The Outer Banks Voice – Dare County Council to attempt to acquire controversial Wanchese Cluster Homes property

By Voices from the Outer Banks January 16, 2025

By Kari Pugh | Voices from the Outer Banks

Following a Jan. 15 meeting of the Dare Board of Commissioners, Chairman Bob Woodard will attempt to meet with the developer of a controversial housing complex in Wanchese to negotiate the sale of the property to the county.

The board of directors held a special meeting on Wednesday, January 15 to discuss the purchase of 10 acres on which Aria Construction and Development has already cleared land for Old Wharf Village, a long-term housing project of 48 units made possible by the county’s 2018 home cluster. prescription. The zoning ordinance allowed more than one single-family dwelling on an individual parcel in 34 zoning districts across the county, including Wanchese. The land has recently been cleared and no construction has yet been carried out.

If Woodard’s negotiations with the developer fail, commissioners gave him the green light to raise the possibility of the county taking the land through condemnation, a process by which the government can potentially seize property for public use.

The history of the Wanchese property has been controversial. On May 1, 2023 – despite a strong grassroots protest that launched the Wanchese Preservation Society and brought dozens of residents to a public hearing in protest – commissioners approved a special use permit for the project. At the time, commissioners said the proposal met the conditions of the current ordinance and they were legally required to approve it.

But a few weeks later, the council voted to remove 22 other zoning districts from the ordinance, while acknowledging it was too late to stop Wanchese’s development.

This fall, commissioners ordered County Executive Bobby Outten to contact landowner and developer Brad Alexander about the possibility of purchasing the land from him for $2 million, with the possibility of going up to $3 million dollars, Woodard said at Wednesday’s meeting. Alexander was ready to sell, but wanted $5 million, although he had purchased the property for about $1 million less than a year before.

The county was unwilling to pay Alexander’s asking price and abandoned its negotiating efforts.

Last week, Commissioner Mike Burrus — one of three new board members sworn in last month — suggested creating a special tax district for Wanchese, telling Woodard that village residents might be willing to help purchase the property. Woodard asked Outten to contact Alexander again to see if he would be willing to sell the property, while also calculating the potential tax increase for Wanchese residents.

“Alexander said he would think about it, let him think about it all night,” Woodard said at the Jan. 15 meeting. He called Outten the next day, with a new asking price of $6 million, because he had just cleared the land, Woodard said.

“(Alexander) asked Outten if he should stop the progress and Outten asked him if he would give the board time to discuss it and with the citizens of Wanchese,” Woodard said, before the extraordinary meeting on Wednesday.

Outten told the board that there are essentially three options for acquiring the property: buying it outright; create a special tax district to pay for this; or take the land by condemnation, the last two scenarios limiting the property to public uses only. If convicted, the county would be required to pay the court a deposit equal to the fair market value of the property, a figure that a jury could then set lower or higher. Under a special tax district, Wanchese residents would end up paying hundreds of dollars more per year in property taxes.

Nine Wanchese residents spoke at the meeting, all vehemently opposed to paying a special tax and in favor of the county purchasing the property outright. They all suggested that this was the price the council had to pay for approving the project in the first place.

“You have the opportunity to fix the problem you created, some mistakes cost more than others,” Wanchese resident Mitchell Bateman told the board, saying he was against a tax district. “It’s not our responsibility to fix this mistake, it’s yours.”

Justin Bateman, a Wanchese resident and Dare County school board member, said the property should be used for a new EMS station or park and urged the board to purchase it with county coffers.

“No one wants to put money back in this man’s pocket,” he said of the developer. “But let’s get rid of him, let’s get rid of the problem.” Let’s focus on what that could be.

After hearing from residents, commissioners said they would not support a special taxing district, and most refused to consider the $6 million asking price. But they said they would be willing to consider taking the property through condemnation.

“I represent Wanchese, I was born and raised there, but at the end of the day I’m an extreme conservative,” said Commissioner Carson Creef, also a new board member. “I can’t sit here and just spend taxpayer money buying up a property that’s not worth $6 million. But I am open to condemnation. If he wants to fight, he will fight.

After the public meeting, the board met behind closed doors to discuss a price offer that Woodard could make to the developer.

“Not that I’m the best negotiator in the world, but I claim to speak from my heart,” Woodard said. “My appeal is to his human side, if there is one.”

---