Currituck County will not be changing its land-use plan to recommend higher density development in the Harbinger and Point Harbor areas.

A group of landowners have heavily lobbied the Board of Commissioners for the change. But it is not going to happen as part of a proposed plan amendment, county officials said last week.

Currituck County Planner Ben Woody is drawing up changes to the plan to recommend higher density "full-service" development in the Jarvisburg area only.

Woody said he was informed by County Manager Dan Scanlon that the plan's "limited-service" designation — which recommends lower-density development — will remain in an area stretching from the Wright Memorial Bridge three miles northward.

At a retreat held in Corolla on Jan. 28, commissioners agreed to modify the land-use plan. Commissioner Owen Etheridge, who opposed the proposal, said he took notes during the meeting, and there was never any discussion about excluding Harbinger and Point Harbor from the plan changes.

"It was crystal clear when I left there that everything on the south end (of the county) would be full-service," he said.

Etheridge claims fellow commissioners are backtracking from the decision they made due to a political backlash.

But Commission Chairman Barry Nelms said Etheridge is making blatantly false statements.

"The proposal was to merge all three of those (full-service districts) into one continuous one," he said. "I made a comment in the (retreat) meeting that this would not change the present land-use plan that affected the residential area in Point Harbor."

Regardless of who's right, Harbinger resident June Raffa said she is pleased commissioners aren't changing the

land-use plan for her

community.

She wonders, however, whether the benefits of keeping Harbinger limited service will be short-lived. She said making Jarvisburg a full-service district will put even more traffic on U.S. Highway 158 — which in turn will bring more traffic past Harbinger.

"I think (commissioners) need to really, really do some soul searching and see what they are really doing," she said. "We certainly need reins pulled in from a few of our commissioners who have promised us the world, and then listened to the few."

The land-use plan's limited-

service classification, which is currently the designation in Jarvisburg, Harbinger, and Point Harbor areas, recommends residential development be limited to one unit per acre, but it can be increased to 1.5 units depending on whether service facilities are in place or planned. The plan also allows low-impact commercial development.

The full-service designation encourages multi-family residential developments and large-scale commercial development, including box stores.

Two residential units per acre is the contemplated density, but this can be increased to three to four units per acre depending upon available services and the potential impact on the surrounding area.

Before the existing plan was approved, several hundred residents opposed a full-service designation for areas between Powells Point and Point Harbor. Residents argued that over development on a less than two-mile wide peninsula would exasperate traffic conditions as well as do environmental harm to wildlife and nearby waterways.

The current Currituck commission board has been heavily lobbied by landowners to allow full-service development in the southern end of the county.

Roy E. Sawyer Jr., chairman of the Democratic Party and the largest contributor to Board of Commissioners Chairman Barry Nelms' 2006 election campaign, was among landowners who signed a letter to Nelms dated Nov. 23, 2007.

In it, Sawyer notes that Nelms had asked the group for some ideas on amending the land-use plan.

"Certainly, the corridor along 158/168 from Point Harbor through Jarvisburg and Grandy on to Barco and Moyock should be a full-service district," Sawyer's letter states. It adds that this would "allow for the residential and commercial development that will produce the diversified economic base that will make the local economy more stable."

"All this should be consistent with the rural character of the county," the letter states. "No farmland owners should be penalized for continuing to farm, nor should they be penalized for choosing to sell for development."

Sawyer also notes that another problem with the land-sue plan is that it provides for a hodgepodge of full-service, limited service, rural and conservation districts.

"These limit the introduction of adequate countywide infrastructure," he writes. "Controlling development by refusing to provide basic services, such as water, is contrary to the goal of responsible government."

In a telephone interview, Sawyer said there is no reason why southern Currituck should not be a full-service district.

"In a limited-service district there are less services, yet you have one tax rate (for county residents). Is that fair?" he asked.

Sawyer also noted that in the summer of 2005 most residents at the public hearings he attended on the land-use plan supported more development.

"And from what I read, the consensus of the people is they wanted a full-service district in their area," he said.