Dare County officials have been working for much of this year to get Waterfall Park, Hatteras Island’s biggest eyesore, cleaned up, but it still looks just about exactly as it has since Hurricane Irene three years ago.
You can see the sorry state of the former water-themed amusement park in a slide show that appeared with a blog I wrote last May on the efforts by the county to solve the problems with the property.
Now, the county is fed up with the lack of response from the Merjos family of Virginia Beach, which owns the land, and is taking some steps to reach a final solution to the mess.
In its heyday, Waterfall Park in Rodanthe was a busy place filled with families using the waterslides, bumper boats, a bungee tower, go-carts, and other amusements.
However, after the death of one of the owners, the park was closed for several seasons before soundside tide from Hurricane Irene dealt it a fatal blow in 2011.
The 14.5 acre park is a prime property in the tri-villages, with land on both sides of the highway that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pamlico Sound.
It’s one of the first things that visitors to the island see as they head south on Highway 12, and for the last three years, what they have seen are falling down structures and fences, putrid pools and ponds, old tires and other debris, and overgrown shrubs and grass.
Ongoing efforts by the county to enforce its current ordinances and by the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Civic Association to buy the property have gone nowhere.
The civic association has made three efforts to buy the park, according to its president, Mark Dingman. The latest offer was earlier this year for $1.6 million, which is just slightly more than the assessed tax value of the land.
The assessed value is $1,568,700 — about half of what it was during the boom years of a decade ago when it was assessed at about $3 million.
The civic association says its most recent offer is “consistent with the current appraised values for land that is not ready for development or somewhat distressed.”
The association got one outright “no” from the owners and have had no response to the second and third offers.
Dingman calls the state of Waterfall Park “very disturbing.”
“We depend on our visitors,” he said. And he added that he overhears tourists asking about the eyesore or hears from business owners that the visitors are disturbed by its condition.
Hatteras Island has real beauty to offer visitors, he said. “It’s a shame we have to let things like this mar it.”
In an interview in May, Steve Merjos, son of the couple who established the park, said that ?Someone is trying to pick up the property for pennies on the dollar.”
?We also won?t demolish something we might reopen,? he added.
However, he also said that the family was not interested in reopening the park until there is a “reliable transportation corridor” on the island — a reference to the ongoing effort to replace the aging Bonner Bridge and continual ocean overwash on Highway 12.
Although he said he personally came to the island to clean up the mess after Hurricane Irene, there’s not any evidence that much of anything was done.
In response to mounting letters of complaint from the county, naming specific public nuisances, the Merjos family hired an attorney and an engineer.
Bobby Outten, the county manager and attorney, and planning director Donna Creef say the county has done what it can to get the place cleaned up and is trying to work with the owners. The public health inspector is a regular visitor.
In response, Outten said, the owners have done such things as gate the door to the falling-down bungee tower.
“They are going to do the minimum possible to satisfy our ordinances,” he said.
More recently, the owners have apparently hired a “clean-up crew.” Dingman and others say they have seen two or three men with a small backhoe working at the site off and on in recent weeks.
So far, they have gotten a few small things accomplished, such as knocking down a small building and painting over some graffiti. As of last week, the building debris still sat on the site in a small pile.
“We may get it within our ordinances, but it will still look like crap,” Outten said bluntly last week.
Dingman indicated that he thinks the county can do more under its public nuisance ordinances, but Outten says that legally it’s tough, especially without going to court.
At the Sept. 2 meeting of the county Board of Commissioners, chairman Warren Judge said this about the Waterfall Park situation:
“For too many years now, I have driven through the village of Rodanthe only to look at the decrepit condition of the defunct Waterfall Park. The condition of these parcels of land, says more about us as a community than it says about the property owner. Who would like to live next to this unsightly mess? Do you think driving by this day after day would be depressing? Is it safe? Do the falling down buildings and structures, overgrown with vegetation, provide a refuge for animals of all descriptions which can become a public nuisance or menace? Is this area an attractive nuisance for our young people, younger children who can get hurt, older children who may want to hide? There are areas that allow rain and flood waters to pond, creating a fertile area for mosquitoes, and, worse, a potential for deadly consequences should someone fall in this ponded water.”
Judge said that he was going to ask for a motion from the board and that it would be a motion “that might concern some of you.”
“You may feel that this is too much government, and I respect you if that is your opinion and belief,” he said. “But these are the things that government should be doing, government should protect the community.”
The motion he asked for would:
- Give board support to Outten to force the landowners to comply with all county ordinances and do so immediately.
- If there is no response or the response is too slow, authorize Outten to use every legal means possible to force compliance.
- Specify that compliance means more than just a “quick fix-it-up” and compel the removal or rehabilitation of every structure on the site.
- Authorize the county manager and chairman to reach out to the property owner to discuss the option of the sale of the land to the county or to an entity of the county’s choice.
- And, finally, ask Outten to look at all ordinances and rules that govern public nuisances and bring back to the board recommendations that would give the county a “broader range of options to enforce the rules.”
The motion was made and seconded and passed unanimously.
Now Outten has a chance to design some ordinances with more teeth to them, and if the board approves them, we might succeed in forcing an end to the Waterfall Park debacle.
“You can file a lawsuit and a spend a year in court,” he said last week. “Or you can change the laws.”
Of course, any changes in the law would apply to all of unincorporated Dare County, including such things as burned-out or abandoned houses and old trailers.
However, what rises to the level of “public nuisance” can reasonably be debated in some cases. And, as Judge noted, property rights “are engrained in the very fabric of our society.”
A robust debate about any proposals to change the public nuisance regulations would certainly be reasonable.
But, as Judge also said, government is designed to protect “the whole of the community,” and safeguard against “blight, misuse, and danger.”
It would seem that even the most avid property rights advocates could agree that Waterfall Park in its current condition needs to go away.
ZONING FOR THE TRI-VILLAGES?
Also in the area of property rights, chairman Judge announced at the Sept. 2 meeting that the county had received a letter from the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Civic Association, asking to start the planning process for use-specific zoning in the tri-villages.
All of unincorporated Dare County has what is called “dimensional” zoning that governs such issues as height of buildings and setbacks from roads or septic systems.
However, such zoning is not use-specific but allows any use on all parcels of land with very few restrictions.
Many in the tri-villages found this out the hard way in June when a company reluctantly got the go-ahead from the Board of Commissioners to build a concrete plant in Waves. The board said, in this case, that it had no recourse under the zoning laws but to allow the use, though it did set some conditions on such things as fencing, noise levels, and operating hours.
Civic association president Mark Dingman said last week that there have been discussions among residents about zoning since the hot debate about the concrete plant, so the group moved ahead to ask the county to begin looking at the issue.
Dare County, though, is not in the habit of forcing zoning on communities, but has instead chosen to work with those where the majority favor it.
Therefore, county planning director Donna Creef will head to the tri-villages to gauge the interest in and support for site-specific zoning.
If there is interest and support, the planning department could recommend that the board proceed with community meetings and zoning proposals.
Dingman says that the civic association is very careful to say that it does not “favor” or endorse zoning, but instead sees its role as assuring “the best treatment” for all villagers if the process does proceed.
“Everyone won’t agree,” he said. “There are two sides to the coin for sure.”
