Shell Island Newspaper Articles

Reprinted by permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina

February 17, 1998

The News & Observer

Coastal group joining resort fray

By CRAIG WHITLOCK; STAFF WRITER

Page: A3

An environmental group is seeking to jump into the legal battle between state coastal regulators and the imperiled Shell Island resort in Wrightsville Beach.

The N.C. Coastal Federation, a 5,000-member group based in Swansboro, filed a motion in New Hanover County Superior Court on Monday seeking to join the state as a defendant in the Shell Island lawsuit.

The Shell Island Homeowners Association sued the state last month, seeking the right to build a giant steel wall to hold back the sea. A severe beach erosion problem has left the resort in danger of becoming marooned in the water, which now laps within a few feet of the $22 million building.

The state has denied Shell Island's past requests to build such a wall, citing North Carolina's strict rules against jetties, groins and other hardened structures along the coast. The Coastal Federation said it wanted to join the lawsuit so it could help to defend the state's seawall ban, which has been in effect since 1985.

"This is just an extremely important issue," said Derb S. Carter Jr., an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, which filed the motion on behalf of the Coastal Federation. "You're involving nothing less than the future of North Carolina's beaches. If you prevail down this path of hardening the beaches, there is no turning back."

Carter said that one reason for the group's intervention was the state's decision to settle a previous challenge to its coastal policy.

In that case, Texas oil man Walter Davis sued the state in 1995, arguing that the state's refusal to allow him to use sandbags to protect his property on Bald Head Island amounted to an unconstitutional "taking" of his land.

Davis dropped the suit after the state agreed to let the village of Bald Head Island pump sand onto some eroded lots and hold it in place with a barrier of sand-filled tubes.

"The state has shown a propensity for backing down under pressure," Carter said.

Section: News
Edition: Final
Estimated Printed Pages: 2

Index Terms:
coast
Shell Island
lawsuit
environment
NC

Copyright 1998 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

Record Number: 1998047093