Inlet areas face new development rules

Raleigh | Coastal regulators on Thursday took the first tentative step to adopting new development rules around inlets, long recognized as some of the most unstable areas along the coast.

The proposed overhaul of regulations for building around the state's 12 developed inlets, most of which are in Southeastern North Carolina, includes expanding inlet-hazard areas, limiting the size of structures and boosting setback requirements.

"Knowing the volatility of these inlet shorelines, the first goal is to keep development back or where it is now," said Jeff Warren, coastal hazards specialist with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. "Essentially, we want them to hold the line."

State regulators said the proposed maps and rules are a reflection of the better understanding scientists now have of the reach of inlets in shaping barrier islands, mechanics that weren't well understood when the original inlet-hazard areas were drawn up nearly three decades ago.

Now knowing that the impacts can extend thousands of feet from an inlet's mouth, Warren called the existing hazard areas in many cases to be "woefully inadequate."

On Caswell Beach, for example, 90 structures would be added to the expanded inlet-hazard area. The expanded area on Bald Head Island, which is smaller than what the Coastal Resource Commission's science panel first proposed, would add more than 250 buildings.

Officials stressed that any rule changes are still a long way off, partly due to concern among CRC members over how best to determine setback requirements along beach areas that can fluctuate wildly as inlets wag back and forth.

Still, the proposals have already caused concern among beach officials and residents worried about what a beefed-up inlet-hazard zone would have on property prices, homeowner rights, the ability to rebuild and even insurance costs.

"I'm hearing a lot of concerns, largely because we really don't know what the rules will be," said Caswell Beach Mayor Harry Simmons, who also is executive director of the N.C. Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association.

Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith said she also didn't know what the true effect of any expanded inlet-hazard areas would be until she saw the accompanying regulations.

"We've got the maps, but no regulations," she said. "But it certainly has the potential to have some significant impacts."

Under the conceptual language presented by Warren on Thursday, no development larger than 5,000 square feet could be built within the inlet-hazard area except for structures associated with public access.

Nonconforming buildings that suddenly found themselves part of an expanded inlet-hazard area wouldn't be required to meet the new regulations.

But Warren said any new construction, including homes that are rebuilt after being destroyed by fire or storms, would have to meet the new standards.

Inlets, due to their inherent instability, have long been troublesome areas for officials and property owners and today represent most of the coast's erosion hot spots.

Severe erosion has left beachfront homes near inlets in Ocean Isle Beach, Figure Eight Island and North Topsail Beach relying on walls of sandbags to hold back the encroaching Atlantic, and most of the region's other barrier islands have experienced problems with shifting sands near inlets at one time or another.

Beach nourishment, the traditional method of dealing with disappearing beaches in North Carolina, is also largely ineffective in solving the erosion problems.

That's prompted some talk about using groins to stabilize those areas near inlets, although the General Assembly has yet to approve legislation that would allow a waiver in the state's long ban on hardened structures along the coast.

For maps of the proposed inlet-hazard areas, go to www.nccoastalmanagement.net/Hazards/proposedIHA.htm.

Gareth McGrath: 343-2384

gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com