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Mitigation Strategy Report FEMA-1134-DR-NC State of North Carolina Division of Emergency Management CAMA, in accordance with CZMA requirements, mandates that each of the 20 coastal counties develop a land use classification plan. Municipalities in each county have the option of preparing their own plan. These land use plans consist of objectives, policies, and standards tied to the public and private use of land. Currently, all 20 counties and 71 municipalities have land use plans which must be updated every five years. Hazard mitigation, a recently added component, is one of the six policy statements to be addressed in the plan. The plan requires that local governments adopt local policies dealing with coastal storm mitigation. These policies should guide community development, including the minimization of damages to property and the threat to human life. It is also required that post disaster reconstruction policies be included in the CAMA Land Use Plans. While North Carolina's CAMA is one of the country's more progressive coastal management programs, local planning efforts need to be improved. The CAMA land use plans should be strengthened in two ways: (1 )requiring the implementation of local plans, and (2)requiring consistency between municipal zoning and subdivision ordinances and the adopted plans. These changes would minimize impacts on fragile areas by guiding development to more suitable locales while improving the linkage between local planning and the objectives of CAMA. . Regulation of Development in Coastal Barrier Resource System Units Fi~ure 4: New River Inlet, North Topsail Island, circa 1949 Barrier islands, which are subject to rapid transformation, present unique land use challenges. The most dramatic change occurs with frequent overwashes or breaches during a hurricane. Initially, water moves from the sea inland as a storm approaches. Once the eye of the storm passes, the water which accumulates on the landward side of a barrier island overwashes the island as it rushes seaward. Occasionally the island divides and new inlets are formed. In the long term, barrier islands migrate shoreward in response to rising sea levels. The speed with which barrier islands change is dictated by the speed with which the sea level rises; the faster the rate of change in the level of the oceans, the faster the islands respond by migrating. Currently, most barrier islands are narrowing, an early response to rising sea levels. Narrow islands, such as those found along the North Carolina coast, are particularly susceptible to storm overwash, which is the primary vehicle for rapid island migration. -- ,"'- Page 11 . -- - - - - - - -