Oceanfront development has its setbacks 



In New Jersey, the damage is done. Waves crash at the 

 bases of seawalls first built long ago to protect beach cot- 

 tages and resorts. The sea, its energy deflected, scours sand 

 from the walls' foundations. The rubble of failed walls lies 

 scattered in the surf. The walls grow taller and mightier 

 with each rebuilding. The cottages and resorts survive, but 

 there is no beach. There is also no turning back. 



But the specter of what has been called "New Jerseyiza- 

 tion" has neither stopped nor slowed the pressure to develop 

 North Carolina's beaches. And for better or worse, the fate 

 of those beaches rests largely on a much-assailed and 

 debated regulatory device called a setback. 



North Carolina adopted its first ocean setback regulation 

 in 1979, under its Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA). 

 The Coastal Resources Commission, a board appointed to 

 direct the state's coastal management program, adopted a 

 rule that new beachfront development in "ocean hazard 

 areas of environmental concern" (which include the ocean 

 beaches) must be situated in such a way to meet several re- 

 quirements. The most restrictive of these was the require- 

 ment that new buildings must be placed 60 feet landward of 

 the vegetation line, or at a distance thirty times the long- 

 term annual erosion rate, whichever is greater. This rule 

 came to be known as the setback. 



The setback did not please everybody. Beach developers 

 have accused it of setting back not only the buildings, but 

 builders and local economies as well. Some have challenged 

 the validity of methods used to determine long-term erosion 

 rates, on which the setback is based. And even the setback's 

 defenders have called it a compromise that reflects the 

 realities of state politics as much as it does the realities of 

 beach erosion. 



The controversy over oceanfront setback made headlines 

 again last fall, when the Coastal Resources Commission 



doubled the amount of beach setback for new buildings of 

 four or more dwelling units, or of more than 5,000 square 

 feet. After hearing from irate developers, the commission 

 put a cap on the increase. No setback would increase by 

 more than 105 feet. 



In its public statement, the commission gave this ex- 

 planation for the need for increased setbacks: "Large struc- 

 tures are more difficult, legally or practically, to relocate 

 when threatened by storms or erosion." And, the statement 

 continued, when buildings are placed too near the ocean, 

 "there is an increased risk of loss of public beach, and an in- 

 creased cost to the public due to more expensive disaster 

 relief, flood insurance, erosion control, and the repair and 

 replacement of public services such as Water and sewer." 



Dave Owens, assistant director of the state's Office of 

 Coastal Management, says the commission weighed all the 

 concerns and "came up with a number they felt was 

 reasonable and practical, given the realities they were fac- 

 ing." 



Even so, the new setback rules drew fire. Dare County's 

 Board of Commissioners denounced the setback and, by 

 way of protest, voted to withdraw the county from par- 

 ticipation in the coastal management program. (The 

 withdrawal did not make Dare County exempt from CAMA 

 regulations. Officials say the only change will be that the 

 minor permits program will be administered by staff from 

 the Office of Coastal Management's field office in Elizabeth 

 City, and not by Dare County.) 



Opponents of the setback said it would stunt economic 

 growth. 



David Watson, president of the Dare County Board of 

 Realtors, says that many hotels are built near the ocean be- 

 cause their patrons like it that way. 



"If you set the building back several hundred feet, it may 



Setback regulations require buildings along the 

 oceanfront to be placed behind the frontal dune; 

 landward of the crest of the primary dune; and, 

 set back from the first line of stable vegetation at 

 distance equal to thirty times the annual erosion 

 rate or 60 feet, whichever is greater (right). After 

 the storm, the house on the dune will be gone. 

 The other has a much grater change of survival 

 ( below). 



SETBACK 



30 X ANNUAL 

 AVERAGE 

 EROSION 

 RATE 



FIRST LINE OF 



^ STABLE NATURAL 



VEGETATION 



