Group fights for permit for handicap-accessible beach mat after state ordered its removal

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — There’s been controversy in over a handicap-accessible plastic mat at at a beach access in Carolina Beach, after the state said it could be putting wildlife at risk.

Kevin Murphy is the President of Ocean Cure, which has been setting up the 3,000 square ft. plastic mat for the last three years.

“We’re allowing freedom in this small area,” Murphy said. “I mean, I wish we could do this at every access, but I understand that that could become a problem. So we’re not saying, ‘Hey, let everyone put these down on every beach access on North Carolina’s coast.’ We’re saying, ‘let us have a permit that makes sense.'”

The mat allows people in wheelchairs to independently wheel out onto the beach past the boardwalk. But over the last few years, Murphy says they’ve gotten push back from the state’s Division of Coastal Management.

“The town has gotten a couple letters that basically said, ‘Hey, this floor needs to be pulled up nightly,” Murphy said. “It’s not necessarily in violation, but it’s not in compliance with current regulations.”

Murphy says the mat takes five hours to assemble and two hours to disassemble though, so pulling it up nightly just isn’t possible.

This summer, Murphy says he and the Town of Carolina Beach got a letter from the DCM. The letter says the mat could violate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered Species Act.

Letter from Division of Coastal Management

“The most significant concerns are related to potential impacts to sea turtles and shorebirds, and the lack of a Biological Opinion or Habitat Conservation Plan from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) authorizing any potential “takes” of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, should one occur. Both the USFWS and N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) have raised concerns about potential sea turtle takes that could result from this structure, and provided the Division with a recent example of a “false crawl” by a sea turtle on a different N.C. beach that appears to have been caused by similar beach matting,” the letter said.

“The state is in a tough situation because they wrote the laws, so they have to enforce the laws,” Murphy said. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife and North Carolina’s Wildlife, their job is to advocate for sea turtles, so that’s what they’re doing. What we’re trying to do is advocate for people with disabilities. so that’s where it tends to get tricky because we’re kind of all bumping heads here.”

In the DCM’s letter, it says matting can’t be parallel to in the ocean, and “must be no wider than 6 feet and terminate no farther than 6 feet seaward of the toe of the frontal dune.”

But Murphy says those regulations would only let the people in wheelchairs go six feet off the boardwalk, straight into the traffic of other people on the beach.

In an effort to be in compliance, Murphy says he’s gotten the run around from the DCM, N.C. Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. He says there doesn’t seem to be a precedent for this situation, and has asked the agencies if the regulations can be amended to allow for this type of mat.

“There should be a reasonable permit that you can apply for, just like builders have when they build and build on the dunes or over the dunes,” he said.

Murphy feels like a permit for the mat on just this beach access is a reasonable request.

“We really want to work positive with everyone,” he said. “We don’t want anymore finger pointing. We don’t want anyone blaming somebody else. We want this to work, and it should work.”

Murphy says they plan to file the necessary paperwork with the DCM by October 9, and hope to get a permit to put the mat back down next summer. He says they pulled the mat up prior to Hurricane Isaias, and left it up of the remainder of the season to avoid further controversy.

The DCM shared the following statement with WWAY:

“First and foremost, the N.C. Division of Coastal Management fully supports and encourages handicap access to oceanfront beaches, and recognizes the commendable goals and outcomes of the Ocean Cure project. That said, not all handicap-accessible projects are automatically exempt from state and local permitting.

For two consecutive years, division staff advised Ocean Cure and the Town of Carolina Beach of the need to apply for a state Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) permit for this structure. Staff explained to Ocean Cure that because the structure does not conform with regulations established by the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission (CRC), the application would likely be denied, but they could then seek a variance from the CRC. The CRC has authority to allow a project that is inconsistent with existing state rules under certain conditions. During those two years, the division did not issue a formal Notice of Violation (NOV) or assess any penalties, did not require immediate removal of the structure, and tried to allow sufficient time for Ocean Cure and the Town to pursue an administrative remedy. Division staff also advised Ocean Cure and the Town to work directly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address concerns related to sea turtles, as interactions with sea turtles are regulated under the federal Endangered Species Act and do not directly lie within the State’s jurisdiction.

The State recognizes that this is a challenging situation at Carolina Beach given the parallel and important goals of enhancing handicap access, managing development on a public beach, and protecting threatened and endangered species. The Division of Coastal Management presented this issue to the Coastal Resources Commission during their quarterly business meeting on Wednesday, September 9 to consider amendments to rules concerning Beach Mats and Public Beach Accesses at 15A NCAC 7K .0207. For comparison, staff shared rules recently adopted in South Carolina that are specifically focused on beach mats. The Coastal Resources Commission agreed to move the recommended amendments forward to public hearings.

Link to recommended amendments: https://files.nc.gov/ncdeq/Coastal%20Management/documents/PDF/Coastal%20Resources%20Commission%20-%20Meeting%20Agendas%20-%20Minutes/CRC-20-19–Beach-Mats-Amendments-to-7H-0308-and-7K-0207.pdf”