Currituck weighs developer's sewer proposal

CURRITUCK COUNTY

Currituck commissioners approved amended plans Monday for South Ridge, a 146-lot subdivision on Survey Road adjacent to the Eagle Creek community. The project includes 5.5 acres for retail and a hotel and 1.75 acres for a county facility.

The changes call for homes to be built on higher foundation slabs, for more heavy foliage buffering adjacent farmland and for clustering homes around a center lake, among other things. South Ridge was first approved in 2007 but construction was delayed.

The developer, Charles "Chip" Friedman, plans to buy a major interest in the neighboring Eagle Creek sewer plant, a facility that could treat up to 350,000 gallons of wastewater per day.

Moyock 168 Utility Co., also owned by Friedman, would sell usage to the county.

Commissioner Janet Taylor, who lives in and represents Moyock, opposes a private plant because the private owners would control service, not Currituck. And they might tell Currituck what customers it could have or not have, she said.

Some privately owned treatment plants, especially on the Outer Banks, have had trouble over the years meeting demand and operating at state standards. In some cases the county has had to step in to help.

"I want Currituck to own its own plant," she said.

Commissioner Barry Nelms agreed.

"The county is going to be left with all the problems," Nelms said.

Two years ago, the county planned to build its own plant for about $3.7 million near Tulls Creek Road, but the project stalled as officials debated different plans.

Among them was Friedman's offer to work with the county to expand the small county-owned treatment plant already operating at Moyock Commons, the Food Lion retail complex.

Friedman missed deadlines to bring plans and costs to the county after several meetings, Nelms said.

"We have met with him 17 times since 2008," he said. "I am concerned with dealing with an entity that we are not sure can see this project through."

Taylor supports upgrading the Moyock Commons plant and later, as demand increases, building a new plant.

Recently, Friedman presented the county a new offer to connect to Eagle Creek, and most commissioners agreed to it, Commissioner Owen Etheridge said.

"We do not have to shell out millions for a new plant," Etheridge said.

Eagle Creek residents are using less than half the plant capacity, he said. The more users on the system the cheaper the rates and the more efficient the plant, he said.

John Bowman, president of the Eagle Creek Homeowners Association, supported the proposal at Monday's meeting.

Moyock 168 Utility Co. can build a stable waste water system that will protect environmentally sensitive low lands in Moyock from a major storm disaster, Friedman said.

"Developers have been demonized politically in the past but Currituck needs jobs, construction work and business development," Friedman said.

His father and uncle developed subdivisions on the Currituck Outer Banks.

A sewer system would add a key missing part needed to attract more industry to the county's largest and fastest-

growing community. The Chesapeake Expressway, public water and natural-gas service are already in place.

Currituck County is set to install main sewer lines along N.C. 168 from the Virginia state line for about five miles to Moyock Commons for $1.1 million, with $780,000 coming from a North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center grant.

If the county connects to Eagle Creek, lines would be extended to that development.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com