Battered beach homes stand in way of N.C. project

NAGS HEAD, N.C.

A strip of empty vacation cottages sits on the edge of the shoreline in South Nags Head, facing the sea that could easily destroy one or all of them in the next big storm. Paint is peeling from wooden siding, decks are collapsed or gone entirely, pilings are cartoonishly crooked.

But those beat-up properties on Seagull Drive are just part of the beach blight remaining from damage inflicted during nor'easters in November. Exposed septic tanks, ripped-up sandbags, partially collapsed houses, piles of splintered wood, and broken remnants of household contents are scattered up and down the beach. Dunes are chewed off and have pieces of covered wire and pipes poking from them.

Nags Head is getting closer to nailing down funds and permits for a beach nourishment project that would replace wide swaths of beach lost to erosion, but beach cleanup has been stymied by homeowners who have not demolished or relocated their houses that sit on the public trust beach, despite months-old town orders to do so, officials say.

The town is suing 17 of the 26 owners who have not resolved the nuisance notices ordering the houses' removal that were issued in November, said Mayor Bob Oakes. The other nine are cooperating with the town.

"We're cleaning up everything we can that is not contested property," the mayor said.

One homeowner whose house is partially collapsed has accepted the town's offer to pay the $7,500 cost for demolition and removal, Oakes said. That's a good deal for the town, he said, considering the potential cost of legal fees or cleaning up miles of debris that would result if the house fell into the ocean.

Nuisance notices that were issued in 2002 to Kitty Hawk beachfront property owners, for instance, ended up in some lawsuits that were tied up in courts for years.

Roc Sansotta owns six of the oceanfront houses on Seagull Drive that were issued notices, and is being sued. He said the town stopped him from pushing sand in front of the structures during the Nov. 12 storm to protect them from being undermined by the tide.

"Without any defense, it was just whittled back further and further," said Sansotta, the owner of Cove Realty in Nags Head.

Sansotta said the town has fined him $100 a day for each house, so far totaling more than $40,000.

Cliff Ogburn, Nags Head town manager, said that he is aware of Sansotta's issue with the town, but declined to discuss it. He said the town started issuing fines in December to homeowners, including Sansotta, who did not comply with the nuisance notices.

The toll from the winter storms has left the beach more wounded than Nags Head Director of Public Works Dave Clark has ever seen it, leaving a narrowed shoreline east of the mean high tide line.

"That's something you can't repair," he said. "You can't put a patch on it."

By Dec. 28, the town had hauled 580 tons of debris to the county dump, Clark said. Another sweep of the beach will start before month's end, he said.

Nags Head is seeking to fund half of its proposed $36 million beach nourishment project with a portion of Dare County's shoreline management fund that has been collected from a dedicated 1 percent occupancy tax, Oakes said. With the agreement of the other towns, Oakes said, the town also plans to ask the state legislature to authorize an additional 1 percent occupancy tax to fund the remaining costs in Nags Head and for a planned nourishment project in Kill Devil Hills.

If permits are obtained as hoped this summer, Oakes said, the project could start next April.

Torsten Peterson, a Prince George attorney whose family has owned property in South Nags Head since the early 1980s, said he was relieved to hear that Nags Head has put beach nourishment back on the table.

"That would be wonderful. That would do wonders for property values down there," he said. "If they don't, they're just going to wash away."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com