TH E WATE RFRO NTT 



New Law Allows Buildini 

 Over Public Waters 



By d i I e Fredericks 



We 



ien Gov. Jim Hunt inked 

 House Bill 1059 into law last summer, 

 environmentalists saw red, developers 

 saw green and everyone seemed sure they 

 would never again see North Carolina's 

 urban waterfronts the same way. 



With the scratch of a pen, the 

 waterfronts appeared alternately destined 

 for environmental destruction or poised 

 for the glorious rebirth of their maritime 

 pasts. 



For better or worse, the legislature 

 amended North Carolina's 23-year-old 

 Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) 

 so that state regulators now are required to 

 issue permits for certain kinds of develop- 

 ment over public waters. Gone is their 

 discretion to deny them. Suddenly, the 

 power to determine the environmental 

 impact of these projects lies in the hands 

 of local municipalities rather than with the 

 state Division of Coastal Management. 



Months later, the media outcry has 

 died away. Yet, urban waterfronts never 

 rang with the crescendo of construction 

 sounds expected after the legislation 

 passed. And with a three-year limit placed 

 on the law, its impact on the landscape 

 remains to be seen. 



The law that was expected to reshape 

 North Carolina's waterside districts 

 sprang from developers' frustrated efforts 

 to build along Wilmington's historic 

 waterfront and over the Cape Fear River. 

 Three years ago, Gene Merritt, a leader of 

 the city's South Water Street Develop- 

 ment Team, tried to get approval to build 

 on historic South Water Street between 

 Market and Nun streets. 



Private owners in that three-block 

 stretch previously had been approached 

 by the city of Wilmington, which was 

 interested in expanding the riverwalk 

 southward along those blocks and 

 revitalizing the area, Merritt says. The city 

 had built the northern stretch of the 

 riverwalk with ease because it lay within 

 city or government property, but it needed 

 private landowners' permission to move 

 south, he recalls. 



The private property owners then 

 decided they wanted to build restaurants, 

 shops and residences. At that time, 

 however, the Coastal Resources Commis- 

 sion prohibited the construction of non- 

 water-dependent structures, such as those 

 being proposed, over public waters. Put 

 simply, marinas and docks were allowed 

 — the other types of buildings were not. 



Tired of waiting more than two years 

 for a rule change from state regulators, 

 Merritt took the developers' case to New 

 Hanover County Rep. Thomas Wright, 

 who sponsored a bill to amend CAMA. 

 The bill was intended to revitalize only 

 historic waterfronts, but as it moved 

 through the state Senate, the wording 

 broadened to force state approval of urban 

 waterfront development within not only 

 historic waterfront areas, but also central 

 business districts. 



As a result, the law is expected to 

 affect cities up and down the coast and on 

 nearby rivers and inlets. Several munici- 

 palities — Wilmington, Manteo, 

 Swansboro, Washington, Beaufort, 

 Morehead City and Elizabeth City — 

 have expressed a general interest in 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 17 



