THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290560
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW BERN LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Boat owners from Edenton to Morehead City criticized a proposal by the state Coastal Management Commission to regulate mooring buoys at a public hearing on the proposal Thursday afternoon.
``According to this permit system, I feel that I would be left out,'' said Larry Tynch, an Edenton boat owner who has used a mooring buoy for his boat for the past five years. ``I urge you to consider the effects of this permit on people like myself.''
Tynch said the proposal would prohibit people who do not own waterfront property from tying their boats to a mooring buoy and unfairly favors waterfront property owners.
Boat owner Jim Elliott, also of Edenton, said the new regulations ``could cause more problems than now exist'' and are a contradiction to state policy that encourages public access to the state's waterways.
The public hearing was called by the Coastal Resources Commission to discuss a proposal that would prohibit boat owners from tying their boats to mooring buoys in state waters unless they also owned adjacent property. The proposal also calls for boat owners to pay a $50 fee for permission to use a mooring buoy.
Some opponents said the plan will hurt commercial fishermen who rely on mooring buoys to anchor their fishing boats.
Representatives of two local governments - Kill Devil Hills and Wrightsville Beach - said they favored the proposal.
``The rules are very good and very needed,'' said Tony Caudle, town manager of Wrightsville Beach, which has prohibited mooring buoys and poles since 1991.
Debate on the proposal will likely continue until September, when the commission is expected to hold a public hearing on how to apply the proposed rules to existing moorings. by CNB