Land Acquisition
Case Studies:
Overview:
Land Acquisition program such as the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program can be used to acquire erosion-prone areas and protect them from future development.
Land acquisition can be employed to reduce the need for shoreline stabilization and minimize erosion impacts to developed property by acquiring high-risk properties before development occurs. Critical shoreline areas to acquire could include, high-risk erosion areas or important sand source areas. To be most effective and to avoid a piecemeal approach to acquisition, a land acquisition plan should be developed at the regional level.
While land acquisition programs can be effective, they can be more challenging to implement due to the high cost of shorefront property. It is difficult for waterfront properties to be competitive within a state's existing land acquisition programs given the much cheaper cost of inland property. However, some states, such as North Carolina, have created special acquisition programs for waterfront properties. NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) was created by Congress specifically to fund acquisition of higher-priced coastal area properties. While all the funding appropriated for CELCP to date has been for earmarked projects, the program was designed to offer competitive matching grants, should funds for that purpose become available.
Benefits: Protects high-risk erosion areas or important feeder areas from development and thus minimizes the need for shoreline stabilization. Maintains natural shoreline processes.
Drawbacks: Limited success due to the high cost of waterfront property. In many places, few undeveloped lots remain.
Case Studies:
North Carolina's Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program
In 1981, North Carolina created a Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program. The Program receives five percent of the budget from the state's Parks and Recreation Trust Fund which is funded by the state real estate deed transfer tax. Each year, the Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program provides $1-2 million per year in grant money to the state's 20 coastal counties to provide and/or enhance public access to ocean and estuarine waters. While the primary focus of the program is public access, the funds can be used for land acquisition, including acquisition of unbuildable lots. Although acquisition of unbuildable lots is one of the priority funding areas for the program, these projects still need to compete with other types of projects such as acquisition of any waterfront property to increase public access or enhancement of existing public access sites, such as installing dune walkovers or better restroom facilities. North Carolina has been able to support some acquisition through this program over the years. However, given the rising cost of waterfront property and the required 25 percent match for local governments, North Carolina coastal program staff note that few acquisition projects are currently funded due to the difficultly local governments have with coming up with matching funds.
New Jersey's Blue Acres Program
New Jersey's Coastal Blue Acres Program is designed to provide grants and loans to municipalities or counties to acquire important coastal lands for recreational and conservation purposes. To be eligible for acquisition through the Blue Acres Program, the land must have been severely damaged by storms, or is threatened by future storms, or severs as a buffer to protect other land from storm damage. The 1995 bond act that created the program appropriated $6 million (75% grant/25% loan) for the purchase of undeveloped land in high-risk erosion areas or property that serves important buffering roles. An additional $9 million was appropriated for the purchase of land severely damaged by storms (50% grant/50% loan). To be eligible for acquisition, the property must have lost at least 50 percent of its value due to storm damage.