N.C. beach homes to be built on what was preserve

COROLLA, N.C.

Beachfront property once set aside for wildlife will soon have large homes on it.

Currituck County commissioners have approved a project to build nine homes on 8.5 acres of an oceanfront site once owned by the Audubon Society. Four homes on an additional 4 acres are already under construction, approved by the county planning staff earlier this year as a minor subdivision.

Last year, developers Amit and Sumit Gupta planned to build a hotel and retail complex on the 13-acre tract adjacent to the Pine Island subdivision in Corolla. But residents nearby threatened legal action. Through a compromise, developers agreed to scrap the hotel and instead build beach homes that could be 12 bedrooms or more.

Pine Island property owners and Turnpike Properties, the company that developed Pine Island, agreed to drop court action. Turnpike Properties replaced previous investors of the hotel project and partnered with the Guptas on the beach homes.

The oceanfront tract was part of a 5,000-acre preserve set aside more than 30 years ago by the late Earl Slick, founder of Turnpike Properties. Almost all of the preserve lies on the west side of N.C. 12; it includes marsh and woods along the Currituck Sound.

The small beachfront tract had little environmental value sitting next to Pine Island, a Hampton Inn and a diner, Audubon officials said, but it has a tax value of $25 million. Audubon plans to use the money to upgrade facilities, including a historic hunt club on the preserve on the Currituck Sound.

Despite Audubon's reasoning, the organization was widely criticized for selling one of the few vacant oceanfront sites on the Currituck County Outer Banks.

Any development involving five lots or fewer is considered a minor subdivision and does not require approval from the Board of Commissioners.

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