Outer Banks oceanfront rental: With 24 bedrooms, is it still a single-family home?

On a remote stretch of land amid the wind-whipped dunes of the North Carolina Outer Banks, a 24-bedroom rental is caught in the crosswinds of a debate: When is a beachfront house so big that it’s more of a business than a single-family home?

In the roadless area north of Corolla that is tough to get to without a four-wheel drive, a $4.6 million event house stands nearly completed. Since September, the owner, Elizabeth Letendre of Massachusetts, has been prohibited from putting the finishing touches on her property that looks out over the thundering surf.

The state Court of Appeals ruled last year that the U-shaped building was not technically a single-family dwelling, as defined by the Currituck County development ordinance, forcing the county to order construction halted. Now Letendre is putting her hopes in a new lawsuit, one filed in April, contending that the county has unconstitutionally deprived her of the use of her property.

While the court cases turn on technicalities embedded in county zoning laws, the dispute arises over the mission and size of Letendre’s seaside venture. Her case offers a glimpse of a growing trend along the North Carolina coast – making vacation beach homes bigger and bigger to accommodate weddings, reunions and other events outside the more traditional hotel or convention hall settings.

“These houses fall in kind of a gray area,” Paul Beaumont, a Currituck County commissioner, said of zoning laws that had not anticipated beach-front homes like Letendre’s that can sleep 50 people.

Hotels, Beaumont said, are designed for single-night stays. Vacation rentals along the coast, even modest ones of a few bedrooms, typically are not.

Nevertheless, Marie and Michael Long, the neighboring property owners, are persuaded that Letendre’s structure does not comply with Currituck County zoning laws. They argued that the event home, which can pull in $20,000 to $30,000 a week for weddings during peak season, is more of a commercial venture in a residential zone than a family gathering spot.

The Longs and others say the ventures pose safety hazards, traffic troubles and environmental risks to one of North Carolina’s natural treasures.

Beaumont, a county commissioner from Shawboro, says the properties, particularly those in the off-road Outer Banks areas where Letendre is building, pose safety risks that county rules and regulations have not yet been updated to address. Not only are they in areas that would be difficult for fire and emergency workers to get to quickly, they are not required to have commercial sprinkler systems, an added cost to any business venture. Parking, and how much is adequate, present challenges, too.

Construction on Letendre’s project began in March 2015, even as questions about its legality lingered in the courts.

The Coastal Management Commission had signed off on the building plans, but for that permit Letendre and her representatives had presented the project as three buildings on the 3.7-acre lot. Had the project been presented as one common structure, at 15,000 square feet, the permitting process could have taken a different turn. But by presenting plans for three buildings, they were able to build some 220-feet closer to the ocean.

The Longs sued Letendre and the county, posing numerous arguments. But the main focus was that Letendre was building three separate 5,000-square-foot homes on one lot, a violation of the zoning laws.

A Currituck County Superior Court judge found the project was in compliance with Currituck development ordinances, siding with county officials, who had issued the building permit.

But a three-judge panel at the state Court of Appeals sided with the Longs last summer, forcing Currituck County to issue the stop-work order when the event home on three separate foundations was 95 percent constructed.

Letendre, who purchased the lot for $530,000 in April 2012, went back to court last month in Currituck County with a lawsuit seeking damages exceeding $25,000 and a judicial order that allows her to finish construction.

In the lawsuit, she contends that she has spent more than $4.6 million constructing the home, and adds that she changed her plans for it on more than one occasion after talking with county officials.

Initially, the buildings were not going to be connected by a shared roof and air-conditioned and heated hallways. But Letendre’s lawsuit says she amended the design to add those features after talking with the county’s planning director and attorney.

Ike McRee, the Currituck County attorney, said recently that county officials tried to discourage Letendre from beginning construction while questions lingered in the courts. But no one had asked for a court-order to block the start of construction.

Attorneys for Letendre contend she would have suffered “significant financial harm” had she not started building when she did. Not only did the permits from the county and Coastal Management Commission have construction deadlines attached to them, her attorneys said that she would have been looking at lost income, exceeding $1 million, by not being able to use the home as a vacation rental.

“Letendre’s decision to proceed with construction of the home after being granted the building permit … was a reasonable decision under the circumstances,” the lawsuit filed last month states.

Beaumont said the county is looking at possible changes to Currituck zoning and development rules because of the Letendre case, but the commissioners balked at changing local ordinances to suit her needs. The commissioners have talked about adding more restrictions on homes larger than 5,000 square feet, which typically have eight bedrooms.

“Our definition of single-family dwelling has worked well for the last 20 years,” Beaumont said. “To change our ordinance so a house is now compliant – sorry, a lot more research needs to be done. But we do need to do that research.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Outer Banks oceanfront rental: With 24 bedrooms, is it still a single-family home?."