Getting Your Beach Bearings: A Community Compass

By Lisa Loy

The decision to buy property on the Outer Banks should be made with more information than just the lay of the land. We may succumb to the lure of the Outer Banks’ natural land and seascape and embrace the variety of ways we can enjoy the sport and soul of life outdoors. It’s a fact that some buyers have chosen to live or invest here based on little more than the view.

For year ‘round living, our moderate climate, relatively low taxes, great schools, world-class fishing and a score of superb golf courses can tip the scale toward the decision to buy. For vacation home buyers, a rental cash flow analysis offered up by an experienced Realtor can provide all the justification one might need to partake in “the life.” But what else should you know? Within the broad reach of our 100-plus miles of coastline, there are many villages and towns. Which Outer Banks community is right for you? How do you get your bearings when there are features that you can’t see, such as local attitudes on growth and the environment? These attitudes will ultimately shape the future look of the Outer Banks. Will it be green or glitzy? Here, then, in addition to some physical features of note, is a view of another sort, from north to south -- a snapshot of each community.

The financial strength of Dare County, which encompasses the majority of the Outer Banks, is also a key element in the future shape of the Outer Banks lifestyle, and it’s looking good. The $1.3 million dollar surplus in the 2006 fiscal year increased the unreserved, undesignated general fund balance to $22.3 million. This fund helps Dare pay for the costs associated with storms or capital improvements, which can also be funded with land transfer tax revenues. Low debt, low unemployment rates, high property tax collection rates from non-resident property owners and staggering growth in property valuations, now estimated at $16.5 billion, all demonstrate Dare County’s ability to serve Outer Bankers’ needs. It is the 16th fastest growing county in the state.

The majority of the communities covered in this article are located in Dare County, but at either end, due to primary access routes through Dare, the Currituck County beaches and Hyde County’s island of Ocracoke are also considered part of our overall community.

We begin at the northernmost village, beyond the paved roads in Currituck County’s Corolla and above the wildlife sanctuary, in the village of Carova. Accessible by 4-wheel-drive vehicles by way of the beach, this area was subdivided and canals were dug in anticipation of an access roadway from Virginia planned some years ago. But when the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge came into being, those plans were dashed and the subdivisions remained isolated, albeit affordable. Lot sales were a bargain and included owner financing, but building a home that far out of the way back then was a bit of a financing challenge. As a result, the homes there are a hodgepodge of old and new, ramshackle and opulent. Residents no longer push for better access, they are friendly, but they want to enjoy their privacy. They shy away from development, even the mere grading of their main route, Sandfiddler Road, as proposed last January. The effort was dropped due to a petition signed by more than 150 residents who feared that road improvement would spark more development.

Although Carova is geographically just a few miles north of the village of Corolla, it is a world away in appearance and economic development. Corolla is manicured, tourism driven and on a fast track toward self-governance. The future “Corolla, Incorporated” is made up of homes in developments with extensive recreational facilities that attract a steady stream of vacationing families who arrive weekly in Mercedes and Volvos. The year ‘round population is small, but visitors carry big pocket books, and the resulting revenue stream is significant, benefiting the larger agrarian mainland of Currituck County, a catalyst in Corolla’s hopes of township. Most non-resident homeowners take advantage of premium weekly rental income to offset the cost of ownership. For the Currituck beach communities, access to schools is currently a challenge for local families, meaning Corolla is not attracting many new, year ‘round residents with children and won’t until the long anticipated mid-county bridge, connecting the Currituck beach to its mainland, is finally built.

“If a bridge is built, it will be easier for people to live there year ‘round,” Mark Massey, a Broker with BD&A Realty & Construction, Inc. said. The bridge will help lengthen the season for Corolla’s business community because it will be more accessible for day-trippers to the area. He said that a number of people he knows have tried to make a go of living full-time in Corolla but that after a year or so many of them give up and move south to Dare County.

“There are a few large parcels up there that present the possibility that new communities will have some commercial or mixed-use areas,” Massey said. He sees that as a plus for year ‘round growth and, consequently, greater participation in the future look of Corolla. He also noted that sales activity is up right now, not unusual in the spring as buyers enjoy closing in time to receive the upcoming season of rental income. What is encouraging to him is that the overall activity indicates a more level market throughout the year.

In addition to shortening drive time for southbound vacationers to the northern beaches, the proposed mid-county bridge will help ease the travel volume on N.C. Highway 12 through the towns of Duck and Southern Shores.

Like Corolla, the town of Duck is a vacation destination with upscale vacation rental homes in attractive developments, but the year ‘round population is growing due in part to its better proximity to the conveniences of major medical facilities, schools, shops and restaurants. Duck is the northernmost community in Dare County and has made great strides since its incorporation five years ago with its own police department and other services. It has acquired property for a town hall, and the first phase of a new park at the same site, is almost complete. This year Duck is providing free concerts there this summer and fall. By and large the people of Duck are actively involved in their town, eager to enhance its beautification.

“My take is that the atmosphere in Duck will be maintained for the future,” Massey said. “The lack of open parcels available and the tight controls the town has in place to preserve vegetation and minimize house sizes will help.”

Overall, the way the Outer Banks compares to other coastal communities along the eastern seaboard is also a factor in Massey’s estimation.

“It’s hard to find a place near the water with this kind of natural environment and small town feel,” Massey said. Some people from the north who have retired to Florida have chosen to move halfway back home. “My friends call them ‘half-backers,” he said, attributing the reasons half-backers make North Carolina their second choice is that they miss the changing seasons not present in Florida. They miss that rhythm and find the moderate seasonal changes here quite comfortable. Accessibility to friends and family is also a factor; a day’s drive to the Outer Banks is much easier on their children and grandchildren from Ohio than a two-day trip or the cost of airfare.
Farther south, the Town of Southern Shores is a magnet for the mature buyer. It is a full-fledged year‘round residential community that enjoys the shelter of extensive maritime forest, profuse with wild flowering dogwood each spring. The attentive community benefits by a large retirement population who volunteer for many services to such a degree that they also enjoy the lowest tax rate in the county.

Unlike its neighbors to the north with a wide variety of subdivisions, Southern Shores was carefully planned from the start. There are no recreational facilities that rely on hefty homeowner’s association dues. Instead, nominal dues paid to the civic association support community spaces that provide access to ocean and sound with parking and a few playgrounds. The country club, Duck Woods, offers membership for those wishing to play golf and tennis. Like Duck, the residents of Southern Shores don’t want a four-lane traffic corridor through their town and support plans for the mid-county bridge.

Kitty Hawk was never planned, it was settled. It has one of the greater concentrations of old families on the Outer Banks who live primarily on the rolling, wooded ridges that rise above intermittent marsh. Names like Perry, Twiford, Tillett and Baum that appear on many street signs give tribute to these true locals. They avoided government for as long as they could, preferring a live-and-let-live lifestyle, but by 1981 development had intensified to the degree that Kitty Hawk chose incorporation to gain control of its future appearance; its first order of business, a zoning ordinance. The Town has garnered kudos for its efforts to preserve more than 1,800 acres of its woods with the support of the Carolina Estuarine Reserve Foundation.

Mary Davenport, a broker with RE/MAX Ocean Realty and recent Outer Banks Realtor of the Year, believes good development planning is also present. Kitty Hawk Landing is a case in point.

“The people who developed Kitty Hawk Landing had the foresight to buy land at the beach,” she said, citing that homeowners in this tucked-away, soundfront neighborhood are able to enjoy parking and convenient access to the beach.

The largest of the towns with a population of 6,613, Kill Devil Hills is considered “Outer Banks Central” with numerous county facilities including the First Flight Schools complex, the Baum Senior Center, County library and satellite offices, and the site of Wright Brothers National Memorial. With a progressive attitude on growth and redevelopment, it is the first beach community to install streetlights along U.S. Highway 158 and to require all new commercial developers to install sidewalks along that corridor. The new Streets Division, charged with managing storm water run-off, will be housed in a new public works complex, and the Ocean Rescue Division will be located in the new Ocean Boulevard Regional Bathhouse. The Town is completing plans to begin the construction of a second firehouse on U.S. 158 at 8th Street. In 2004 the Town created the Historic Landmark Commission to identify homes and other structures of historic significance. At present the Town is working on an affordable housing effort in an attempt to help new teachers make their homes here and is leading the charge to prevent the construction of new overhead power line towers along U.S. 158.

Like Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, the Town of Nags Head has a healthy mix of year ‘round residents and vacation homeowners. The Town attracts a high number of anglers due to its proximity to Pirate’s Cove Marina and Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. The only beach nursing home, Britthaven, and the Outer Banks Hospital are both in Nags Head, and the new Nags Head Elementary School opened in January of 2006.

Officials in the Town of Nags Head, encouraged by the many communities that are successfully maintaining their beaches up and down the Atlantic seaboard, are leading the way locally to implement beach nourishment practices. But in April, residents voted down a five-year special tax assessment to fund the program. The Commissioners still believe the majority of residents want nourishment, they just don’t agree on how to pay for it.

The Town took a big step forward, however, in its financial contribution toward the Visitors’ Bureau purchase of 9.6 acres that will be developed into a convention center, with a twist. The “green” facility as envisioned would utilize sustainable energy practices such as capturing rainwater, wind power and solar energy. The Outer Banks Visitors’ Bureau hopes to bolster year ‘round businesses by bringing more visitors in the off-season.

The historic Town of Manteo on Roanoke Island, just west by bridge from Nags Head, is the cultural arts center of the Outer Banks. With several blocks of galleries, restaurants and shops, it is the most walkable and charming of the towns, and it is in the midst of a growth spurt with new, history-friendly developments under way that complement the surrounding neighborhoods that have been tended with care by some of the county’s oldest families. This careful redevelopment is the result of a 20-year plan that was developed by the Town and NC State University that literally sent students door to door to survey the visions of its citizenry. The county seat is in Manteo, and while a new Justice Center has opened, plans to preserve and restore the old historic Courthouse are in progress. New elementary and middle schools have been constructed and the former middle school is being renovated and absorbed by the Dare County Campus of the College of the Albemarle. The only commercial airport, The Dare County Regional Airport, Roanoke Island Festival Park, and the Outer Banks History Center are all located here, as are Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the birthplace of the New World on Roanoke Island.

Mary Davenport believes that it is also the caring nature and involvement of the people who live on Roanoke Island full-time that make life here a special experience, now and in the future. She cited her neighbors at Heritage Point on Roanoke Island.

“It was asleep for a long time, but eventually, as we got some houses and it turned over from the developer, the community really got together. Now, after a storm we get together to trim trees. We share generators. For new residents we even have a welcome committee.”

Davenport went on to say that she believes that the many people who have moved to the Outer Banks are eager to support the community. “Look at Relay for Life,” she said. “For comparable areas in size and population, we were Number 2 in collections in the nation!”

South of Nags Head, over the aging Herbert C. Bonner Bridge at Oregon Inlet, the 60-mile-long Island of Hatteras elbows some 23 miles out to sea. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge and Buxton Woods Preserve encompass much of the island, crowned by the granddaddy of all U.S. lighthouses, the Hatteras Light. The seven villages on the island attract sportsmen from around the globe, and as a result bolster the economy during the shoulder seasons. This sport-specific visitation accounts for some of the highest numbers of weeks rented for homeowners engaged in the vacation rental home market. Although many beautiful resort homes have been built in recent years, the island is still an affordable mainstay for anglers, surfers, windsurfers and kite boarders. The northernmost three villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo are contiguous with a small year ‘round population and large vacation rental sector. Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras villages to the south have more permanent residents, and many of the locals can trace their roots back hundreds of years. Hatteras Island is also gaining a new school this year, and the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is finally becoming a reality. The Gulf Stream-bound charter fishing boats operating out of Hatteras enjoy a robust existence because they can reach the blue water in less time than marinas to the north.

Scott Leggat, Vice President of Marketing and Administration at Outer Beaches Realty Inc., said the two main issues facing residents today are the possibility that beach driving will be restricted or prohibited altogether and the imperative need for a new bridge across Oregon Inlet.

“Both of these issues, people are passionate about,” Leggat said.

When asked what he thought Hatteras Island would look like in 20 years, he said, “In some ways, maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I don’t think it will change as much as it has in the past 20 years.”

Leggat’s rationale is that within 20 years, the villages on the island will reach build-out, or critical mass, as he puts it. With no possibility for sprawl into National Park lands, redevelopment of older neighborhoods will likely occur.

In Hatteras, there is also a free ferry service to Ocracoke Island. Development on this island has been hindered in recent years as the water utility has struggled to expand and keep pace with the growing need for service. Like Hatteras, a large portion of the island is part of the National Park. The village, like Manteo, has a waterfront setting as it wraps around a harbor called Silver Lake. It is a charming village with quaint shops, restaurants and enchanting small cottages. This island also attracts visitors in great number, including a significant number of northern Outer Bankers who find Ocracoke to be a perfect weekend getaway.

Eventually, the entire Outer Banks will experience the scenario of build-out that Leggat describes for Hatteras Island. With most communities here already mature and huge expanses of natural land set aside in perpetuity, with much infrastructure already in place and financially solvent municipal and county governments, and especially with a population of residents ready to drive their visions into active planning and meet the challenges as they come into play, Leggat’s wishful thinking might just ring true. If you’re just now considering a purchase of Outer Banks property, it’s possible that the place you buy today will still resemble itself two decades down the road. And that, when all is said and done, is what draws most people here to begin with.