Tomlinson immediately instituted a 

 public forum — time to be set aside 

 at each CRC meeting for the public 

 to address commission members. 



Environmentalists were pleased 

 with the change. "It just sets the 

 impression that the commission is 

 really accessible," says Todd Miller, 

 director of the Coastal Federation. 



Nine people spoke at the CRC's 

 first public forum in March. 



Meanwhile, two 

 commission seats 

 remain vacant, one for 

 an at-large member and 

 the other for a local 

 government representa- 

 tive. Appointments 

 could be made as early 

 as May. 



Hunt also has 

 appointed a new 

 chairman to the Marine 

 Fisheries Commission: 

 Bob Lucas, a Selma 

 attorney and sport- 

 fisherman. Lucas 

 replaced C.B. Caroon 

 as chairman; the 

 Southport crab proces- 

 sor then resigned from 

 the commission. 

 Caroon 's seat is vacant; 

 it must go to another 

 seafood processor. 



Erosion 



tments 



setback distances required for new 

 oceanfront development. Current 

 setbacks — landward of the first line 

 of stable vegetation — are 30 times 

 the erosion rate for structures 

 smaller than 5,000 square feet and 

 60 times the erosion rate for other 

 large structures. 



The erosion rates were last 

 updated in 1986. The CRC adopted 

 those in 1987. 



Scott D. Taylor 



Adjust} 



Coastal Management officials 

 will be updating erosion rates this 

 year — a step that builders and 

 would-be builders will be watching 

 closely. 



Using aerial photos of the coast 

 taken in 1992, division scientists will 

 determine average annual erosion 

 rates for the 320 miles of North 

 Carolina coastline. 



Those rates are used to determine 



Increasing 



Reserve 



Coastal Management is also 

 striving to add more land to the N.C. 

 National Estuarine Research 

 Reserve. 



Since 1982, the state (with the 

 help of federal money) has pur- 

 chased four sites to preserve natural 

 areas and provide research sites for 

 scientists and students. 



Those sites — Currituck Banks, 



Rachel Carson, Masonboro Island 

 and Zeke's Island — all border the 

 Atlantic. Coastal Management 

 officials say they want to add some 

 estuarine sites, possibly on the 

 Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. 



Before they ask for money to 

 buy land, however, officials want 

 $10,000 in federal funds to do a one- 

 year study to identify potential sites. 

 Coastal Management wants scien- 

 tists from Sea Grant 

 and North Carolina 

 universities to help 

 develop that list, says 

 Rich Shaw, the 

 division's assistant 

 director. 



CAMA 



Anniversary 



Next year marks 

 the 20th anniversary 

 of the state's Coastal 

 Area Management 

 Act, or CAMA. 



The act, approved 

 by legislators in 1974, 

 was designed to 

 balance economic 

 development and the 

 protection of natural 

 resources in the 

 state's 20 coastal 

 counties. 

 CAMA required land-use 

 planning in those counties and 

 established the CRC, which regu- 

 lates development in designated 

 areas of environmental concern. 



State environmental officials, 

 backed by the Coastal Federation, 

 are expected to ask Gov. Hunt to 

 appoint a blue-ribbon panel of 

 experts to review CAMA's two 

 decades, assessing its successes and 

 its failures. ^ 



COASTWATCH |3 



