a quiet residential neighborhood ot a large 

 city, with nice lawns and big trees. One 

 day someone buys the vacant lot next 

 door, and pretty soon the new owner digs 

 up all the wildflowers and puts in a 

 racetrack. Or a chemical factory. Or a 

 disco. 



This is unlikely to happen, of course. 

 And if it did, you'd probably have plenty 

 of legal recourse against your annoying 

 new neighbor. In cities and towns, land- 

 use planning and zoning laws mitigate 

 conflicts between residents and businesses, 

 and they help keep go-cart tracks, factories 

 and discos separate from private homes. 



Now imagine this: You buy a 

 beautiful house looking out over a quiet 

 coastal river. Soon you've got noisy boats 

 zooming past your house all day long. 



What can you do? In many cases, the 

 answer is "nothing." 



Land-use planning arose in the 

 United States in the 1920s, as an increas- 

 ing population and limited land area 

 forced people to search for ways to allow 

 multiple uses for land while keeping 

 conflicts over noise and pollution to a 

 minimum. Now, as society becomes more 

 and more complex, zoning and planning 

 confue land uses to different areas, so 

 potentially disruptive activities won't 

 disturb others' enjoyment of private 

 property. 



As recreational and commercial uses 

 of public waters skyrocket, there is no 

 similar strategy for preventing conflict. 

 Water skiers, shellfish-lease owners, 

 fishers and waders jostle one another for 

 space in North Carolina's creeks and 

 sounds. As a result, boating accidents, 

 complaints from waterside residents, 

 disturbance of animals and their habitat, 

 degradation of water quality and boat 

 wake-induced erosion are on the rise. Is 

 water-use planning and zoning an answer? 



Yes, says North Carolina Sea Grant 

 legal and policy specialist Walter Clark. 

 But North Carolina is a long way from the 

 kind of comprehensive water-use planning 

 that he envisions. "So far, we're Band- 

 Aiding specific problems as they arise," 

 Clark says. 



Noisy Nuisances and 

 Crowded Creeks 



Personal watercraft (PWC) and other 

 noisy recreational boats are among the 

 most prolific causes of water-use conflicts 

 in North Carolina, and often prompt a 

 municipality's first attempts at zoning. In 

 Nags Head, the town petitioned the state 

 for extra-territorial jurisdiction extending 



The people out there are more comfort- 

 able." 



Nags Head has also banned air boats, 

 which can be heard miles from where they 

 are being operated. "They were our biggest 

 area of complaint," says Bortz. 



With a grant from the N.C. Division 

 of Coastal Management, Nags Head is 

 now processing data from a 1998 survey 



Though North Carolina lacks a comprehensive water-use zoning strategy, 

 it does designate no-wake zones and areas that are closed to shellfishing. 



one mile into Roanoke Sound. The town 

 now zones in two areas divided by the 

 Nags Head causeway. "If it can be zoned, 

 we zone it," says Bruce Bortz, the Nags 

 Head town planner. 



Recently, the town passed a local 

 ordinance banning commercial rental 

 PWC from coming within 600 feet of 

 shore and limiting local businesses to 

 renting eight PWC at a time. For the 1 998 

 summer season, the ordinance meant that 

 only 56 PWC could be on the water at 

 once, down from 229 total units available 

 in 1997. 



"Practically speaking, the establish- 

 ments could only rent 10 to 12 units per 

 hour (before)," says Bortz. But with fewer 

 rentals and the 600-foot buffer between 

 PWC and the shore, "It's less hectic now. 



designed to determine the recreational 

 "carrying capacity" of Nags Head waters. 

 Like many coastal communities, Nags 

 Head depends on tourism and on water- 

 based activities for a thriving economy. 

 Overcrowding and conflict in nearby 

 waters could drive tourists away and hurt 

 the town's businesses. 



The survey used a questionnaire 

 developed by a private consulting firm to 

 explore vacationers' attitudes toward the 

 numbers of PWC, power boats, sailboards. 

 kayaks, swimmers and fishers in area 

 waters. Most people interviewed were 

 vacationing in Nags Head, and few found 

 the waters too crowded to be enjoyable. 

 The results suggest that the current limit on 

 PWC rentals is appropriate. Bortz says that 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 15 



