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The Dare County Board of Commissioners approved two text amendments and two special use permits at its September meeting.

The first approved text amendment raised the building height limit for boat building facilities from 40 feet measured from eight feet NAVD 1988 to 52 feet measured from eight feet NAVD. The text amendment applies to the MC-2 zoning district which is only mapped on parcels on Harbor Road leading to Wanchese Marine Industrial Park.

Ricky Scarborough, owner of Scarborough Boatworks at 370 Harbor Road in Wanchese, requested the text change. The Wanchese Preservation Alliance spoke in favor of the text amendment during Planning Board consideration. A public hearing was announced. No one spoke. The commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the text amendment.

The second text amendment adds a section to Group Development Projects, Section 22-32, to recognize the existence of properties built before the zoning code was adopted Nov. 20, 1975. The amendment allows properties with historic structures that do not meet dimensional requirements of the existing section to apply for a special use permit.

Timothy W. Midgett, who applied for the text amendment, owns property with two residential structures, one of which was built in 1969. He owns an adjoining lot with a building going back to 1915. Both of the older buildings need new septic systems and it would be possible to design a system to serve both buildings. Zoning text amendments cannot be site-specific.

A public hearing was held. No one spoke. The text amendment was adopted unanimously.

Special Use Permit 3-2024 concerns the Manteo Furniture property in Manns Harbor owned by Kenneth and Angela Daniels. The previous building at the site, located at 6300 Hwy 64/264, was destroyed by fire. The approved special use permit allows for three smaller warehouses on property zoned MH-A mapped in Manns Harbor.

An easement is allowed for fire trucks to access a pond to draw water for a fire. The special use permit requires a North Carolina sedimentation and erosion control permit. A lighting plan must be submitted. A visual buffer is required on the northern and western sides of the Daniels property due to residential uses on adjacent property.

After discussion, the Dare County Planning Board found the draft special use permit and site plan to be reasonable and appropriate for the proposed use. Dare County’s Board of Commissioners approved the special use permit unanimously.

In the final planning action, J.T. Dixon of City Beverage, doing business as Ace Mini Storage, submitted an amended site plan to expand his mini storage group development located at 1099 Driftwood Drive in Manteo. The amendment to the existing special use permit 5-2012 allows for the construction of five new storage structures and authorizes the use of portable storage unit services on the parcel, summarizes the agenda item.

As stipulated, the proposed improvements require North Carolina state stormwater permit and sedimentation and erosion control permits. The site plan also shows relocation of the existing northern driveway access due to the recombination of the parcels. The new driveway requires approval of NCDOT.

Robert L. Woodard Sr., chairman of the Dare Board of Commissioners, asked about approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and Dare’s Airport Authority. The applicant has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval.

During its review, the Airport Authority indicated that “the required vegetative buffer on the rear and side property boundaries should only be planted with vegetation that does not grow in excess of 30 feet to avoid height clearance issues for runway approaches in the future when the vegetation is mature,” states the agenda item. Conditions were added to the permit.

The commissioners approved the amended site plan and amendments to SUP5-2015 unanimously.

The commissioners meeting was held Sept. 3, 2024. Later that evening, Dare County’s Planning Board met for its September meeting. Two items were on the planning agenda; one of which goes to the Board of Commissioners at its October 9, 2024, meeting.

Kinnakeet Villas LLC has submitted a special use permit application to build an 18-unit cluster home development off Big Kinnakeet Drive and Keel Court. Big Kinnakeet runs off NC 12 beside the Avon Post Office. Two parcels, which will be recombined, total 1.82 acres or 79,258 square feet. The land is zoned C-2 with cluster homes permitted as a special use. “Residential uses in the C-2 are subject to the dimensional standards of the R-3 zoning district.” That zoning district allows 10 dwelling units per acre.

The proposed project will build 18-two bedroom units, with parking for two vehicles underneath the structures. The units will have 800 square feet of heated and conditioned space, less that the top limit for cluster home developments which is set at 1,200 square feet. The units will be separated by 15 feet.

A cluster home development is built for long-term occupancy, defined at 31 days. Russell “Ted” Lloyd, the manager of Kinnakeet Villas LLC, reported that the developer’s intent is to sell the houses.

Eleven of the 18 units will have driveways onto Big Kinnakeet. A new road will be built for seven remaining units.

The developers have received a willingness to serve letter from the wastewater treatment plant operator, Carolina Water Services of North Carolina. The development is calculated to use 8,640 gallons per day of wastewater.

Two new water main extensions are proposed.

At the Planning Board meeting, board member David Overton, who works at Dare County Public Works, asked that the development be required to have a central dumpster location and not have individual stops for residential trash collection.

Permits outstanding are state-issued stormwater management and soil erosion and sedimentation control.

In another matter, the Planning Board approved a two-lot subdivision called Tynes Manor. The parent parcel is 2.43 acres, exceeding the threshold for administrative approval. Both lots will be accessed off Rogers Road on Roanoke Island. The land is zoned R-1. The Planning Board approved the subdivision.

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