The Resort cannot install sandbags without the CRC s permission, because the resort currently does not qualify for sandbag protection and because the proposed sandbag wall is much larger than what the Commission s rules allow. Under the CRC s rules, the erosion escarpment, or erosion line, must be within 20 feet of a building s foundation before sandbags may be used to protect it. Coastal Management will oppose the variance request because the project doesn t meet all the criteria for variance approval. The conditions at Shell Island, for example, are not unique to that property. Shell Island sits on the north end of Wrightsville Beach, at Mason Inlet.
Inlets are extremely dynamic areas, and erosion in inlets is commonplace.
When developers built the Shell Island condominiums, they acknowledged that they were building in an erosion-prone area, and that North Carolina rules do not allow hard structures, such as seawalls, to protect buildings from erosion. But in January, Shell Island property owners asked the CRC to allow it to install a seawall to combat erosion. The CRC denied that request in a unanimous vote. Coastal Management also is concerned because Shell Island has not made much progress toward a permanent solution, such as beach nourishment or shifting the inlet, and because the resort abandoned work on an interim solution that would not have required a sandbag wall.