Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Dare County commissioners approved two conditional use permits on Jan. 4, 2021.

Gaining approval were permits for Outer Banks Dare Challenge on Roanoke Island and Rodanthe Sunset Resort.

Outer Banks Dare Challenge received the go-ahead to expand its existing Wanchese facility at 2263 NC Hwy 345.

The expansion includes at 9,920 square-foot multi-purpose building with open space, a commercial kitchen, classrooms and an office. A back-up generator will be installed.

Dustin Daniels, Outer Banks Dare Challenge director, says the building can be used as a hub for disaster relief. The approved plan for this multi-purpose building reinforces the organization’s community-oriented program.

Outer Banks Dare Challenge is an addiction recovery organization with the mission “to help people become mentally sound, emotionally balanced, socially adjusted, physically well and spiritually alive.”

The program is faith-based and open to men 18 years of age and older. Currently, 15 is the maximum number of men for the eight months to a year program. The plan approved by the commissioners includes two 1,768 square-foot residential buildings. When those new buildings are built, Outer Banks Dare Challenge will be able to accommodate 25 men and staff – which currently number three – plus site manager Doug Henriott.

In addition to attending classes, men in the program do yardwork, moving jobs, minor painting and the like for donations. In 2020, the men helped people move 68 times, performed over 75 different community service projects and assisted more than 11 different organizations. The men particularly attend to the needs of the elderly in the community.

The program is now 80% self-supporting. With new facilities, Daniels is aiming to be 100% self-supporting.

As best Daniels can tell, Outer Banks Dare Challenge has a 65 to 70% success ratio with program participants. He tries to keep up with the men who have completed the program.

As of January 2021, Outer Banks Dare Challenge has program participants from California, Florida, Tennessee and New York. For locals looking for help, Dare Challenge tries to find a program away from Dare County and out of the person’s current environment.

The approved conditional use permit includes a five-year time period for securing the necessary permits and raising funds for the project.

Outer Banks Dare Challenge operates a thrift store at 500 S Croatan Hwy, Kill Devil Hills.

For more information, call 727-608-7241 or visit outerbanksdarechallenge.org.

Dare commissioners approved another conditional use permit.

Rodanthe Sunset Resort is across NC 12 from Pamlico in Rodanthe. The conditional use permit authorizes two 10-bedroom houses and condominium building with eight units each with three bedrooms. The three new buildings line up along the Pamlico Sound shoreline and with the existing condominium building.

The residential structures, both with swimming pools, will be built first with the condominium building last. The permit gives property developers Jeff Fabricant and John Harris five years from Jan. 4, 2021 to secure construction permits for the three new buildings.

The new conditional use permit replaces one that expired. The old permit called for two commercial structures, which have been replaced with the houses.

The property obtains water from the northern Hatteras Island Dare County water system and is served by an onsite wastewater system.

At the Jan. 4 meeting, Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert L. Woodard asked to be recused from voting on Rodanthe Sunset Resort because the developers were clients of his. The request was granted, as was the conditional use permit by unanimous vote.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.