver and VanCuren's worries of increased crime and danger to children are ``ludicrous.''
``She could do nothing and have more people up on her porch,'' said Hardy, 42, who has been living in the Outer Banks for 23 years. ``And they weren't cyclists or joggers. They were probably hippies or nuts, and you can't do anything about that.
``Look around at how many active older people ride bicycles these days.''
Hardy said residents who oppose the bike path probably imagine the cyclists as ``all 25-year-old hell raisers.'' This is not the case, he said. ``Bike riders today are 6 years old to 76 years old.''
Hardy and Kitty Hawk town officials also dispute residents' predictions that crime would increase in the neighborhoods the bike path would pass thorough.
Hardy said: ``If that's the case, the lunatics should have found Southern Shores. Has it produced any negative affect there? Go ask.''
The seven-foot-wide Southern Shores bike trail starts at the town hall with a sign that reads ``No motorized vehicles. Walkers right. Bikers left.''
Southern Shores Mayor Kern Pitts had only positive things to say about his town's newest path along U.S. Route 158 and the civic association's paths that run through residential areas.
Pitts, a 75-year-old who rides the paths himself, said crime ``doesn't bother us at all.''
``If you localize crime to the bike path, at least you know where it is. You can police the bike route,'' he added, laughing.
But none of these rationalizations comfort Carver or VanCuren.
The two have circulated letters and petitions, gathering the support of residents who also oppose any bike path that would bring tourists and others into their neighborhoods. Bay Drive is an area where homes cost more than $300,000, flower pots adorn almost every porch, and residents sweep cut grass off the roadway and mow the lawns of neighbors who don't keep up their yards.
``It's because we have pride,'' Carver said, idling her Mustang convertible along her street as she told a brief story about each neighbor. ``We want our neighborhood to look nice. And we'll fight to keep the integrity of our year-round neighborhood.'' by CNB