Figure Eight’s precedent
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
North Carolinians having a strong sense of fairness, how could they give a well-to-do beach community a pass on environmental rules and not do the same for a less-affluent area if conditions were similar? It would be difficult, which is a good — if sad — reason for the state to resist a move by Figure Eight Island to build an underwater wall to stop beach erosion at the island’s north end.
For 22 years, North Carolina has banned hardened, anti-erosion structures along the beach, for the practical reason that they usually just wind up moving erosion elsewhere. That could happen also at Figure Eight, where property owners want to build a sand-trapping groin.
Some of the state’s richest residents own homes on Figure Eight, which is private except for the tidal beach (it takes a boat for outsiders to get there). Property owners say they will help pay for the groin. They’ve hired noted lobbyists to push their cause in the General Assembly, which must approve any variance to the structure ban, and they’ve donated generously to legislators. more…
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