THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702071065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 104 lines
A proposed flyover on the south end of Manteo's main drag is not flying with the business community.
Opponents of a recent state Department of Transportation proposal to build an elevated roadway and directional signs to speed the flow of traffic between Manteo and Nags Head filled the Town Hall Wednesday night. They contended the flyover could divert customers away from the business district.
``We were horrified and shocked to read that this was a consideration,'' Uli Bennewitz, owner of the Weeping Radish restaurant, told the Manteo Board of Commissioners. ``Please, please do not allow DOT to erect signage that will bypass our whole downtown.''
Although each of the dozen or so speakers said they would oppose the flyover, several conceded they don't know much about it.
``The flyover looks to me like the tail of a dog,'' said business owner Chris Toolan. ``The dog could be a thoroughbred or it could be a mutt. And we want to know which it is.''
Jack Hughes, president of the Roanoke Island Business Association, objected to a board resolution that described the flyover as a ``safer and more efficient intersection, including a multi-lane interchange.''
``I think it's premature for any public body to endorse such a project,'' Hughes said.
Said businessman Cristan Zdanski: ``That resolution basically gives DOT carte blanche to design anything they see fit without any input from the public.''
The majority of the board agreed, and the measure failed.
DOT plans to build a 7.5-mile bypass stretching from the N.C 64/264 intersection in Manns Harbor to the Midway intersection by Caimen Gardens on RoanokeIsland.
The project includes a new 5.5-mile bridge - two miles longer than any other in the state - that would span Croatan Sound. A public hearing on the estimated $140 million project, targeted to begin in April 1998, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 in Manteo Middle School.
But a flyover is ``just an idea,'' DOT division engineer Don Conner said Thursday.
``This is not at the present time part of the Manteo bypass project,'' he said. ``It was a staff recommendation initially and recently DOT was asked to reconsider that part. It's a feature that if it's done it would be added later. . . . It's a separate project.''
Conner also said there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about the flyover. The whole idea of the bypass project is to alleviate traffic congestion in Manteo during the summer tourist season by funneling vehicles headed toward the beach on a direct route.
And Conner said the traffic going into Manteo from Nags Head would not even use the flyover.
Several boat makers Wednesday also told the board they were worried that the proposed 65-foot tall bridge would not be high enough to allow passage by big boats. Conner said the clearance needs could be worked into the design proposal.
Manteo Mayor Lee Tugwell said that state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, told the town that he will ensure that DOT will entertain any reasonable design that will improve the intersection.
Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. said Thursday that Basnight is interested in alleviating the bottleneck at the Midway that often stretches to the Christmas Shop, but he doesn't believe the flyover will be pushed hard if there's opposition.
``I don't think anyone's going to do anything if the people don't want to do it,'' Owens said.
Manteo Commissioner Melvin Jackson said the town also has to consider the impact the proposal could have on landowners in the project area. The project would require widening the existing U.S 64/264 to four lanes at each end of the new bridge. Highway officials will have to buy and bulldoze two residential homes, one on each side of the span. And two vacant buildings would have to be removed. But the flyover would require an additional lane and land.
``My problem with it first off is the Collins family has been working all this time to get the property rezoned,'' Jackson said. ``It's going to take in about five or six business lots - the high land in the area. I'm strictly against this.''
Rudy Collins owns about 213 acres in the Midway area. He said he is awaiting a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, and then hopes to build a strip mall that would include a supermarket.
A sign has recently been erected off the road on Collins' land proclaiming that it is the future site of Food Lion. Collins said he has been contacted by several supermarket developers, including Food Lion.
The Manteo native said it took him more than two years to get approval from the county board to rezone the property frontage, despite two recommendations for approval from the Planning Board.
Collins said the state has been upfront about its needs with the bypass project. But he said the flyover would destroy his plans.
``That ridiculous flyover would wipe out all my family's commercial property on 64,'' he said Thursday. ILLUSTRATION: DOT BYPASS PROJECT
DOT plans to build a 7.5-mile bypass stretching from the N.C 64/264
intersection in Manns Harbor to the Midway intersection by Caimen
Gardens on Roanoke Island.
The project includes a new 5.5-mile bridge - two miles longer than
any other in the state - that would span Croatan Sound. A public
hearing on the estimated $140 million project, targeted to begin in
April 1998, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 in Manteo Middle School.
But a flyover is ``just an idea,'' DOT division engineer Don Conner
said Thursday. ``This is not at the present time part of the
Manteo bypass project,'' he said.