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Storm swell associated with Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto breaks Tuesday along the Bogue Banks shore at Oceanana Fishing Pier in Atlantic Beach. The storm, while moving away from the U.S. Tuesday, still packed a potent punch, forecasters said, and could bring possible minor flooding in areas of onshore winds along the coast in the Southeast. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the storm was moving to the northeast, toward near Bermuda, but swells and high surf from Imelda and Hurricane Humberto were expected to produce dangerous marine conditions and rip currents along much of the East Coast for several days. Farther north, the N.C. Department of Transportation on Tuesday closed N.C. 12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island between the National Park Service Pony Pens and the ferry terminal due to deteriorating travel conditions and five oceanfront houses collapsed on Hatteras Island. Photo: Dylan Ray

Reprinted from the Carteret County News-Times

ATLANTIC BEACH — The Atlantic Beach Town Council, during its monthly meeting in the town hall, voted Monday to further protect the natural and nourished oceanfront dune system, which protects property from hurricanes and other storms and provides natural habitat for wildlife.

The amendment prohibits crossing of dunes outside “an established walkway or defined path.”

Specifically, the amendment states that:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to traverse or travel upon any frontal dune at any location other than a designated walkway structure or established sand pathway. Examples of unlawful activities include playing on, climbing on, and allowing pets to traverse upon the frontal dunes, the removal of frontal dune vegetation, and other activities that reduce the stability of the frontal dune system and potentially decrease its storm protection, wildlife habitat, and aesthetic values.”

Exemptions are made in the ordinance for regulatory, contract, and research activities conducted by government officials, and storage of small sailboats out of the public trust beach area and the tidal zone, provided permission is granted by the oceanfront property owner.

GIS agreement

Also during the meeting, the council authorized Town Manager John O’Daniel to execute an interlocal agreement with Carteret County to provide and share geographic information system, or GIS, data to the county.

O’Daniel said the agreement calls for the town to pay the Carteret County GIS Department $60 per hour to set up and provide the service.

The council had discussed the idea during its 2022 planning retreat, and the county recently made the offer to work out an agreement to partner with the town in the administration and setup of GIS data.

“The partnership will further the goal of streamlining technology as discussed in the retreat,” O’Daniel said.

Under the agreement, the county will administer GIS data for the town. The county, through its GIS Department, will direct personnel to perform this function on behalf of the town.

The agreement is for one year but will be renewed annually if either party does not submit in writing to the other party its intent to terminate the agreement. In the event of either party’s desire to terminate the agreement, a 30-day notice must be given from one party to the other.

Atlantic Beach staff, by way of the agreement, will have access/license to use software under the county enterprise license.

This story is provided courtesy of the Carteret County News-Times, a twice-weekly newspaper published in Morehead City. Coastal Review partners with the News-Times to provide our readers with news of the North Carolina coast.

ATLANTIC BEACH – Numerous oceanfront property owners here are banding together in a developing legal dispute over who owns the dry sand beach in front of their houses.

An attorney representing the owners said last week that he hopes the state attorney general will intervene to protect the public’s rights.

The dispute arose last month after a Cape Carteret resident, who also has an apparently dormant real estate business website for a firm in Wilson, notified the beachfront property owners and others that he now owns the dunes and that their continued access to the beach amounts to trespassing.

James Anthony Bunn in April registered quitclaim deeds with the county for more than a dozen parcels in Atlantic Beach south, or oceanward, of beach houses and condominiums to the east and west of the boardwalk at the former amusement circle. Bunn’s mailing address is 102 Hunting Bay Drive, Cape Carteret, according to county records. Last year, he also registered deeds on parcels in Down East Carteret County. 

All show sales prices of zero dollars or minimal exchanges, such as $10 in consideration, with no county revenue stamps paid. Attorneys who prepared the deeds noted that no title work was requested or performed. 

Unlike warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds in North Carolina carry no guarantee of title.

Some of the individual oceanfront parcels that Bunn claims to own front multiple beach houses — one as many as five separately owned homesites.

Attorney Rob Wheatly of Beaufort is representing some of the Atlantic Beach property owners whom Bunn had notified of his claim of ownership.

“First, he started by sending out a statement. I don’t know if he sent it to everybody, I know that a couple of people showed me what they had. He wanted them to sign some agreement with him, sort of like a lease where they would be able to continue to go on about the property. He was not going to interfere with their use if they in fact signed that paper. The people we talked to, we told them not to sign it for various legal reasons,” Wheatly told Coastal Review Friday.

Wheatly said that because nobody would sign the agreement, Bunn had since been “stepping it up” to the point where he had posted “no trespassing” signs and was telling people who were accessing the beach that they were trespassing.

Oceanfront property owners told Coastal Review that Bunn was wearing a gun on his hip during their interactions with him. Some described cordial conversations, but others said Bunn acted in an intimidating or threatening manner, allegedly calling one homeowner a “chickenshit,” and that his going armed on the public beach,in the presence of families with children, was out of line.

Coastal Review has obtained two police incident/investigation reports dated April 18 and April 27 involving “verbal disputes” between Bunn and other individuals. Some information in the police reports was redacted.

Bunn, when reached for comment, said his intention in claiming ownership was for his “quiet, personal enjoyment.” He said he had tried unsuccessfully to work with the oceanfront property owners. Bunn then said he didn’t want to answer Coastal Review’s questions and hung up. He then called back shortly after and agreed to answer questions but only by email.

In his email response to Coastal Review’s questions, Bunn said he was, “in the process of evaluating my land for a suitable location to develop a non profit low impact site to provide a covered structure with bathroom facilities, running water electricity and private parking to be used by physically or mentally impa(i)red individuals who could not otherwise peacefully enjoy a day at the beach.”

Bunn did not respond to further questions, including whether he had formed a nonprofit or partnered with an existing organization to provide such services. He also did not respond to questions regarding any discussions he might have had with town officials or staff with the state Division of Coastal Management regarding his development plans.

Atlantic Beach Mayor Trace Cooper told Coastal Review last week that the strip of dunes was once part of a tract known as the Musgrave property, but that land had completely eroded away decades ago.

“I don’t think they are lots anymore. These kinds of ocean parcels have been on the tax maps for a while, but my belief, based on what I remember as a kid in the ’70s and what I’ve heard from everybody, is that those areas eroded away before we began our beach nourishment program. The first beach nourishment was in 1979, and there’s a state statute on point that says oceanfront, basically beaches, if it is created through a publicly funded beach nourishment project, that sand is property of the state, and all the public trust rights that would apply to other parts of the beach would apply to that,” Cooper said.

According to state law, the title to land in or immediately along the Atlantic Ocean raised above the mean high-water mark by publicly financed beach nourishment projects “shall remain open to the free use and enjoyment of the people of the State, consistent with the public trust rights in ocean beaches, which rights are a part of the common heritage of the people of the State.”

Wheatly agreed that the ocean had decades ago washed away the beach, he said up to a seawall that had been placed there sometime in the mid-1950s. The beach has since been nourished several times with sand from the shipping channel in Beaufort Inlet. 

Wheatly said that’s referred to as “avulsion,” where, in this case, there’s a sudden throwing up of spoil next to the ocean or a river, “and by statute that becomes property of the state of North Carolina,” he said.

“The big issue is going to be where these dunes have now been created through the years, or the neighbors putting sand fences or these sorts of things,” Wheatly said. “And of course, the neighbors have been walking across the area down to the water all these many years, and they would have what is referred to as a prescriptive easement to go from their property down to the beach, and that requires a 20-year use. So, if it’s not the state of North Carolina’s public trust lands, then these people certainly would have a prescriptive easement to go to and from their properties the way they’ve been going all those many years.”

Cooper said no town-owned properties are involved in the dispute, only privately owned homes and condos.

“My guess is that he’s trying to be big enough of a problem that these homeowners may just want to pay him off,” Cooper said. “The town is trying to do what we can, but it’s essentially a private property dispute. We are not allowed to spend public money for private benefit, so we couldn’t be the lead plaintiff in this, even if we wanted to be. We probably don’t have standing, but we’re standing by to do anything we can to help these homeowners put this issue to rest.”

Wheatly said that in his discussions with Atlantic Beach town attorney Derek Taylor, the dispute amounted to a beach access issue for the town. 

“I would assume the people that live on the second, third, fourth rows walk through these areas and paths and on all roads going down to the beach. But it can be a real mess, and especially for these renters when they rent their houses, and the guests come there and, all of a sudden, they’re walking down to the ocean and see a sign saying ‘no trespassing.’ It could be a real detriment to everybody,” Wheatly said.

Wheatly said he had spoken about the dispute with the Division of Coastal Management, who had recently put him in touch with the State Property Office.

“We really don’t know where we’re going in this yet, but I assume that eventually, maybe the attorney general will come in and protect the public. If not, then there will probably have to be private litigation,” Wheatly said.

After a year-long collaborative planning effort to address flooding and polluted runoff caused by heavy rains, Atlantic Beach’s Watershed Restoration and Stormwater Resilience Plan has been approved by the state.

The town’s impervious surfaces have increased over the years and contributed to the lands inability to absorb rainwater. The plan focuses on identifying and targeting sites to improve infiltration and provides targeted strategies to reduce flooding and improve water quality.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, GPI Engineering and the Eastern Carolina Council of Governments partnered with the town to develop the plan funded by the state Division of Water Resources 205(j) program.

“One of the goals was to prioritize cost-effective stormwater reduction projects and increase community awareness and support for reducing runoff,” said Lauren Kolodij, deputy director with the federation.

“Storm resiliency and water quality are obviously very important for Atlantic Beach. We were excited to work with community partners on our Watershed Restoration & Stormwater Resilience Plan to addresses these issues,” said Atlantic Beach Mayor Trace Cooper. “And now, we’re even more excited that this plan has been approved from the N.C. Division of Water Resources. With this plan in place, our town is better positioned to continue our work to tackle these chronic issues.”

The council unanimously approved the plan and from there it went to the North Carolina Division of Water Resources to ensure the plan met criteria established by the Environmental Protection Agency for watershed plan development. Formal approval was recently awarded and now positions the town to apply for implementation funding from the state’s 319 grant program. The town is also reviewing additional funding sources in an effort to get the ball rolling to reduce runoff.

“What we’re trying to do with this watershed restoration plan is turn back the clock to mimic the natural hydrology of Atlantic Beach and increase infiltration of the rain. Increasing the infiltration of stormwater will not only improve water quality but also improves the Town’s stormwater resilience,” said Jonathan Hinkle, professional engineer and project consultant with GPI.

Atlantic Beach is beginning this week a new beach cleanup program, the town announced Friday.

The town is partnering with Crystal Coast Waterkeeper to install signs and beach cleanup baskets at each of the town’s 22 beach accesses to encourage visitors to collect trash and dispose of it in the appropriate container.

The town is asking folks to take a photo of what they collect and post to social media, using the hashtag #TrashFreeAB.

The sign posted features a QR code to allow visitors to directly download National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Tracker app to track what they collect on the beach.

The tracker app allows cleanup participants help make a difference by checking in when they find trash along the coastlines and waterways. This tool is a great way to get involved in local and global data collection, and it allows for the identification of trash “hot spots” along the coastline.

The Marine Debris Tracker mobile app, which was launched in 2010, is a joint initiative between the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative at the University of Georgia College of Engineering.

The new program is in response to feedback from the Atlantic Beach Town Council’s annual retreat and inspiration from the town’s sister city Atlantic Beach, Florida.

ATLANTIC BEACH — This Carteret County town has received a $15,000 grant from Duke Energy for stormwater resiliency planning.

The town announced the award Friday, saying it had been battling stormwater issues for more than a decade but was limited in its options.

Despite some success, officials said they continue to look for innovative ways to manage flooding while also maintaining the water quality. Earlier this year, the town partnered with the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences and pledged $15,000 annually for water quality testing to identify areas where improvements were still needed.

The town was notified Aug. 16 of the award from the Duke Energy Foundation. The foundation supports nonprofit organizations in alignment with its four main areas of focus: the environment, economic development, education and community vitality.

The town plans to match the grant for a total of $30,000 to develop a stormwater resiliency plan.

Town officials are partnering with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Eastern Carolina Council of Governments and LDSI Engineering to create the plan, which will also make the town eligible for additional grant funding in the future.

“We are very thankful for the support of the Duke Energy Foundation to help us develop this plan,” stated Mayor Trace Cooper. “Their support underlines their commitment to our communities and will allow us to leverage the support of our other partners in this process — the Coastal Federation, the Eastern Carolina COG and LDSI Engineering.”