Taken in 1989, the Village at Nags Head was just taking shape.
Aerial photograph courtesy of Ray Matthews.

All Grown Up But Still Having Fun: The Village at Nags Head Turns 20

By Angel Ellis Khoury

Every Wednesday, every summer, local DJ John Harper entertains families at the beach club on the oceanfront at the Village at Nags Head.

When he first began, there were a handful of houses. Back then, he was spinning tunes such as Chubby Checker's "Limbo Rock" and the B-52s' "Love Shack." The kids loved it.

Now their kids love it. And the same tunes still show up on his playlist by popular request.

The Village at Nags Head is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and since those first few families began gathering there on the oceanfront deck at the beach club, today more than 600 homeowners and their rental guests find all kinds of ways to entertain themselves each summer in this 400-acre ocean-to-sound community with a mile of waterfront on both east and west.

The oceanfront beach club and the soundside golf club have been the heart and soul of the community, just as developer Jud Ammons envisioned it. "Don’t wish you had, be glad you did" was the motto of this plain-spoken mountain man, recognized as one of the most successful real estate developers in the Southeast.

Now a third generation is glad their parents or grandparents discovered the Village. The first planned unit development on the beach has proven to be both a memory maker and money maker, and part of its strength as a community and as an investment is due to its planning, its amenities, and its strong homeowners’ associations and architectural review, according to those who were there from the start.

"Jud Ammons did it right," said Marcia Parrott, associate senior broker with Village Realty. "He was such an inspiring man. He had the wherewithal to put the amenities in up front, which showed his commitment to quality."

Parrott is the only sales broker who began with Ammons and is still with Village Realty. The master plan developed under the planned unit development (PUD) concept made her job easy.

"We had a scale model that’s still in our lobby today. It was a great visual tool that let people see, ‘Here is going to be commercial, this area is single-family,’ and they could anticipate what was going to be built next to them."

Webb Fuller was town manager when work began in 1987. "Now PUDs are more common. At that time, it was a new concept for the Outer Banks that allowed greater flexibility, permitting higher density while also providing more open space. The reason people are drawn to the beach is because of its natural features, and a PUD allowed Ammons to say, ‘I can get 10 houses here, but it will wipe out the sand dune. Why not let me put the houses around the dune.’ It allowed the town and the developer to look at the whole concept and create a community that respected the landscape while allowing the developer to make money."

From her 20-year perspective, Parrott observed that a plan is only as good as its follow-through, and she credits Bob Oakes, president of Village Realty, with the necessary vision to see such a huge project through the various hurdles that arise, no matter how good the planning.

The Village, the largest single development in Nags Head and one of the largest on the Outer Banks, comprises 26 neighborhoods governed by an overriding master association, with an additional 10 neighborhood associations. The Village also has an architectural review committee and a landscape committee.

"There is a direct correlation between the homeowners’ associations and the continuity and cohesiveness of the Village as a community," said Oakes. "They have upheld the expectations people had when they bought property here, which is noteworthy over a 20-year time span with all the changes we’ve seen elsewhere on the Outer Banks."

Both Oakes and Fuller spoke of how important open space is to the overall feel of the community. Out of 410 acres, 114 acres are reserved for open space, a hallmark of PUDs. What Fuller found unusual was the way Ammons divided the lots and sited the houses, showing he clearly knew the topography. Rather than applying arbitrary lines on a map, he made the most of its natural contours. "All the houses were designed not only to be looked at, but to be looked out of, so that the houses have great views of natural features."

Now that the development is virtually built out, with only a handful of undeveloped lots remaining, the only way to own at the Village is to wait for a house to go back on the market.

Randy Nance and his family have lived in the Village since 1992. One of about 100 year-round residents, Nance chose the Village because of its general location in the heart of Nags Head, and his home’s specific site, from which he can see both ocean and sound. "Our kids have loved driving their wagons to the sound to go crabbing, or taking the shuttle bus to the beach," Nance said. He doesn’t have a bad commute to work, either. He is senior associate broker and marketing director at Village Realty.

The strong homeowners’ association also appealed to him. "In other areas of the beach, there’s usually no guarantee what other houses in your neighborhood will be like, either at the time you buy, or into the future."

Sybil Major said her neighbors elected her to the board of the master association soon after it was formed because she was so vocal. Her experience in mortgage banking and working with large developments and planned communities in Northern Virginia had taught her the importance of good communications between homeowners, the developer, and the town.

Beyond the usual work of overseeing upkeep of common areas, collecting assessments, and maintaining capital reserves, the association’s work has affected even those who live outside the Village, especially in influencing commercial development and public beach access.

"We worked with the Town of Nags Head to prevent a major chain grocery store from locating between the highways, where it would have been so much more visible, and then worked with the store at their ultimate location to develop berms and landscaping," she said. The association also worked closely with Outer Banks Hospital to develop an architectural style that better reflected Nags Head design. The board worked with the Town of Nags Head on a variety of issues, from trash cans to beach access.

Carol Bradlee of Elkton, Md., and her husband, Tom, rented a cottage in the Village before purchasing a lot in 1992. "The longer I’ve been here, the clearer the intent of the master plan," she said. As chair of the Architectural Review Committee as well as president of her neighborhood association, she said, "Being in a planned community with strong homeowners’ associations takes away a lot of the worry of being an out-of-town homeowner. Your investment is not going to deteriorate because of something happening next door or in a nearby neighborhood."

Having owned both an oceanfront house and now a home on the soundside bordering the golf course, the Bradlees have watched their children grow up at the beach club, and now as young adults, enjoying kayaking on Roanoke Sound. "The kids grew up working at the ice cream parlor, the bowling alley, and the movie theatre during the six weeks we spent here each summer." She hopes someday her grandchildren will have the same experiences.

Raleigh residents Bill and Mary Riddick grew up in Elizabeth City, so they remember the days when everyone knew everyone at the beach. The Village still makes that possible, Bill Riddick said. "We’ve made friends over the years with our renters, other owners, families we’ve met at the Village Beach Club or Nags Head Links, where there’s always some event or social gathering. We consider Village Realty both our business partners and our friends."

The Riddicks knew Jud Ammons from his work as a builder and developer in Raleigh, and were not surprised that he designed the Village at Nags Head to maximize its greatest features, the ocean and the sound, in a way that would bring families together.

As the Village at Nags Head celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2007, who knows how many rounds of golf have been played, how many times "Marco…Polo!" has been shouted across the pool, how many fish have been caught in the surf, how many kids have hauled in crabs on a string down on the soundside the pier. No one can say how many people, laden with sand buckets and boogie boards, have boarded the Village Shuttle Bus, for the ride between ocean and sound.

We do know that the shuttle’s driver, Tom Biggs, matches his tips dollar for dollar, and over the past nine years has donated more than $25,000 to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, earmarked for its ALS Fund, in memory of his wife, who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. That’s when you know a place isn’t a "development." It’s a community, even if most of its residents live in other places most of the year.

Bob Muller, who worked as the beach club’s first DJ, recalled how he was recognized in the grocery store, not for being Mayor of Nags Head, but because he was "Bouncing Bob" from the Village Beach Club. Sometimes it’s the simple things. Jud Ammons wouldn’t be surprised.

Whether you measure the Village’s age by the number of years since ground was broken, or by the three generations who have spent time together here, the Village at Nags Head is all grown up, but it still knows how to have fun.