THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611030036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 159 lines
Near the south end of Sandbridge where the land squeezes to a narrow band, houses teeter on washed-out stilts like ruffled shorebirds.
Stairways are gone, septic tanks exposed and ``unfit for occupancy'' signs tacked to what's left of the supports.
This is where it will happen, residents fear. Maybe not this winter, but soon, the ocean will rip across the 700-foot-wide land barrier, inundating homes and roads and creating an inlet to fragile Back Bay and its national wildlife refuge.
``I do not think we can survive another major storm,'' said Sandbridge Civic League President Fred Greene. ``It's absolutely critical to the south end that we get some sand in 1997.''
That is what city and federal officials wrestled with Friday - without any resolution - and what City Council will consider later this month: How to get sand to Sandbridge as soon as possible.
Because the usually generous federal alternative is unavailable for at least another year, the city will be considering a request to come to Sandbridge's rescue on its own.
It would be a $9 million gamble that federal funds will become available in later years to pay back the city or at least help when more sand is needed.
Except for a small sum for engineering studies, Sandbridge was left out of this year's federal hurricane and storm protection budget.
Federal storm protection funds are usually awarded with the government offering 65 percent of the cost if the locality provides 35 percent.
That's how the $102 million seawall and storm protection project now under way at the resort strip and North End is being funded.
Sandbridge, which claims to need the money more than the resort area, might not be able to wait for the congressional budget wheels to turn again.
``I think it's gotten so bad out there that something has to be done,'' Brian Rheinhart, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said.
The corps, which already has spent about $1 million studying the Sandbridge situation, wants to dredge 1.5 million cubic yards of sand from an offshore mound known as the Sandbridge Shoal and pour it onto the full length of the beach, at a cost of $9 million.
This would create a 6-foot-high, 50-foot-wide berm, sloping gradually to the surf, giving the community about a 200-foot-wide beach at low tide - instead of what is now nothing in many places.
Even without federal money, the corps - which has the expertise, the studies and the permits - would do the job for the city.
Assistant City Manager Robert Matthias said he would present City Council with two options: try ``on our own'' in early 1997, or ``roll the dice'' and hope a major storm doesn't strike before 1998 - the earliest construction could start if the city waits for a commitment from Congress.
Current federal policy is not to fund ``new starts'' in storm protection, but Sandbridge got the federal nod four years ago - though not the money. The corps says Sandbridge might still qualify.
There's already some local money available.
A special tax on Sandbridge residents for beach restoration has raised about $1.2 million. And in selling the city part of Camp Pendleton, for $6 million, the state agreed to return $2.8 million to the city for beach renourishment at Sandbridge.
There's more: a possible 20 percent the city might contribute out of the general fund for its one-fifth ownership of the Sandbridge oceanfront; and the potential for borrowing against future Sandbridge taxes.
That might be just enough to get the project started.
But in future years, when more sand will surely be needed, the local cupboard would be bare.
So why not gamble with less money and do only part of the project now: put sand at the south end where it's most needed?
Rheinhart said the corps prefers doing the whole project but might go along with less.
The rub is that the city must persuade all of the 241 shoreline property owners to sign easements giving the public perpetual use of the beach. Even though access already is encouraged by public pathways to the beach, the beach itself is technically private.
Already, 96 percent of the owners have signed, but nine have not.
Some owners are waiting to be convinced the city will do what it's promising.
``I don't believe the city will ever do anything for Sandbridge,'' said longtime resident Helen McDonald, who insists on proof that the project will be carried out if the homeowners agree. She wants a reversion clause in the deed, to give back the land if nothing's done.
``I am not going to give my property to the city unless they take care of it,'' she insisted. ``I'm not a holdout. The city is a holdout.''
Not to worry, say proponents of the project: The agreement won't take effect until the corps and the city begin the project. They still have some convincing to do.
City Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley, who represents the south end of Sandbridge, is worried about the long term. The original project envisioned periodic sand replenishment for 50 years; that's what residents were promised when they signed the easements, she said.
Rheinhart emphasized that the corps, under new federal policy, is unlikely to make any more 50-year commitments.
That's why Henley cautioned, ``We have to look at this in an entirely new light.''
If the project goes through, the city will add 4.6 miles of public beach to its shoreline. That's a huge increase in public recreational beach for a city with ``beach'' in its name - from 7.4 to 12 miles.
Critics of beach protection plans resent spending millions for sand replacement to benefit people who, they say, should have known better than to build on the shifting sands of the oceanfront.
But the proliferation of Sandbridge growth didn't occur until the 1970s, after the federal government included such communities in its flood insurance program, 20-year resident Thomas Fraim points out. With Sandbridge property values estimated at $190 million, it isn't hard to see why Washington might be interested in protecting its investment.
Virginia Beach, too. Sandbridge generates more revenue than it demands in city services. An analysis by the city showed $3.3 million going to the city in property and lodging taxes annually, for instance, compared to $1.9 million spent for services like police, fire and schools.
The city could lose a lot more than beachfront houses if Sandbridge yields to a storm.
A narrow sand bridge to North Carolina's Outer Banks, Sandbridge is really the beginning of a barrier island. What happens if a storm opens an inlet?
Would the city close it up or build a bridge to what's left of the south end, to Back Bay and False Cape State Park?
Would Back Bay itself turn into a saltwater estuary instead of a freshwater bay?
Would this in turn increase the salinity in the Northwest River, from which Chesapeake gets its drinking water?
And would the city's rich farmland west of the bay be threatened by the increase in saline water?
This ``impending disaster,'' as one study warned, is viewed skeptically by some who say the barrier has been broken before, even if there were far fewer people then.
Orrin Pilkey, the Duke University geologist who is the leading critic of beach replenishment projects, says he's ``absolutely amazed'' that inland damage at places like Sandbridge and Fire Island, N.Y., is now being used to justify Corps of Engineers projects. ``It is simply a manufactured issue,'' he said. ``The corps smells success here.''
One of Pilkey's chief critics is David Basco, director of Old Dominion University's Coastal Engineering Center.
With a team of graduate engineering students, Basco has been studying the sand's ebb and flow at Sandbridge for six years. At least once a month, and more often when there are storms, they measure beach height at fixed distances at several Sandbridge locations.
Added to 10 years of existing studies, they have 16 years of data on Sandbridge's shifting sands.
Over the course of a year there's a net loss of 3.5 feet on the north end and 9.6 feet on the south, he said.
Standing near the south end as waves lapped against vulnerable bulkheads, Basco said, ``In my opinion, the city needs to renourish this half first, put our money where the real problem is, and let it drift north.''
He said the benefits of beach replenishment, including preventing environmental damage, outweigh the costs by at least 4-to-1. ``It's a very, very prudent investment,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
In the 3500 block of Sandfiddler Road, erosion has ruined houses.
Fred Greene, president of the civic league, stands under one. ``I do
not think we can survive another major storm,'' he says. ``It's
absolutely critical to the south end that we get some sand in
1997.''
Map
VP
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH EROSION SAND REPLENISHMENT
SANDBRIDGE by CNB