Clark Twitty: "Zoning is destiny" as Outer Banks balances visitor economy and preservation

Clark Twitty, president of Twittying Company and CEO of the Ruby Bridges Foundation, described how improved access and decades of tourism investment transformed the Outer Banks and urged residents to stay involved in planning decisions to preserve the region.

Twitty, speaking at a public program marking America’s 250th, said his family settled and built a vacation-rental business in remote Duck in the late 1970s because it was affordable. He traced local growth to national economic shifts — high late-1970s interest rates followed by declines in the 1980s — and to transportation projects that made the area a driving destination for millions of visitors.

Why it matters: The Outer Banks draws a large seasonal population that supports local hospitals, schools and businesses but also strains infrastructure and threatens the "authenticity" longtime residents value. Twitty said zoning and planning meetings will shape whether the region retains its character as visitation grows.

Twitty emphasized access as the key driver: "in 1 word, access," he said, pointing to highway and bridge projects that opened Corolla and other northern communities. He credited public support — including, he said, work by the late Mark Bassnite — for roads completed in the 1980s that made the area more reachable for Mid-Atlantic visitors.

On the scale of visitation, Twitty offered rough figures and proxies rather than precise counts: he estimated summer-week visitation could be "about 500,000 a week," said year-round residents number roughly 45,000, and recommended tracking water usage as a practical tourism proxy because "you can't fake toilet flushing and showers and dishwashers." He also described North Carolina tourism more broadly as a multibillion-dollar industry that contributes to state coffers and local services.

Twitty cautioned against treating tourism and preservation as mutually exclusive. "We can embrace an economy, and we can preserve the environment," he said, adding that the region must accept trade-offs and show up at planning meetings where specific rules — not general principles — are decided. "Zoning is destiny," he said, arguing that broad agreement erodes when proposals grow specific.

He urged more civic participation: planning meetings, he said, are often sparsely attended despite their long-term impact. Twitty stressed the importance of heritage and local stewardship while acknowledging that tourism dollars underwrite hospitals, schools and other community investments.

On COVID-era visitation, Twitty said the Outer Banks benefitted because visitors sought single-family, family-friendly destinations within driving distance, and he recommended that visitors "get out on the water," eat local seafood and explore off the beaten path to understand the region's character.

The session closed with the moderator noting Twitty's two books on Outer Banks history are available locally and announcing a 30-minute break and the next speaker, Robin Daniels Holt, at 12:30.

The program was a presentation and Q&A-style conversation rather than a decision-making meeting; no motions or official actions were recorded.