Property Voyeurism

[budwom]

Seawalls, groins, and breakwaters are the ultimate "Not my problem" solutions because they just redirect the erosion up beach to areas that don't have the money (or permission) to build them.

friends at Topsail Beach report that for the third or fourth time in just the last decade they are spending millions of dollars for "beach nourishment" for the entire town waterfront, roughly six miles. At what point do they face reality? Not even close yet.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

friends at Topsail Beach report that for the third or fourth time in just the last decade they are spending millions of dollars for "beach nourishment" for the entire town waterfront, roughly six miles. At what point do they face reality? Not even close yet.

A while back I worked on financing a portion of a massive flood remediation project that was paid for by the immediate city and counties, states, and federal government (the project was nowhere near where I live). One of the first steps of the project was getting rid of some of the homes most at risk, which was obviously not an easy process - some people left more easily than others. A cynical colleague said "do we really care enough about this place to spend a small fortune preventing a flood?" Our perspective on this living halfway across the country was different than those who lived right there.

[budwom]

A while back I worked on financing a portion of a massive flood remediation project that was paid for by the immediate city and counties, states, and federal government (the project was nowhere near where I live). One of the first steps of the project was getting rid of some of the homes most at risk, which was obviously not an easy process - some people left more easily than others. A cynical colleague said "do we really care enough about this place to spend a small fortune preventing a flood?" Our perspective on this living halfway across the country was different than those who lived right there.

It's fascinating to watch at Topsail. Since it's a very popular island for rentals, the counties pile on the taxes...state and county taxes combined on all rentals are roughly 13%, plus they lobby for and get help from the Feds periodically (a bete noir of mine, love to tussle with many of the locals who say they had the federal government but have no problem taking money for "beach nourishment." Some properties at the northern part of the island are already condemned, some are surrounded by sandbags, but what the heck, they're going to milk this cow until it keels over. At some point in the not so distant future, this isn't going to work, but they'll keep trying, just as the state rebuilds Route 12 (?) on the Outer Banks on a regular basis.