THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080431
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER MCMENAMIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 70 lines
When Ann Tortorelli gets dressed in the morning, she sometimes pulls her clothes from boxes under the bed or climbs a ladder to the crawl space ``closet'' above her south Nags Head cottage.
Storage was not a problem for Tortorelli and her husband, Bill, until two years ago, when the retired Pennsylvania couple made the beach home their year-round residence.
Now, the Tortorellis want to add 350 square feet to make their house more livable.
``Since we moved down here, we're living out of boxes,'' Ann Tortorelli said. ``There are boxes under every bed. And I got rid of a lot of things. It makes you very lean about what you keep.''
But in a 3-2 vote Wednesday morning, the Nags Head Board of Commissioners defeated a zoning ordinance amendment that would have allowed the Tortorellis - and their neighbors - to develop more of their land.
Under current zoning, only 30 percent plus 300 feet of a lot may be covered with any permanent structure, such as a house, driveway, deck or graveled area. On the Tortorellis' lot - and about 120 others in South Nags Head - the privately maintained street also is considered part of that 30 percent coverage area.
So in the case of the Tortorellis' 11,658-square-foot lot, they could cover 3,797 square feet with buildings and driveways and decks and any other permanent structure. That is mostly taken by 3,000 square feet of roads that frame three sides of the property. Another 700 square feet is taken by the required 30-foot setback from streets. The Tortorellis have 97 square feet for their house, the size of a small kitchen.
The Tortorelli house, however, covers more than 2,000 square feet because it was built before the town adopted the ordinance in the 1980s.
The law prevents them, however, from expanding their house or even replacing it if a storm destroyed it.
``That's hard living,'' Bill Tortorelli told the commissioners. ``And it's hard now.''
Both the board of commissioners and the planning board, which recommended denial of the request, said the amendment would increase the intensity of development and was contrary to the town's efforts at encouraging more open space.
``There is the perception among several board members that if the street coverage is to be excluded and the setback is then excluded, we'll be in the situation where they (the residents) say, `Why don't you just take the road over?' '' Planning Director Gary Ferguson said during a lunch break. ``And the town isn't in the business of building roads. When you've been in this business long enough, you see where these things are going.''
Ferguson also said the issue centers around reasonable use of land.
``Is the lot too small or is the house too big? That's the question,'' he said. ``A lot of times the house is too large for the lot.''
Ferguson said more-modern homes do not run into coverage conflicts because the minimum lot size - as recommended by Dare County and the North Carolina Health Department - for a standard three-bedroom house with central water and an on-site septic system is 20,000 square feet.
But this is not necessarily the end of the road for the dissatisfied residents. Board members said the local adjustments board reviews individual circumstances and could make an exception for a case of unique hardship.
The board also voted 4-1 to hold a second public hearing to develop a town adult entertainment ordinance.
The current draft would permit adult bookstores and coin-operated mini-motion picture theaters.
A town moratorium, which expires January 1997, currently outlaws such businesses as well as nightclubs with erotic dancing, adult video stores, X-rated movie theaters, motel rooms for rent for less than 12 hours and a multitude of other establishments targeted for adult, sexually related entertainment.
The meeting will be held the evening of Aug. 20 in the Nags Head Municipal Building. by CNB