THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180484
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: 70 lines
When it comes to agreeing on zoning, Colington Island residents may not be ready to drink yet, but they're willing to be led to the water.
At Monday night's second Dare County Planning Board workshop to gather input about creating a zoning map, about 40 citizens hashed out what they'd like their community to look like, and what they're willing to do to make it that way.
As part of unincorporated Dare County, Colington is zoned S-1, which permits nearly any building or business.
With almost twice as many island residents in attendance as at the Aug. 8 meeting, planning consultant Glenn Harbeck and Planning Board Chairman Elmer Midgett conducted a free-wheeling session in which Harbeck eventually gave up on jotting down names and notes.
Harbeck asked for feedback on a list of nine objectives voiced during the first gathering. After 1 1/2 hours of discussing the issues, residents said they were ready to work together on an erasable zoning map.
``You could come back again,'' Harbeck told participants. ``We put a piece of plastic over the existing land-use map, and with erasable markers we mark your property. We could have the map and mark the things that go along with that.''
When Harbeck unfurled a map showing the great number of undeveloped lots still available throughout Colington, the group murmured in surprise. The same response was evoked when he held up a map illustrating that about half the island was designated wetlands.
``The reason it's wet is that so many people moved back in here and sunk it,'' joked someone from the back of the room.
Midgett said local residents could design their own zoning plan to suit their livelihoods and lifestyles - and protect their homes and businesses at the same time.
``We try to tailor it to make the zoning fit the neighborhood,'' he said.
Planners have held similar meetings in Avon, Buxton and Hatteras, which also were zoned S-1. Each community now has a detailed land-use planning and zoning map and appears happy with it, Midgett said.
Colington crabbers said they were concerned that their shedders would be eventually forced out of business if zoning was in effect.
``How would you classify a crabber as a business?'' a commercial fisherman asked. ``We're not going to build no condo or porno palace.''
Rather than rely on grandfathering existing businesses and residences when designing the initial plan, Midgett said planners prefer to simply make it a permitted use in the first place.
Genes Beasley wondered if people's worries about too much traffic on the 4-mile winding stretch of Colington Road would end up restricting vital business traffic.
``The residents and the locals in there use Colington as a speedway to begin with,'' Beasley said, adding that Colington's Billy's Seafood needs the tourist trade. ``He wants his parking lot full, just like the rest of the businesses.''
Colington Road is the most heavily traveled secondary road in Dare County. In 1995, the average daily traffic count was 7,000. The second-most--heavily-traveled road in that period was Kitty Hawk Road, with 3,800.
When Billy Beasley joked that he figured people went up and down the road - the only path to the bypass - at least eight times a day, Harbeck responded that he wasn't far off. In a survey, it was determined that most families travel to or from their homes 8-12 times a day, he said.
Midgett said zoning R2-A might be a good place for Colington to start. A mixture of commercial and residential, the chairman said, it is similar to village-commercial zoning.
``The way I see it with all the different categories of zoning, you're not going to be able to make everybody happy,'' said Dana Beasley.
Responded Midgett: ``You may leave here happy tonight, but two years, three years from now, you might not be very happy.'' by CNB