Currituck knew it had a beach erosion problem in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel destroyed most beach accesses, washed away many dunes and washed under several homes. The State allowed a 50% OccupancyTax increase then to allow for beach nourishment. Although the tax increase has raised over $70 million for beach nourishment not a single bucket of sand has been added. Beach erosion over this time has washed away between 60 and 90 feet of beach, destroyed beach walkways time and time again and collapsed a number of pools. State regulations severely limit rebuilding so property value is lost.

The Economic Development Advisory Board flagged the need to fix the beaches as early as 2012. The Land Use Plan county-wide property owner survey in 2018 highlighted the issue. The County hired an engineering firm for a three year study ending in 2022 that documented clear vulnerability to hundreds of millions of dollars of oceanfront real estate. But still the County has not committed to action. When they do decide there will still be an additional three years of delay before permits can be obtained and the work completed. The County needs to move now.

The following economic and technical analysis is based on the County’s tax data base and three years of engineering data from the County beach surveys. It was briefed to the County two years ago, but nothing but delaying tactics since then.