Currituck commissioners heard a request for approval of a preliminary plat/special use permit for Phase 1 of Corolla Boat Club, Monterey Shores, located on Malia Drive in Corolla in Poplar Branch (Beach) Township, but ultimately ended up tabling the issue to allow additional time for developers to answer some questions regarding traffic concerns.

Phase 1 is the construction of five single family residential lots, one commercial lot and roadway and utility improvements. Future phases would include the construction of townhomes, an outdoor venue and boat basin with a dock and paddleboat rentals.

The request was complicated by the fact that one of the access points to the development on Sunset Road requires approval from NC DOT for permanent use of the right-of-way. This approval has not come because NC DOT is tied up with litigation related to the Mid-Currituck Bridge project. This access is not necessary for Phase 1, but would be required for Phase 3 or 4.

Currituck planning staff recommended that the approval be delayed until permission is granted by NCDOT or the Turnpike Authority as is stated by the sketch plan, but the developers were pushing for approval for Phase 1 via an amended sketch plan that would remove that stipulation.

Mark Bissell with Bissell Profession Group said, “One of the reasons that we agreed to that condition at the amended sketch plan stage is this project was always envisioned to be a phased development. We didn’t envision that that access would necessarily be required in order to do the first phase.”

Developers want to construct the bridge and a portion of the boardwalk, but not fully connect the road to the DOT right-of-way until approval is granted.

Chairman White explained the situation: “If DOT doesn’t approve this project or give them access to their property they’re going to have to engineer a different traffic scenario period to bring to develop this future phase and they’d have to come back to us because it would be an amended sketch plan to deal with it at that time. However, having that bridge there – if this was approved tonight – gets them the stub out for future connectivity.”

Even still, White said, “as it sits right now I’m not sure that this board is entirely comfortable with passing this tonight and there are some questions that need to be answered,” specifically how developers will deal with pedestrian traffic coming across that bridge.

The board will consider the request at the January 17 meeting.

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