Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 26, 1994 TAG: 9405260086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Except Doug McDaniel is serious.
He's planning to build 10 houses on stilts on a five-acre parcel he owns on Palm Valley Drive along Carvin Creek. Residents and county officials had considered the lot unbuildable because it sits in the flood plain.
They hadn't thought about stilts.
McDaniel, a real estate broker, said the idea just came into his head to copy the beach houses of Myrtle Beach, S.C., to make use of flood plain land that has heavy building restrictions.
McDaniel sees the construction as creating residential property out of once-unusable land. Neighbors - many of whom are flooded several times a year - see it as an eyesore and a possible contributor to worse flooding.
Betty Pross, whose house sits catty-cornered to the first house that's going up, has a sign on her lawn that advises prospective beach-house buyers, "Flood Area."
She and other residents are studying their legal options to stop the houses. She said residents near the new houses have been taken out by boat during heavy rains, and "anytime something new has been built, it puts more water in the area."
Residents of the Sun Valley subdivision, where the "beach houses" are going, showed up at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting to implore members to do something. Supervisor Bob Johnson and County Administrator Elmer Hodge had harsh words for the developer, without mentioning McDaniel by name.
"I think it's unconscionable that anybody who cares about their neighbors would build there," said Johnson, a real estate broker who represents Sun Valley in his Hollins district. "A reputable person wouldn't build there."
But the construction meets all state, federal and county laws. County officials are sure of that - they've been looking for a way to halt the houses for months. The county has no ordinances restricting the style of houses - even houses on stilts in a neighborhood of modest brick homes.
He said if he were building one such house, it would look out of place in the subdivision; but a street with 10 such houses will look uniform.
"I don't think you'll find anyone on the staff who thinks this is right," Hodge told the residents. "This is terrible. I wish there was some way to stop this guy, too."
"We asked the county what we had to do," McDaniel said, "and we did it."
Johnson said the only way he could stop work was to go down to the site and lie down in front of the construction equipment. But, he said, "knowing the principals involved, there'd be track marks all over my face."
McDaniel charged that Johnson as a competitor has a conflict sitting on the Board of Supervisors.
"Bob Johnson promised these people that nothing would be built," McDaniel said. "Now he's trying to make me look like the bad guy."
Angry neighbors also accused Johnson of not keeping his promise that no houses would be built there. Johnson said before he heard of the stilt houses, he was sure that was true because of the flood plain .
In Roanoke County, in parts of the flood plain where construction is allowed, the first floor of houses must be 2 feet above the 100-year-flood elevation - in this case, 10 feet above the ground. Fill could be brought in to raise it that high, but the lots are close to the floodway - where no fill can go because it would obstruct water - and that much fill would not be economically feasible.
Because the county thought the land was unsuitable for construction, it was appraised at only $800.
"I would never have thought that in a million years" someone would build beach houses there, said Arnold Covey, director of county engineering and inspections. "We're more than concerned. It's not something we like to see happen in the county."
He may see more, though. Construction foreman Jim Beckett, who works for the contractor Aquarius Pools, said they've gotten calls from people in other parts of the county who want stilt houses to make use of flood plains.
McDaniel said two people have expressed interest in the Palm Valley Road houses, which he's selling for $68,950, a price that is at the high end for the neighborhood.
by CNB