Battle brews over cluster home project in Wanchese

By Corinne Saunders | Outer Banks Voice on January 26, 2023

Dare Planning Board to evaluate proposal at Feb. 7 meeting

Site of the proposed cluster home development in Wanchese.

With a key Feb. 7 Dare County Planning Board meeting looming, some Wanchese residents are voicing firm opposition to a proposed 60-unit cluster home development on a 10.5-acre parcel of land off Old Wharf Road.

“I understand we need housing, but this is not the way to go about it,” said Belinda Fulton, who has helped organized a petition drive against the project. “This is not looking out for the locals if [the developer] is renting 30/60/90 days. You can’t have a stable family environment with a constant transient development.”

Another Wanchese resident, who asked not to be identified, was among the estimated 75-100 people who attended a community meeting on the issue at the Wanchese Community Center on Jan. 17.

“I’m not opposed to that lot being developed, but at the density that the builder is proposing, it seems reckless and greedy,” the resident said. “The other thing is their proposed septic system requires pumps that run 24/7.”

Dare County Planning Director Noah Gillam said the Wanchese cluster home proposal includes 36 two-bedroom houses and 24 three-bedroom houses with one car allowed for each bedroom. The prospective developer, Brad Alexander of Aria Construction & Development in Creswell, is applying for a special use permit, which will need the Dare County Board of Commissioners’ approval.

Alexander’s company has not yet purchased the parcel of land in Wanchese; “he’s doing his due diligence before closing,” Gillam said. Aria Construction & Development currently owns three parcels of land in Kill Devil Hills and one in Colington, according to county tax information. Alexander also had a nearly $2.4 million, 12-bedroom house in Kill Devil Hills with 12 full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms that was included in the 2019 Outer Banks Parade of Homes. Alexander did not respond to Voice requests for comment.

Dare County ordinances define cluster homes as “more than one residential dwelling on one parcel of land,” with the dwellings “occupied on a long-term basis”— meaning 31 days or more.

Cluster homes cannot exceed 1,200 square feet of heated/conditioned space; must be 15 feet apart and are limited to 30% lot coverage. While ownership can be transferred for individual buildings, the remaining land is considered a common area that belongs to a homeowners’ association or similar entity.

As Gilliam pointed out, unlike recent proposed housing developments that failed to win approval in Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, the Wanchese project does not involve county dollars or a partnership with the developer. But it comes in the wake of county zoning amendments passed in 2018 and 2019 that allow cluster homes in more zoning districts in unincorporated parts of the county—amendments that were part of Dare County’s overall initiative to generate more workforce/essential housing.

Special use permits are issued through quasi-judicial proceedings, where the commissioners’ decision is based on “facts and findings,” separate from the planning board’s process, Gillam noted. “The planning board just makes the recommendation that the conditions of the special use permit are reasonable and appropriate,” he said. “Typically as part of one of the conditions of the special use permit, we make a condition that no building or land-disturbing activity can occur until copies of the applicable permits have been provided to the Dare County Planning Department.”

The Dare County Planning Board will make a recommendation to the commissioners on whether it finds the conditions of the prospective special use permit “reasonable and appropriate”—with one typical condition being that no construction activities can begin until the developer provides all needed permits to the Dare County Planning Department, according to Gillam. While the planning board makes a recommendation, the Dare County Commissioners’ decision is solely based on the “facts and findings” of its quasi-judicial proceeding, Gillam said.

The developer would also need permits from state agencies for stormwater management and for sedimentation and erosion control “because the amount of land he is disturbing is over an acre,” Gillam said.

In discussing her opposition to the project, Fulton referenced the March 2006 Dare County ordinance that established the “Wanchese Residential Zoning District,” which includes the land on which the proposed cluster home development would be built.

According to that ordinance, its intent was “to preserve the traditional family-fishing atmosphere” of the Village of Wanchese while also protecting its environmentally sensitive coastal wetlands. The ordinance encourages single-family residential land use and permits “traditional village business” on the same property, and it promotes “stable, permanent neighborhoods, characterized by low vehicular traffic flows and low impact of development.”

Fulton expressed the view that the ditches between and behind the proposed houses would leave essentially no yard, and if significant sand was added to the development, neighboring homes that are not on pilings would likely flood. She also expressed concern about the addition of 150 vehicles entering and exiting at a point on the road that is a “blind curve.”

Lorraine Tillett, a former Dare County zoning administrator, is also involved in organizing efforts against the cluster home proposal. Nearly two decades ago, she began spearheading the original zoning efforts in Wanchese and she received a Pelican Award from the North Carolina Coastal Federation in 2006 for “outstanding environmental service.” Tillett plans to attend the Feb. 7 planning board meeting, along with many other community members, including Fulton.

“We can’t stop change; we can’t stop growth, but it can be moderate,” Fulton said.

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