NAGS HEAD, North Carolina. — West Lakeside Street has been home to dozens of generations of Outer Banks citizens for decades. In the fall of 2022, the Nags Board of Commissioners approved an application to add a hotel to the domain and a year later, in 2023, approved the site plan for what will be known as the “Inn at Whalebone. “
“It’s a permitted use, not a special or conditional use that other people may be aware of. It was allowed by right, so that’s when the procedure began,” said Kelly WyattArray, director of planning for the city of Tête de Nags.
For citizens of the W. Lakeside Street area, the first thought was how their small cul-de-sac would handle the traffic generated by a hotel.
“It’s a difficult ingress and egress and there are cars coming and going from all directions. It’s very busy, the gas station probably has one of the highest volumes on the beach and there are cars, delivery trucks and other people coming and going. all day long,” said Amy Klauser, who has lived in the community for 25 years.
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The site plan continued to move forward with a first focus on widening the W front. Lakeside Street from two to three lanes. An amendment to the plan at the July board meeting decided it would only affect a little beyond the front of the Shell fuel station and the front of the hotel. The board and the developer also replaced the number of rooms and parking spaces.
“The initial request was for 90 rooms and 93 parking spaces. With this recent maximum version, it is now an 87-room hotel, with 90 parking spaces available,” Wyatt said.
Despite those changes, the intersection of the street and Highway 158 remains a concern. A traffic inspection had already been carried out, but it was not the busy summer vacation months. The proponent and the board agreed at the recent meeting that a second study, which will begin this week, is worthwhile.
“That’s becoming critical because we’re going to have summer traffic numbers with that updated traffic have an effect on the transmission of research. So we hope to have the new TIA ready by the end of August. And at this point we can move on from there,” Wyatt said.
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Many citizens would like to see a red light installed at the crossing, hoping that this will be the case before the hotel reopens.
“It is a protective factor. But it’s not just a protective factor on the road, it’s a protective factor for our community,” said Nancy Drumheller, who has owned a home in the community since 1999.
But this decision is up to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. NCDOT has then indexed the mandates they meet to make a decision and if traffic reduction is deemed necessary, NCDOT will also need to source investments for that.
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Residents of W. Lakeside Street understand that a red light may not be installed, but will continue to advocate for a red light if it is not approved this time.
“I can foresee that going down and then we’re going to have to keep moving forward, when the hotel gets here, keep pushing to get to a stoplight,” said Molly Harrison, a Nags Head resident and planning board member.
The traffic study should be completed by the end of August. Until then, citizens will continue to wait for NCDOT to see the dangers they see every day at this intersection.
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