COASTAL OBSERVER

Construction work for a house and pool that cut into the high dune on a North Litchfield lot last year has brought a call for Georgetown County to revise its dune protection ordinance.

The county prohibits altering a dune “unless there is no feasible alternative such as relocation, realignment or reduction in size of the proposed construction.” When the work is completed, the dune must be restored and replanted.

“It says you have to replace it, but it’s our position that these dunes aren’t something that can be easily replaced,” said Monica Whalen, an attorney with the S.C. Environmental Law Project.

The law project and the Coastal Conservation League were contacted last year by neighbors after work started on the beachfront lot at the south side of the Media Lane walkway.

The county issued a development permit for the work. 

“They had to level the dune to be able to set up their pile driver for the pool and the house,” said Steven Elliott, the county’s chief building official.

But he said there was also a mistake in the survey, “a mathematical error,” that put the location of the structures closer to the ocean than planned, but still outside the area that falls within the state’s jurisdiction.

However some sand washed over into the state jurisdiction, and the Bureau of Coastal Management stopped the work temporarily. “The state said he had to restore the dune seaward of the setback,” Elliott said.

That was all before anyone realized that the pilings were in the wrong location, he said.

The owner decided to move the entire project back from the beach “to not upset the neighbors,” Elliott said.

In addition to the dune protection ordinance, the county zoning ordinance contains beach standards. Since he started working for the county in 2007, Elliott said the only enforcement of the dune ordinance he has seen has been the removal of abandoned catamarans left in the dunes.

“We didn’t have a lot of activity with folks tearing down existing homes to build new ones,” he said. 

That was the case at Media Lane and another lot in North Litchfield where the owner wanted to put a pool on the ocean side of a new house.

“These two instances are what sparked the Coastal Conservation League’s and SCELP’s interest,” Whalen said.

At a meeting last month of the county’s beach committee, Pam Martin, a professor at Coastal Carolina University who is doing a fellowship at the law project, suggested that the group look at the dune ordinance.

The committee was formed to help with the county’s update to its beachfront management plan, but it could help with other issues, Martin said.

“The sand dune ordinance is one, there may be others,” she said.

Becky Ryon, north coast director of the conservation league, said requiring proof of no feasible alternative would be one way to strengthen the dune ordinance. She also noted that the ordinance doesn’t have a clear appeals process.

Martin suggested that could be another role for the beach committee. “The county is limited in its personnel,” she said.

And Ryon said the replanting requirement could be made stricter. 

“It’s not just an issue with habitat,” the dunes also provide storm protection, she said.

One thing that would help, Elliott said, is to consolidate the dune rules in a single ordinance.