NORFOLK (AP) — After Hurricane Isabel stole some of its coast, the city of Norfolk replenished its Ocean View and Willoughby beaches with 428,000 cubic yards of sand.
But with the $3.8 million project behind them, city officials already are trying to figure out how they’ll pay for future projects to replenish sand, control erosion and repair damage.
“There is no permanent fix,” said Lee Rosenberg, Norfolk’s environmental service manager. “It is just like a road; you pave it, but you know you’ll have to come back and repave.”
Norfolk has spent $8.5 million replenishing its 7-mile coastline in the past three years, using money from its capital improvement fund, which is funded through tax dollars.
City officials are working on a study they hope will help open the federal government’s wallet. The study will focus on jetties at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base that may be contributing to the erosion.
The City Council informally has raised the idea of charging coastal residents a sand tax. But council member W. Randy Wright, who represents Ocean View, noted that property tax assessments in coastal neighborhoods have been rising, contributing to homeowners’ tax burdens.
The city’s investment is succeeding, with property values increasing and an additional 78 acres of beach that the projects have created, Mr. Wright said. “We have to protect the investment that has been made,” he said. “And it is paying tremendous dividends.”
Chuck Barackman, a Willoughby resident and member of Mayor Paul D. Fraim’s Ocean View Task Force, said property owners at first thought the city was wasting money when it started building breakwaters about 100 yards off the beach behind their homes. But, he said, the city was right.
“I don’t know how you measure monetary value, but the reality is that a large part of the comeback in Ocean View is based on the attractiveness of the beach,” he said.
“If the city presents itself as not willing to invest in the beach, it will make the area less desirable and have a negative impact on the rebuilding of Ocean View.”
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