LET IT GO!!!!
To me, this has gone past the lighthouse lover part of me -- and to the part of me that deals with all stupid, irrational things.
I have never, in my entire 16 years, seen a group of people more WHINY than this (and I've seen plenty of whiny people). It's a lighthouse. Not that I don't really love this lighthouse (with all the times we go to the OBX, I've actually probably been to CBL more times than Sea Girt), it's not worth this. Yeah, it's a big cash flow thing, and a nice tourist attraction. But the effort, and, I'm sure, money they're putting into this would never be fully earned back, even if they did (God forbid) gain ownership.
They have to let it go. The light was originally awarded to OBC in what, 2003? THREE YEARS of whining and trying.
They're only using this zoning thing as their only loophole. I want to invite the members of the Currituck County Council (or whatever this bunch of utter morons is called) to visit the lighthouse. I want them to look at the >1 acre site and tell me where they'll build a carpark. If they can figure out some way to build one and preserve the site's integrity, without paving over the entire site and parking around the bottom of the lighthouse, I'll go down there with a shovel and a dump truck full of gravel and build it for them.
Just let it go already. Please. Nobody's amused any more, and if you keep this going, the Government won't be either.