Dare offers Nags Head $18 million for sand plan
Dare County appears ready to consider covering about 80 percent of the cost of Nags Head’s plan to pump sand onto its beaches.
On Tuesday, Warren Judge, the chairman of the Dare County Shoreline Management Commission, outlined a formula that would give Nags Head $18 million up front and $2 million annually over five years for debt payments.
That leaves the town at least $8 million short. Nags Head Mayor Bob Oakes said the town’s Board of Commissioners will need to regroup and did not rule out the possibility of a property tax increase to fill the gap. He said other possibilities are a special assessment or a special taxing district.
“The permits still have to come before the money no matter what,” he said after Tuesday’s meeting of the shoreline commission.
The commission is a panel of county and town leaders charged with recommending how to allocate the money in the Shoreline Management Fund. The county fund is generated by 1 percent of the 5 percent occupancy tax, and it is estimated to stand at about $22 million by June 30, Judge said.
Nags Head had originally asked for $20 million from the shoreline fund and enough money from a 1 percent increase in the occupancy tax to pay off a $16 million bond in five years.
Under Judge’s formula, Nags would receive 50 percent of the cost of its $36 million plan from the shoreline fund. Kill Devil Hills would also receive 50 percent if it goes ahead with a plan it’s developing at an estimated cost of $20 million.
The assumption is that Nags Head would not get started until next year at the earliest and Kill Devil Hills would not be ready until at least 2013. Since one percent of the occupancy tax generates $3 million to $3.2 million a year, the fund is expected to contain more than enough to cover both.
Increasing the occupancy tax another 1 percent would raise an additional $3 million to $3.2 million a year. Nags Head would receive $2 million of that annually for five years for debt payments. Another $1 million would be reserved for Kill Devil Hills if the town needs it. The fund balance, Judge said, could be used for other shoreline management projects, including building up the erosion-prone beach on the north end of Rodanthe.
Increasing the occupancy tax requires the General Assembly’s authorization. The county has been seeking a consensus from the six towns because the legislature will only consider non-controversial bills during the short session that starts in May.
Southern Shores passed a resolution against it and the Kitty Hawk Town Council is divided on the issue. But representatives from both towns, while still not offering an outright endorsement, seemed willing Tuesday to step aside.
“I don’t think that Southern Shores will actually fight you on the one percent tax,” said Councilwoman Jodi Hess, who represents the town on the shoreline commission.
Kitty Hawk Mayor Pro Tem Gary Perry reported that his council wanted assurances that money would be available for emergencies along its beaches, parts of which are as vulnerable to storms as South Nags Head.
“We’re not going to get in your way,” Perry said, but added Kitty Hawk still wants to see an endorsement by rental property owners and management companies, which would be responsible for collecting the tax.
The commission sought to come up with a recommendation that would incorporate language in a Kill Devil Hills resolution calling for a 1 cent increase not only for beach nourishment, but for other shoreline protection methods, including tearing down or moving houses. If the state were to make exceptions to the ban on jetties, breakwaters or other erosion control devices, the resolution said, the money should be available for them, too.
But Hess said that she would need the approval of her fellow council members. Otherwise, she said, she would have to vote no. The commission agreed to draft a recommendation for town governing bodies to see before reconvening April 22 to vote on it.
Perry said he thought his council would go along with the recommendation as long as it contained the broader language that includes the other shoreline protection measures.
Councilman Neil Morrison, Duck’s representative on the commission, provided a letter outlining his town’s support for an occupancy tax increase of one cent on the dollar that would go toward a comprehensive plan for the entire county. The town did not take a position on the Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills plans.
Judge said he discussed the funding plan with Oakes. But it would still require the approval of the county’s seven-member Board of Commissioners. A yes vote from county Commissioner Richard Johnson seems pretty well assured.
“I’m going to take a shot in the dark,” said Johnson, one of three county representatives on the shoreline commission. “I’ve been working on this project for 13 years, and I’m going to take a pig in a poke. If I take some heat or I get thrown out of office, so be it”.
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GB says:
Pig-in-a-poke is an idiom that refers to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce but cats were not.
The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig in a poke (bag). The wriggling bag would actually contain a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat) that was sold to the victim in an unopened bag…
A common colloquial expression in the English language, to buy a pig in a poke is to make a risky purchase without inspecting the item beforehand. The phrase can also be applied to accepting an idea or plan without a full understanding of its basis….from wikipedia
Hal Kitzmuller says:
Building up the erosion-prone beach on the north end of Rodanthe? You people really have no idea, do you?
Nourishment rocks says:
I think the oceanfront owners have a great idea.
First, get the rest of us to pump sand they know will wash away. They don’t care if it does.
Next, take their personal 3-500k houses, bump the price to 1.5 mil as soon as the sand is on the beach, and flip them for a huge profit.
All this about protecting the town and tax revenue, just a smokescreen.
Congrats, well played, I’d have done the same thing if I’d thought of it first.
barbara says:
Reminds me of a few years back when Warren Judge promised sand for Roanoke Island soundfront if they needed it. I get a penny, you get a penny, before long occupancy taxes will be 20+ cents on the dollar. Think about it. All of these projects will need maintenance every 5 years, soon we’ll have 6 separate BN projects going, dredge pipes as far as the eye can see. What a mess our beautiful OBX has become!
Butch Stone says:
Let’s just let the ocean do its thing at Rodanthe and all over the Outer Banks. It will make Oregon Inlet larger and wider, so we will need a longer bridge. At Rodanthe we will also need a bridge.
WHAT IS CHEAPER, BRIDGES OR SAND REFURBISHING??
Butch Stone says:
to Barbara
OBX is a mess or will be, if we don’t take care of it
something needed to be done 20 years ago before this mess
We have to put the sand back on the beaches now…
barbara says:
I think the cheapest option is:
Accept your losses, move your house at YOUR expense and use the available funds to develop smarter, long term strategies that the county can feasibily SUSTAIN. Encourage further setbacks, enforce the current CAMA laws, which are blatantly not followed or enforced.
I do not believe 36 million dollars of “sand refurbishing” will save any home which is threatened anyway, so you’ll still be in need of “something” and the town and county will really be broke. So then what? We’ll have no $ left to even try to cope or build a bridge or fix a road or help move a house and really deal with erosion in a pro-active way.
Butch: What is plan B after plan A doesn’t work, the sand washes away and we’re back to square 1? Please, share with me Plan B.
Tim says:
How can you follow the CAMA rules and have smarter long term strategies? And what are they?
barbara says:
Tim, I was referring to CAMA regs that say sandbags are TEMPORARY means. Sandbags have been on some of these homes for years and are hardened structures, i.e. seawalls, and are causing MORE erosion. Same with bulldozing. Every weekend there are 3+ bulldozers on the beach in SNH. Long-term strategies: Increased setbacks, retreat incentives (to help people move structures back) consideration of bridges causeways, eliminating sandbags/beach pushes. These are long-term strategies that will work and help for future. Again, what is your PLAN B if beach nourishment doesn’t work? If the sand washes away in 6 mos and the town has to pay for the sand for the next 5 years, what could it possibly do in the 4 years remaining on bond loan to tackle erosion issues?
Mary says:
Brilliant Barbara. I don’t think the question has been asked. What is plan “B” Mr. Stone?
Nature will have her way – and I would put money on it that all it will take is the first hurricane or nor’easter and the sand is gone. What then?
I’m all ears.
TT Smith says:
My belief is that after it washes away, they will push to nourish again, saying the sand wasn’t compatible or the failure was a fluke.
We’ve already watched 10 million or so dollars (’02 and ’06) in beach nourishment wash off that same beach over the last eight years. Each time, they just want to do it again.
TT Smith says:
I’d add those failures were also immediate, and did nothing to stop the ocean’s encroachment on idiotically-placed rental structures.
Butch Stone says:
to all ears…
look at the beach at Virginia Beach
Beach refubishing does work!!
Tim says:
What is the plan when we have a bad hurricane and the sand is not there? What is plan A and B from the people against beach nourishment?
TT Smith says:
VA beach facts: Nourishment started in 1949 as a simple dump and fill project. Now the total price tag is well over a billion dollars.
A $125 million project washed away in a single storm (Isabel).
The city owns a cutterhead dredge and has 21 employees working three shifts, seven days per week to bypass sand to the Resort Beach.
Beach fill at Sandbridge Beach in Virginia Beach is funded through a Special Service Tax District where property owners pay an extra $0.12 property tax per $100 assessed valuation for beach fill.
Do we really want to go down this road? Proponents have no idea what kind of perpetual expense they are advocating.
barbara says:
Good info TTSmith!
I may also add, Virginia Beach nourishes like what 16 city blocks vs obx with 70+ miles of shoreline in Dare County. Our location too is so much closer to where the labador current meets the gulf stream so we experience more dramatic sand dispersement and wave activity then VA beach does too. And add to the sheer fact that sea level is indeed rising.
Again, even with revised plan, Nags Head oceanfront owners still will not be required to pay not a penny more in Prop. tax. Nada. Sounds like a good plan to THEM. Everyone will pay but them. I also think if you polled our vacation guests they would say they are shocked that there is such a high sales / occupancy tax added onto their rental.
GB says:
Barbara and TT Smith — well said all the way around.
Tim, here is one version of plan A on page 21:
As a community we need to accept some realities that are difficult for all of us to imagine. If everyone has a more detailed understanding of the challenges that we are facing now and will continue to face in the next 50 to 100 years, we can start to make the hard choices that will require large amounts of debate, study and capital.
Right now I hear a lot of folks saying “well, I don’t really know, but we have to do something.” I agree and think that it’s vital to do something that is realistic and cost-effective, but at this point I don’t see beach nourishment as an option that we can afford or that will make a significant dent in the problem on the Outer Banks given our unique geography.
As a good start, more viable alternatives are retreat in high risk areas and development of diversified economic engines (research, wind power generation, education) in safer, higher elevation areas that will not be subject to erosion for 100 years. Repositioning infrastructure (highways and power and communication pipelines) as far west as possible is also critical. Doing this will take large amounts of money, time, and cooperation, but we don’t have much choice. The sooner we accept this, the more progress we will make and the better the decisions and the future will be.
Tim says:
Plan A Page 21. We do not have to accept the dismantling of the Outer Banks. This plan would cost hundreds of millions of tax dollars and waste hundreds of millions dollars of assets and hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes earned. Just so we do not have to pump sand. Beach Nourishment is the cheap way to go. It is just maintenance. Just like we maintain all of our other assets.
Carey Kelley says:
And since you (Nags Head) are a business which has let its frontage (the beaches) deteriorate to a point of embarrassment, which from a business standpoint is ludicrous, you as a business can find it acceptable to throw away INCOME PRODUCING inventory (the perfectly good beach houses) even more astounding
obx007 says:
no beach no money no jobs- Dare County don’t be penny wise and pound foolish– and by the way the sand bags will look great around your new 30 million pier.