With personal watercraft, powerboats and sailboards in the water at once, 

 boating safety becomes a top priority. 



the Nags Head Board of Commissioners 

 will also review the consultants' recom- 

 mendations. 



Another focus of contention in coastal 

 municipalities has been the increasing 

 number of free-standing moorings. Boats 

 that moor in narrow creeks can prevent 

 local residents from enjoying a view of the 

 open water, interfere with navigation and 

 impede riparian access — the right of 

 shoreline property owners to reach deep 

 water from land. 



Jane Daughtridge, district planner 

 with the Division of Coastal Management 

 in Washington, says that marinas some- 

 times try to increase their commercial 

 capacity by adding free-standing moorings 

 in the public trust areas. Other conflicts 

 may arise when transient boaters attempt to 

 place permanent moorings in unauthorized 

 areas or when residential property owners 

 attempt to use their riparian water rights for 

 supplemental income by renting out their 

 moorings to others. 



In 1995, the N.C. Coastal Resources 

 Commission (CRC) adopted a Coastal 

 Area Management Act (CAMA) regula- 

 tion limiting free-standing moorings in the 

 20 coastal counties: Boat owners may 

 moor only in front of their own shoreline 

 property, or in mooring fields that have 

 been sited by the local government. 

 Several cities in the Washington district 

 have since passed additional ordinances to 

 ban free-standing moorings altogether. In 

 Bath and Belhaven, town officials have 

 used their jurisdiction over inland waters to 

 pass such bans. They also prevent transient 



boaters from anchoring in their waters for 

 more than seven days. 



Bath trailblazed this kind of local 

 zoning for moorings, says Marty Fulton, 

 town clerk. The town's zoning jurisdiction 

 includes the water to the mouth of Bath 

 Creek. "A number of other local govern- 

 ments have called to see how we did it," 

 she continues. They want to replicate the 

 language of the ordinance. 



The ordinance helps the small town 

 foster its historical image, Daughtridge 

 says. The ban keeps Bath's harbor 

 picturesque and uncluttered. 



Other municipalities depend on high- 

 volume water traffic and a welcoming 

 harbor for transient boaters. If cities want to 

 allow boats to continue to moor, they can 

 designate a mooring site and petition the 

 state for a mooring field permit. To date, 

 this is the only case in which the state 

 requires a water-use plan before granting a 

 request. 



Beaufort is the first town to receive 

 such a permit, and the process took two and 

 a half years to complete. "Sailboats 

 anchoring in front of Beaufort are a big 

 tourist attraction," says John Young, 

 director of public works for the town of 

 Beaufort. "People come out here just to 

 look at the boats." The new mooring field 

 will allow Beaufort to maintain the fleet of 

 boats regularly anchoring in Taylor Creek 

 and prevent the demise of a long-standing 

 attraction for out-of-town visitors. 



In July, the town hopes to begin 

 installing the mooring field, which will 

 provide 66 temporary and permanent 



moorings for boats up to 45 feet long. 'It 

 will be a municipal mooring field," Young 

 says. Beaufort police will keep track of 

 resident vessels and make sure boat owners 

 follow regulations. 



The city's water-use plan, which was 

 developed as part of the permit application, 

 includes a lock-head policy to prevent boats 

 from dumping sewage, an environmental- 

 impact assessment and a description of the 

 shore facilities available to boat owners, 

 such as pump-out facilities, showers, trash 

 containers and oil-recycling facilities. 



Clark, Sea Grant's policy specialist, 

 was pleased to learn of the breadth of the 

 plan. "The intent of the regulation was to 

 encourage local governments to think about 

 where moorings would cause the least 

 disruption of other uses without banning 

 moorings altogether." He sees this type of 

 planning as a harbinger of things to come. 

 "If different uses are going to coexist in 

 crowded waters, then it will be a necessity." 



A Model Plan for 

 North Carolina 



For water-use planning to succeed, 

 Clark believes the state will need to work 

 closely with local governments in setting 

 broad but flexible guidelines for the CAMA 

 counties. The state will also need to provide 

 funding to help local governments with 

 their increased planning responsibility. 

 "Right now we don't have grant money to 

 give counties to undertake large-scale 

 planning," Clark says. 



But in 1990, the Albemarle-Pamlico 

 Estuarine Study (APES), which is under- 

 written by the U.S. Environmental 

 Protection Agency, solicited proposals to 

 examine management options for water 

 use. Clark received funding to develop a 

 model water-use plan for Carteret County, a 

 fast-growing coastal county blessed with a 

 rich abundance of natural resources. 



Carteret County citizens were 

 extremely interested and involved in the 

 plan from the beginning, Clark says. The 

 county planner worked closely with Clark, 

 and he consulted an advisory board made 

 up of Carteret County regulators and water 

 users. But when the plan was complete, 

 Clark says, "they weren't ready to imple- 



16 EARLY SUMMER 1999 



