Coastal Studies Institute project moves ahead
A six-year-old vision will begin to take shape this fall when construction of the new University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute gets under way.
A conditional use permit and site plan for the project were approved by the Dare County Board of Commissioners this week.
Originally planned near the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, the $30 million campus will be built at a 200-acre site in Skyco off N.C. 345 on Roanoke Island.
The campus will include a 56,800-square-foot research building, a 9,700-square-foot marine services building, two dormitories, a boat storage building, boat slips and parking.
A donation by the county of 35 acres near the aquarium was celebrated in 2007 as the start of the project and “provided the impetus to get the funds,” said Nancy White, the institute’s director. At the time, it was thought that the two-year construction project would get under way by the summer of 2008.
But the land was lacking one important feature: water access.
Plans for a mixed-used community on the new site fronting the Croatan Sound were in the works when the economy took a downturn. The land became available, and it was purchased for $8.25 million, White said.
Canals on the property will be excavated and docking will be created for six boat slips, a boat ramp and loading and staging areas for marine research, according to a summary of the project included with the conditional use permit documents.
Green technology will be used on the campus, but tight budgeting, for now, precludes installing wind turbines and solar panels, White said. The campus, however, will include other environmentally sensible methods, including geo-thermal heating and cooling, cisterns to reuse water, rain gardens and lighting that automatically shuts off when a room is not in use.
Site work will begin this spring with construction scheduled to start in the fall.
While the institute is most closely associated with East Carolina University and other UNC campuses that specialize in coastal studies, it serves all of the schools in the university system.
When the campus is up and running — projected to be September 2012 — it will have a staff of 60 with 120 students taking residence in the dormitories. Some of the students will be spending a semester or two on course studies, while others will stay for shorter periods pursuing projects. The only limiting factor, White said, “is a place to put them.”
White said she sees the day when a local student could earn prerequisites at College of The Abemarle and move on to the Coastal Studies Institute to pursue a degree.
Now, White said, the institute is mostly made up of graduate students because of its emphasis on field studies.
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