Sign your name to the Town of North Topsail Beach's written comment to the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission on the 2019 Inlet Hazard Area Boundary Update. When the public comment period ends on March 2, 2020, the Town will send in this comment with your name behind it. 

Full Text:

We all appreciate the efforts of the Division of Coastal Management to manage our coastal resources and protect our coast.  We understand the need to revisit IHA boundaries and the use of inlet hazard area erosion rates within the proposed new boundaries.

However, to prevent undue hardship on our residents and property owners, the Town of North Topsail Beach would like to request the following changes to the 2019 Inlet Hazard Area Boundary Update:

1.      Establish a more northern transect as the inlet-ocean transition boundary. With transect-1345 as the proposed boundary, the update creates a long “toe,” unnecessarily extending the Inlet Hazard Area at New River Inlet. Because of the minimal rate of change in the standard deviation used to calculate this boundary at transect-1345, we would like to request the inlet-ocean boundary moved closer to transect-1379. The erosion rate in this area is still within the Ocean Erodible AEC of 2 ft/yr.

2.      Exempt St. Regis Resort and Topsail Reef Condos from the update. These structures, each with 240 units, have provided affordable housing since the early 1980s, giving North Carolinians of any means access to our beaches, which reside in the public trust. To preserve this access as much as possible, we request keeping these structures within the Ocean Erodible AEC and not within the Inlet Hazard AEC, since they both reside in an area with an erosion rate of 2 ft/yr.

3.      Clarify the rules on developing vacant lots. We request that the rules on “grandfathering” of vacant lots for development be made clearer so property owners can better understand the impact of the update.

4.      Consider the impact on federal assistance. With growing pressure from climate change, we cannot predict how FEMA will distribute assistance in coming years. We request the Coastal Resources Commission to commit to further researching the effect of an IHA designation before passing a potential barrier to disaster recovery on our coast. 

5.      Clarify reasoning behind structure size limit. Why was the structure size limit for new structures set at 5,000 sq ft versus say 7,000 sq ft in the updated boundary when the trend today is for large houses being built for extended families or vacation rentals?

Thank you for considering our comments and all your efforts in preserving our coast for future generations.

To submit your own written comment, email DCMcomments@ncdenr.gov with the subject line “Inlet Hazard Area updates” by March 2, 2020. 

Additional information here.