MANTEO — In an effort to address objections from the commission that last year nulled 30 state rules, including the environmental designation for Jockey’s Ridge, and to maintain temporary rule protections, the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission unanimously voted Thursday to send an amended rule and findings from the state geologist back to the state Rules Review Commission.
“We’re trying, but there’s no guarantee that the Rules Review (Commission) will in any way change their mind,” CRC Chair Renee Cahoon said after the vote during the second day of the two-day meeting at the Dare County Administration Building. “We hope that the supplemental findings and the fact that we’re fighting so hard will make a difference.”
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The findings, she said, are based on a letter received this week from State Geologist Kenneth Taylor affirming that Jockey’s Ridge meets the qualifications that define an Area of Environmental Concern, including being a unique geologic formation.
The CRC is seeking to restore the AEC designation to Jockey’s Ridge State Park in a permanent rule to replace the one tossed by the 10-member Rules Review Commission, which is appointed by the leaders of each chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Jockey’s Ridge in Dare County is the tallest living sand dune on the East Coast, according to the nonprofit Friends of Jockey’s Ridge organization that supports the state park created in 1975 at the site once targeted by developers.
The Division of Coastal Management staff is proposing an amended rule to redesignate Jockey’s Ridge as an Area of Environmental Concern, along with a set of use standards to protect the AEC from incompatible development and loss of sand.
The proposed amended rule would include protective-use standards for the AEC to prevent incompatible development and sand loss, according to division staff. At the same time, the CRC intends the revised rule to alleviate the Rules Review Commission’s stated objections by limiting rule content to the Jockey’s Ridge AEC designation and its particular use standards.
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The Rules Review Commission had objected to 30 existing CRC rules. Last year, new legislation prevented the CRC from responding to the objections and the state codifier removed them from the N.C. Administrative Code. The CRC then reinstated 16 of those rules through emergency rulemaking and proposed temporary rules, to which the rules commission objected.
“This is unchartered territory for us,” Cahoon explained. “In the past, any rule that came up for periodic review, we worked with the Rules Review Commission.”
The Coastal Resources Commission was caught off guard during last year’s state legislative session, she said, when the General Assembly gave the rules codifier the ability to eliminate existing rules. Objections were also issued against numerous other state agencies’ rules.
“No more notification — just absolutely unfettered power to drop the rules,” Cahoon said of the change.
Area residents and Jockey’s Ridge supporters have come out in force in favor of the AEC redesignation, which in part ensures that sand will not be removed from the dune and protects it from unsuitable development.
“You can’t get this back,” resident Taylor Conyers told Coastal Resource Commission members during the public comment portion of the meeting Thursday, adding that she was speaking on behalf of other younger residents. “You can’t get Jockey’s Ridge back once it’s encroached upon. Like, it’s gone.”
As Daniel Govoni, policy analyst and federal consistency coordinator with the Division of Coastal Management, detailed in his presentation Thursday, the proposed rule is divided into three areas: description, boundary and use standards.
“If we approach this rule as a brand-new rule and, instead of going into all the other processes, it would have three sections,” Govoni said.
Commission member Jordan Hennessy had previously requested staff to prepare proposed rule language for the panel to review.
Hennessy, who has attracted attention for, among other actions, attempting to oust Cahoon as chair at the start of his first commission meeting, spoke out in support of the AEC for Jockey’s Ridge.
“It’s a gem, a treasure to the state,” said Hennessy.
The commission, during the meeting, also approved starting the permanent rulemaking process, which takes about a year, to replace six other rules that were deleted over Rules Review Commission objections.
The process would require additional public comment periods and public hearings.
