THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250273
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOREHEAD CITY LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Officials who oversee development along the state's coast believe it may be time to control the number of mooring buoys and stakes that anchor the region's growing number of boats.
The state Coastal Resources Commission is trying to address the recent proliferation of moorings in the state's rivers and sound with proposed rules that would restrict who is eligible to set mooring buoys and where they could be placed.
The commission will receive public comment on the proposed rules at a public hearing at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Crystal Coast Convention Center in Morehead City.
Proponents say the rules are needed because in recent years the growth of mooring buoys has been so great in some coastal communities that they have become a navigation hazard, according to some coastal officials. But opponents, including some commercial fishermen, say the rules could leave many fishermen without convenient anchorage.
``They're becoming a concern almost everywhere,'' said Courtney Hackney, a commission member and professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. ``As the recreational boating populace has grown in North Carolina, it's becoming more and more of a problem.''
``We're trying to get in front of the problem,'' Hackney said.
The rules would keep boat owners from tying their boats to mooring buoys in state waters if they do not own the adjacent waterfront property, unless they receive sponsorship from a local government.
They would also require boat owners to remove any existing freestanding moorings after two years unless they met the new guidelines.
At a public hearing in New Bern last year, the rules for individual moorings were criticized by boat owners from Edenton to Morehead City. The owners said the rules were unfair to those who don't own waterfront property and said they feared the rules would prohibit access to their boats.
After receiving public comment, the commission developed more rules to allow public sponsors - such as cities or counties - to develop mooring fields for residents who do not own waterfront property to have access to their boats.
Public sponsors would have to provide wastewater pump-out, trash disposal and vehicle parking for public mooring projects.The rules would create two types of permits for freestanding moorings:
A general permit, available only to waterfront property owners for a $50 fee, to install up to four moorings for their use. Commercial moorings would not be allowed under this permit. General permits are expedited; they authorize routine development projects and often can be issued the same day they are requested.
A major permit would be available for public sponsors to install mooring fields if access, sewage pump-out, trash disposal and parking were made available.
Major permits are required for large development projects or for projects requiring other state or federal permits. Applications for major permits are reviewed by several state and federal agencies.
Moorings established under either type of permit would have to meet a number of conditions involving ownership and navigation requirements.
The rules were designed to allow quick approval for private mooring buoys for waterfront property owners and give city and county governments the authority to provide mooring fields for their residents who do not own waterfront property, according to Preston Pate Jr., an assistant director for the Division of Coastal Management. by CNB