Pine Island leads the fight against hotel project

Pine Island is a subdivision of 300-plus houses on the ocean side of N.C. 12. It begins just north of the Dare-Currituck line and runs for several miles toward Corolla.

The project is divided into several developed clusters. There is a Hampton Inn hotel complex that includes a swimming pool and a diner. On the west side, where the Earl Slick compound still exists, the Pine Island Property Owners Association operates a racquet club, and an airstrip is available for private planes.

These are no ordinary beach houses. Even in the current recession, some maintain list prices north of $2 million.

Bob Sprague is the President of the Pine Island Property Owners Association. He and his organization are adamantly opposed to the sale of 13 acres of Audubon Society land and the developer’s plan to build a hotel, condominiums and retail space adjacent to one section of their residential subdivision.

The land is wedged between the north end of the Pine Island subdivision and the Hampton Inn on the oceanfront.

Sprague is familiar with the history of Pine Island. At one point the area was under consideration as a National Wildlife Refuge. The idea, according to Thomas Schoenbaum, an attorney who wrote Islands, Capes and Sounds, was killed by Secretary of the Interior Interior James Watt during the Reagan Administration.

Sprague is fond of the sea-to-sound habitat that is part of his community. Selling off the last bit of oceanfront by Audubon will destroy that, and to Sprague, even a small parcel is worthy of preservation to maintain the sea-to-sound continuity.

The homeowners association and Turnpike Properties, which built the Hampton Inn, have filed a challenge in Superior Court to the process that led to Currituck County’s approval of the project and to the zoning that allows a hotel and businesses.

But the Pine Island group finds itself in a odd situation. Its argument is that a clerical error that changed the zoning from R-01 (residential) to one that allows low density hotels should be rectified by reverting to the original residential zoning. So even if the homeowners association prevails in the legal system, the 13-acre tract can still be developed.

Outrage at the sale of Audubon land to developers may not take into account that construction of at least 11 ”McMansions” is the best deal opponents can hope for. Critics of Audubon have placed themselves in the position of lobbying in favor of almost a dozen large rental homes, complete with swimming pools, driveways and paved roads.

The site was also designated a North Carolina Natural Heritage Program site. The program was created by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources to compile an inventory of biologically sensitive areas, regardless of current ownership.

The program’s own mission statement suggests its inventory of rare species and specialized habitat supports informed evaluations of the trade-offs between biological diversity and development projects. It does not carry the rule of law. But Sprague points out that Currituck County adopted in its land use plan language to honor the Heritage Program’s goal of allowing development in “harmony with the surrounding community.”

Sprague’s group contends the county is abandoning that pledge by approving the new project. An ad placed in The Virginian-Pilot by the Pine Island Property Owners Association says “a developer intends to bulldoze a North Carolina Heritage site on the Outer Banks.”

Sprague insists that “Pine Island is not intensely developed” and does not violate the spirit of the Heritage designation.

Pine Island homes, however, are huge and densely packed. Under current law their foundations are only 60 feet from the vegetated dune line. There is little open space in each cluster of homes, and fences and swimming pools abut the dunes. Oceanfront homeowners have personal walk-overs constructed on the dune line.

Asked why Pine Island’s homeowners would want to bring in more competition rather than a hotel that would attract different, shorter term renters, Sprague said rental income “was not an issue” because many do not rent their houses and use them as true second homes.

The new project would require a 150-foot buffer to the dune line, according to the developers, PIR Holding LLC. Sprague counters that while that may be true, there would be more lot coverage and asphalt, as much as 75 percent of the area. Citing President Clinton’s famous remark, Sprague laughed and said much depends upon “what your definition of “is” is in regard to density.

Economic concerns also pepper Pine Island’s discontent. According to the association, the Hampton Inn on the south side of the Audubon property realizes only 60 percent occupancy, a less-than-stellar performance. Sprague wonders how a new hotel will prosper, and worries that if any part of the new project fails financially, his subdivision will be burdened with a vacated hotel, condo and retail shops.

Part of Pine Island’s developed oceanfront was originally donated by Earl Slick to Audubon in the 1979. In 1989, Slick and Audubon entered into a swap under which Audubon gained $15 million of land to the west of N.C. 12, while Slick recovered some of the original oceanfront conveyed in the 1979 deal.

The land re-acquired by Slick and given up by Audubon is now part of Pine Island, which Slick himself helped to develop.

Despite his sense of humor and pleasant demeanor, Sprague is dead serious about one thing: The homeowners are committed to taking their case as far as necessary within the legal system — all the way to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

They have the resources and talent — attorneys serve on the association’s board — to carry the fight, according to Sprague, and they intend to do so.

Part One: Audubon’s benefactor in Corolla wore two hats »

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