Beach, property owners still at odds over sand replenishment

VIRGINIA BEACH

City officials plan to pump sand along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay despite protests from some property owners who argue that the move is an attempt to take their beach.

Sections of Cape Henry Beach, between First Landing State Park and the Lesner Bridge, have eroded and need the sand, officials said. In exchange for the sand, the city wants residents to sign over public use of the beach for recreation. Twelve of the 21 property owners and condominium associations within the two-mile stretch have agreed.

"Ultimately, we're providing free sand on the beach," said City Councilman Jim Wood, who represents that area. "It's protection against one big hurricane or one big nor'easter."

Louis Paulson, an attorney who plans to develop three lots just east of the Lesner Bridge, said the sand comes at too high a price.

"Effectively, you're giving up your right to the beach," said Paulson, who has threatened legal action against the city. "A recreational easement is total control of my beach."

The dust-up over the replenishment of Cape Henry Beach comes down to a frequently posed question in the resort city: Who does the beach belong to?

The public, Virginia Beach officials long have maintained.

Beach residents have walked along the beaches of Cape Henry for decades, police patrol and city workers collect trash from the bayfront, said City Attorney Les Lilley.

Paulson and the owners and residents of nine properties on Cape Henry Beach disagree. They argue that their deeds indicate that it's a private beach and they could, if they wanted to, restrict walkers, joggers and the general public from using the beach beyond the tide line.

Lilley has sent a letter to the nine holdouts, informing them that the project will start in January 2009, with or without their consent.

City officials have been working with Cape Henry Beach property owners for more than two years, trying to acquire easements that will allow pipes on the sand and affirm that the public has a right to use the beach. The two sides have reached a stalemate and the city staff needs to start planning for the project if officials hope to use the sand from the Lynnhaven Inlet dredging project scheduled for next year, Lilley said.

The inlet is cleared by the Army Corps of Engineers about every four years. In the past, the sand was deposited along the Ocean Park beaches, on the other side of the Lesner Bridge. There's plenty of sand there now, and the city has decided to build up the Cape Henry beaches to the east.

"It's much desired, and I hope it will go forward," said Penny Brown, a resident of Westminster Canterbury, a retirement community, where the sand has eroded to the sea wall.

Dona Storey, president of the Cape Henry Towers association, said she was willing to give the city construction access to the beach in front of her condominium, so her neighbors could get sand.

"We were looking at how we can be good neighbors without us giving up our property rights," Storey said. "If one neighbor wants to help another neighbor, why should that neighbor be punished,"

The city can't accept public-use agreements from some Cape Henry Beach residents and not others, Lilley said.

The dredging and replenishment project costs $2 million, with the city spending as much as $300,000. City officials only would use taxpayers' money to expand a public beach, Lilley said.

Even with the recreation easement, Lilley said, he doesn't expect public use of Cape Henry beaches to increase, since parking is limited.

City officials will continue talking to the nine holdouts to find some compromise, Lilley said.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com