Wind Over Waves development in Salvo halted

Raleigh – The N.C. Coastal Federation and the Southern Environmental Law Center will move ahead with their challenge of a state permit for a large, shorefront subdivision on the Outer Banks after the state panel that sets coastal development rules granted the groups’ request for a hearing.

Getting the approval of the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission was the required first step in challenging a permit for 57 lots in the Wind Over Waves subdivision near Salvo on Hatteras Island. On December 28 the Commission granted the request for an administrative hearing and the groups have until mid-January to file the necessary legal paper with the state office that handles such hearings. All work on the proposed subdivision is halted until the permit challenge is settled.

The N.C. Division of Coastal Management, which is the agency that enforces Commission rules, issued a Coastal Area Management Act permit to the developers of Wind Over Waves in late November. The Coastal Federation, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, challenged the legality of the permit because the division ignored the presence of extensive wetlands on the 50-acre site. The groups also contend that the development would lead to the pollution of adjacent shellfish grounds.

“North Carolina’s coastline is increasingly threatened by development that destroys wetlands and pollutes public waters,” said Michelle Nowlin, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The Division of Coastal Management is routinely granting permits for these developments without protecting wetlands and shellfishing waters as required by state law.”

Two previous surveys done by the Division of Coastal Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified several acres of coastal wetlands on the site that would be filled, noted Jan Deblieu, the Coastal Federation’s Cape Lookout Coastkeeper. “The fact that wetlands are on the site of the proposed development is not a mystery to the state, to the federal government or to the people that call this region home,” she said. “The only thing that is a mystery is why the state has suddenly chosen to deny its previous research and pretend these wetlands don’t exist.”

The groups also contend that the CAMA permit violates state law by allowing a development that will lead to water pollution. Wind Over Waves received a state stormwater permit that limits constructed surfaces such as roads, driveways and rooftops to 25 percent. But the N.C. Division of Water Quality, which issues stormwater permits, has acknowledged that these so-called “low-density” permits haven’t protected sensitive waters, such as those designated for harvesting clams and oysters. “They admitted their program wasn’t working,” DeBlieu said. “The Division of Coastal Management has a legal responsibility to stop issuing CAMA permits that allow development to pollute our coastal waters.”