THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080327
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Beach nourishment should be a preferred solution for protecting eroding shorelines, and sandbags should be tolerated as a way to protect oceanfront structures for at least five years, Dare County commissioners said Monday.
Sandbags are ``offensive and hideous. They don't belong on our beaches,'' conceded Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. ``But to save someone's property, if that's what it takes, so be it. They'll have to go eventually anyway.
``Like beach nourishment, sandbags are only a band-aid, short-term solution.''
Next week, the state's Coastal Resources Commission will meet in Kill Devil Hills to discuss regulations on beach preservation projects.
One proposed rule change would list beach nourishment as an ``acceptable'' erosion control method. Options such as moving structures and demolishing buildings are classified as ``preferred'' methods. Commissioners said nourishment should be equally as acceptable as the other options.
``The practicality of relocating some structures is very low,'' said Dare County Planning Director Raymond Sturza, who will address the coastal commission on Nov. 17. ``We want that language changed so that property owners will have an equally viable option in beach nourishment.''
Commissioners also want language specifying that beach nourishment projects be done ``within overall budgetary constraints'' dropped from the proposed law. ``If the General Assembly has included matching funds for a project,'' Sturza told the board, ``then the costs must already be within budgetary constraints or the money would never have been appropriated.''
Staff at the state's Division of Coastal Management proposed that sandbags be removed from oceanfront structures after two years. Earlier this year, the Surfrider Foundation said sandbags placed in front of the Mariner Motel in Kill Devil Hills were interfering with public access to the beach and were not temporary solutions to erosion control.
Commissioners, on the other hand, said sandbags should be allowed to stay on the beaches for five years if the area is being considered for beach nourishment or if the threatened structure is 5,000 square feet or greater.
At Monday's meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to ask the Coastal Resources Commission to change those two proposed rules accordingly.
This summer, the board approved a $3.2 million feasibility study for what could become the longest beach nourishment project on the mid-Atlantic coast. If the five-year study pans out, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will widen by 50 feet the 10 miles of beach between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head. Construction, scheduled to be completed around the turn of the century, would involve pumping nearly 200,000 truckloads of sand from the near-shore ocean floor onto the beaches. Oceanfront dunes would be raised to eight feet.
The entire beach building project is estimated to cost about $32.5 million. Total costs of the study and construction will be shared by federal, state and local governments. Corps officials say the effort will have to be redone every four years at a cost of about $13.2 million.
In other business Monday, the Dare County Board of Commissioners:
Scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 21 to discuss rezoning a 45-acre tract of land on the north end of Roanoke Island. Currently that land, which is owned by Dr. W.W. Harvey, is zoned residential. Harvey and his family want it rezoned to a new classification - Conservation Public Recreation - so that they can build a campground.
Voted unanimously to spend $118,655 for nine new patrol cars for the Dare County Sheriff's Department. The money - appropriated from the county's fund balance - will be combined with funds already earmarked in the sheriff's department budget. Besides the new patrol cars, the additional funds will be used to pay deputies for compensatory and vacation time. Commissioner Sammy Smith made the motion to buy the cars and Commissioner Joseph ``Mac'' Midgett seconded it. Last year, Smith and Midgett had led the board in opposing the purchase of new patrol cars. Instead, the board purchased two four-wheel drive vehicles which the sheriff said he did not want. ``They need the cars now,'' Smith said, explaining his change in position. ``They've got a lot of miles on them.''
Named county Zoning Administrator Lorraine Tillett the ``employee of the month.''
KEYWORDS: EROSION NORTH CAROLINA by CNB