Comments on: Beach sandstorm

By: Carey Kelley

Carey Kelley — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:26:31 +0000

Has any one that is in opposition walked the beach from NEW pier south.
I have owned for 5 years in Nags Head and am appalled at the condition of this area. You should be ashamed of yourselves to let it get to this. When ever I heard the words Outer Banks I thought immediatly of Nags Head and beaches, these aren’t beaches they are dumps. Talk about costs how much will it cost to demo the Comfort Inn, the Yatchsman, the Whalebone motel, Owens motel, etc., and how much revenue will be lost there?
I took video today and would love to see what all the folks on YouTube would think of Nags Head. I am in total disbelief that you could even consider letting this continue.
This has gone on for 20 years and and no one has made a decision and the beaches of Nags Head are embarassing.
I had family down and even though they stayed for free, will be going elsewhere because when they attempted to walk the beaches thru all the DEBRIS they ran into motels and ran out of beach since the ocean was all the way to the dunes. I never would have believed that an OCEAN community could allow this. Unbelievable.

By: Russell

Russell — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:06:44 +0000

The houses on the beach are ‘rental machines’, put in high-risk areas for maximum rental income. The majority of the owners have more coin than they know what to do with. You are NOT going to stop the ocean, no matter how much sand is put on the beach.
And please don’t threaten the year-around residents with “The tourists won’t come and spend their money.” Not everyone here worships the ‘Green Paper.’

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:05:35 +0000

Declaration of standing:
Long time visitor, not quite as long time investor and now full time resident with a budding small start-up business.
I’ve never owned a beach home anywhere for a simple reason: You likely can’t afford one where longer term stability is known. I’ve always enjoyed beaches here and around the world. Not once have I begrudged those who own property directly on the ocean for a simple reason – knowingly or not, they take that gamble. How those who take that gamble brings us to the rub of the issue.
One constant of all beaches is that there is no constant.
Some beaches are more stable over time, but that is not the case in the banks – an elementary school geography lesson is sufficient to explain why. That being the case, maintaining a stable beach becomes a straight-up gamble, so if the goal is to recover money from a gambling environment, look to other environments that do so.
Like Vegas.
Las Vegas is the ultimate pay-go environment. When you bet more than you can back and lose, you find a sucker to bail you out or you’re gone. As someone who has lost substantial personal investment gambling on property over the last few years, that lesson is fresh. I’ll support moderate continuous beach nourishment to an agreed upon limit that I and others can afford to lose which is paid for out of existing funds but not beyond for one simple reason – those who back larger ambitious plans will likely leave permanent residents as the suckers holding the debt and busted beaches without sharing the pain.
If you’re a proponent of beach nourishment who intends to profit while leaving my family and I holding the note on your wager, I cordially invite you to take s southerly journey to a warm destination.
On the other hand, if you’ll sustainably scale a plan to the local economy that follows fluctuations in business revenue and personal commitments that a modest majority of those involved from the locality on up may get behind, I’m in.
Instead of trying to continually brow-beat from the top down – an effort I personally vehemently reject – please stop complaining when others don’t auto-magically agree with you, do the hard work required to get others on board, let the chips fall where they may and try not to give in to the desire to strangle those who opposed you if the situation doesn’t end up going your way.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Current laws prevent beach hardening, and offshore artificial reefs fall into this category. This is an option that costs much less, does less harm to the environment and has a proven track record. Give it a try, if it doesn’t work, you’ve still got a great fishing spot. Let Nags Head create a pilot project in conjunction with Jennette’s Pier/NC Aquarium, since it looks like the town will not get any county money for their current beach nourishment plan.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:18:43 +0000

This whole discussion is sounding a lot like the food fight over health care. One side says it won’t work and is too expensive and the other side says opponents just need to be “educated.”
I believe beach nourishment–as it has been attempted–is merely a waste of time and money. As long as there are prevailing tidal currents eating away at Kitty Hawk and South Nags Head, all the new sand in the world wouldn’t help. Hello! Offshore artificial reefs work and are comparitively cheap.

By: Rob Morris

Rob Morris — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:21:49 +0000

Bouy9, could you please e-mail Rob about your question? info@outerbanksvoice.com
Thanks

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:10:52 +0000

Anyone have the time/location for the Beach Plan Committee meeting, March 6?

By: bouy9

bouy9 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:25:28 +0000

Envious, what a joke. No I believe in a more moderate, efficient and sensible society that consumes with the thought of consequence in mind. In the last 20 years we saw an unprecedented amount of homes being built, and the fact that we never have had homes that big built on a regular basis, I’m sorry those homes aren’t the beach. The beach was about getting away and maybe not having to work to pay for stuff you really don’t need anyway, like luxuries that are just that, luxuries. I remember when no homes here even had air conditioning or phones. You came here and had a good time with just the simple pleasures. Now it’s like hey buy, buy, buy my stuff, eat at my restaurant, shop at the many strip malls. It’s just not right anymore . . .

By: Butch Stone

Butch Stone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:14:20 +0000

Yes these are family homes, when they are not rented, like my home, the family comes down, for free as in my case. These people also help the economy on the Outer Banks. When they stay, they also spend money here.

By: Butch Stone

Butch Stone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:35:10 +0000

to bouy9
It sounds like you are so envious of the big homes here. You must have forgotten about all the tourist that bring their money here to spend and the tourist have lots of money.
To be able to afford to pay 15,000.00 a week is unreal!!
But they do it, and they also pay the renters tax that week, which is $1912.50, if i did this right at 12 3/4 %.
That’s more then most people pay, all year for real estate taxes and this is just for ONE WEEK!!
The Big Homes have to also pay real estate taxes and no one lives in these homes, to be a burden to the county by having kids going to school, welfare etc.