Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 26, 1994 TAG: 9412270061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke County's first beach house is still on the market.
Developer Doug McDaniel, who used what was considered unusable flood-plain property to build a house on stilts, said it's almost finished and the ``for sale'' sign is up.
The controversy in the Sun Valley subdivision off Plantation Road has subsided, and another nine lots await their own stilt houses.
McDaniel upgraded some of the fixtures and the floor plan, so it's taking longer to finish than he expected, and the price has jumped $4,000, to $72,950.
``It's been a challenge because no one [involved] ever built one,'' the real estate broker said. ``And the county, I think, was extra strict on inspections.''
The five-acre parcel along Carvins Creek is in a spot notorious for flooding and was considered unbuildable because any house would have to be constructed 2 feet above the 100-year-flood elevation. McDaniel took inspiration from homes in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and built his house on 10-foot-high stilts.
The county searched local, state and federal regulations for something that would have prohibited the wooden-stilt homes in the neighborhood of brick ranches.
Residents were particularly angry because county officials had assured them earlier that nothing could be built there. Houses on stilts hadn't occurred to them.
``The biggest complaint was [Supervisor] Bob Johnson promising something he didn't have the authority to,'' McDaniel said.
McDaniel has said that if he were building one such house, it would look out of place in the subdivision; a street with 10 such houses will look uniform.
``Actually, the looks never did bother me that much,'' said neighbor Betty Pross, who put a ``Flood Zone'' sign on her lawn to scare away prospective buyers of the stilt house earlier this year. ``I know it's not the right type of house for this neighborhood, but I have eyes I can close.''
Her main fear is that the houses will overload the heavily burdened sewer system. Sewage sometimes backs up when it rains, and more houses can only make it worse, she said.
The house remains a spectacle for some motorists, she said, but for the neighbors the issue has been muted.
``They're still driving by, looking,'' she said. ``It was all the talk there for a while. It just sort of died down.''
by CNB