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Living with Lowe’s
The Lowe's site is a rare undeveloped stretch of U.S. 158.
Then one day, a bulldozer came in to clear-cut the woods. A new middle school a block away, I learned, would need a larger piece of property. The woods were being flattened for tennis courts and a baseball field.
It was a surprise I didn’t want to experience twice.
So when we found a house we wanted in Nags Head, I checked to see if the dunes and woods stretching to Jockey’s Ridge State Park in the distance could someday become a subdivision, condos, amusement park or super highway. The neighborhood bordered state property. We bought the house.
Lately, a lot of people who live around a 12.8-acre wooded tract in Kill Devil Hills are probably feeling the same way we did back in Norfolk. Powerless.
Plans are rolling for a new Lowe’s home improvement store, which when you add in the garden center, will push past 159,000 square feet. That doesn’t include a parking lot with 409 spaces.
When the project came before the Planning Board last week, speakers decried the idea of a big box store next to the Wright Brothers National Memorial and the loss of one of the increasingly rare wooded stretches of land along heavily developed U.S. 158.
Valid concerns, but the land is zoned correctly — commercial — and most of the plans meet the town’s requirements. Lowe’s has asked for a few exceptions, which the town’s Board of Commissioners will be very tempted to grant in these days of sagging tax revenues. Members of the Planning Board said they legally had no choice but to sign off on it.
The lot under the building will be raised 10.5 feet, and although plans call for extensive piping, swales and retention areas, people who live behind the property worried aloud about flooding. They also voiced concerns about the lights on top of 35-foot poles with 3-foot bases, noise, traffic and tractor-trailers making deliveries.
Most seemed resigned to the idea of a Lowe’s. But they held out hope that Lowe’s and the town would do more than the minimum that zoning rules require with a few neighborly things to soften the blow.
It would be smug to say that the time to speak out would have been 1991, when the land was zoned from limited business to commercial.
How many of the people in the neighborhood were there back then? Besides, chains and big box stores were virtually unheard of on the Outer Banks. Who could have imagined that Lowe’s would be moving in?
Construction of a middle school campus certainly never crossed my mind. But it could have been a lot worse than tennis courts and a baseball field.
This column originally appeared in The Virginian-Pilot
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david nelson says:
Don’t some communities on the east coast have strict rules about not allowing chain stores? Cape Cod and Nantucket come to mind.
Also, doesn’t Charleston, SC have very strict laws about what kind of business and what style of development are allowed.
Hopefully other small towns will put ordinances in place now to keep out unwanted big boxes off of small islands. Plan ahead, the big boxes have an endless amount of money and lawyers.
ekim says:
It’s coming whether we like it or not, THE little TAXpayer has no say in this soon to be high rise town . . .
DML says:
It’s so sad. I’ve been coming to the Outer Banks since 1966. If you were around that area back then, then you know how little it was developed. Now I’m ready to move down there and I don’t know if I want to any more since it’s NOT the Outer Banks it use to be. Another new store… Why does the area need so many of these places?
Marshallpalooza says:
So let me get this straight. Lowe’s is the devil, but the good ol’ boys that have been selling out for years, building on every square inch for their businesses on the water & everywhere else are fine?
“I’ve got mine, NOW STOP!”
Nothing like consistency, eh.
Consistent hypocrisy that is.
FrankWarnecki says:
I wish someone would take the time to show the true cost benefit to not only KDH but Dare County! Towns vying for the same dollar!
There is no need for this here, we have Home Depot, Griggs, Ace, KMart,Ferguson, Jordan, Walmart and on and on .. no new dollars being brought to the area!
I go to Home Depot about once a month, it is never crowded, so what do the Lowe’s and KDH planners know that the locals don’t? Are we in for a population growth explosion?
As I stated before, the summer visitors want the sand, beach and nature .. not toilet bowls and lumber! Also our sales tax does not make it advantageous to buy here!
What benefits have the locals gotten from Food Lion & Harris Teeter? We have higher food prices than our surrounding towns!
Demonstrate the NEED & BENEFIT .. please!
J.C. Towler, Jr. says:
There’s a lesson in Lowe’s for Kill Devil Hills residents specifically, and Dare County citizens generally. Rob’s point that
“It would be smug to say that the time to speak out would have been 1991, when the land was zoned from limited business to commercial. How many of the people in the neighborhood were there back then?”
is something everyone should bear in mind as the discussions continue about raising the height restrictions on structures in Kill Devil Hills. What will be the long-term consequences of allowing taller buildings in our neighborhoods? The pro-height folks scoff at the idea we’re on the way to a Virginia Beach makeover. The rest of us should keep in mind Rob’s most significant question:
“Who could have imagined that Lowe’s would be moving in?”
Bob Samuels says:
Open space, open space, open space (location, location, location) = quality of life. I like living here, but would rather love living here. Building after building and strip mall after strip mall doesn’t enhance my quality of life. Duck and Manteo have figured it out; KDH, Nags Head and especially, Kitty Hawk have no clue. A sense of community, starting with a town center would be a good start. However, we’ve got got we’ve got, so, lets try to improve on it, not degrade it.
If, you’re going to build a big box store, do it somewhere that’s already been flattened/deforested. Greed drives the mentality ’round here.
linda says:
I’ve heard that their “plan” meets all the requirements however Lowes will still need a variance on parking and lighting at a minimum. How does that make their “plan” meet all the town requirements and make it permissable? How can they get a variance for almost 500 parking spaces when a single family residence can’t get a variance for one parking space?? If that isn’t a real slap in the face of the citizens of KDH nothing else is!!
From an earlier article on the Voice:
“Memorandums from the planning staff note that the concept calls for 410 parking spaces. Zoning requires 795. The plan also calls for trees every 30 feet along U.S 158 with shrubs in between. The requirement is for trees every 10 feet. In addition, Lowe’s wants to reduce the number of required loading berths from 16 to 3.”
Bill says:
Sweet!! Next, we definitely need the BestBuy and my long awaited favorite, IHOP! (sarcasm here…though actually an IHOP would not be too bad!)
Bill says:
Also, for something of real use, how about a Trader Joes!
Shannon says:
I’m with Bill.
Robert says:
Dude. Just give a Chick-fil-A. That’s all we want. Or need. OK, scrap Wal-Mart AND K-Mart for a Target? Hold the Olive Garden… Give and take.
Sheri says:
We’ve been coming to the OBX for years mainly because it is so tranquil and low key. We have been planning to re-locate there because of the tranquility and the friendly small town people and events. Don’t make it like Myrtle or Va beach, busy and industrious, let the beauty of the beach sell itself, not the hustle and bustle. I don’t want to find another place. We love the OBX just the way it is. You don’t need the crime problems of Myrtle or Va beach that is enevitable with a populous place. Think twice. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
zia montesi says:
Marshallpalooza …I love your comment…what I don’t get, though, is how are we going to support Lowe’s & Home Depot? HD isn’t a profitable enterprise here while we experience no construction, such a loss in building permits…we are looking at a vacant big box along the Rt 158 corridor, ugly sight on the way to the beach, constantly reminding those of us that live here… may be Home Depot vacant or Lowe’s vacant. zz
Stan Clough says:
I am on the KDH Planning Board and was 1 of the 2 votes against sending it to the Board of Commissioners. I am not really against the Lowes, but wanted to get the plan more defined before it was sent to the Commissioners. I have friends and family with interests in First Flight area and can appreciate the concerns of residents of Porthole Court. There was 1 gentleman at the planning board meeting with his young daughter who spoke against the project, who left after the vote and before the end of the meeting, making a comment about “why did we waste our time comming here.” I wanted to go after them and try to re-assure them that the Town did care about them. I did not, but regret the things they saw and wish to assure them the Town does care. I regret the attitude the young girl must have about what she experienced.
The parking is not really an issue, our rules go by square footage, and a Lowe’s is not the same as a Captain George’s. I would like to see the lights lowered in height, vegetive buffers on front and back INCREASED and Porthole Court closed off on which end makes residents happy.
Fritz Trakowski says:
A Trader Joe’s is one thing, but a Lowes is another. I don’t know why the current mayor is bent on KDH being the supply center of OBX. Lowes will only be viable if it is attracting business from Manteo and beyond. I’d rather folks come to KDH for the beach than a Lowes. But if go in it must, at least it could be done so that it does not further the sprawling blight. There should be a vegetation buffer from 158 ala Hilton Head, which is very developed, but you can’t see it from the street. As many trees should be planted on the property as are removed and maybe low parking lot lights could be put in them. Maybe Lowes could adopt 158 and plant up the road front throughout KDH. The style of the building should be Nags Head beachy. At least we might be able to preserve the look and feel of the place while its character is tranformed. Now about that Trader Joes…
Sandy says:
Too bad, so sad. Bye bye beautiful greenspace. Hello blacktop as they pave over paradise.