Beach Access Issues
December 19, 2008
Update and reports on December negotiated rulemaking meetings



The National Park Service has posted a number of documents that were released at the December meeting of its negotiated rulemaking committee on its park planning Web site.

Also, Dare County started posting video of the Dec. 11-12 meetings on its Web site on Thursday, Dec. 18.  The remaining tapes should be posted on Dec. 19.  The tapes of these meetings are also available on the government channel 20 on Charter Cable.

The negotiated rulemaking (RegNeg) committee consists of a group of 29 stakeholders who are working to reach a consensus on a long-range rule for driving on the beaches of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

For a schedule of the meetings on the cable, go to http://darenc.com/depts/PR/Ch20cal.pdf

You can also go to the county Web site at http://www.darenc.com.  Click on videos of the negotiated rulemaking committee on the home page.

The documents posted on the park planning Web site include reports from several subcommittees, including routes and areas and vehicle characteristics, equipment, and operations.  There are also subcommittee documents on safety closures for ORVs and self-contained vehicle camping on the seashore.

Most people will find the subcommittee report on areas and routes the most interesting.  The two advocacy groups on the subcommittee – ORV access groups and environmental groups – have reached some agreement on some areas.  But the two sides are still at odds over access to the most popular beaches in the seashore, including Bodie Island spit, Cape Point, South Beach in Frisco, Hatteras Inlet spit, and South Point on Ocracoke.

This report includes maps that designate routes that are proposed as pedestrian only year-round, ORV and pedestrian year-round, and areas that are pedestrian year-round and open to ORVs in the off season.  The maps also designate areas that the two sides in the negotiation have not been able to agree on.

You can click here to see the easily understandable maps from the subcommittee
To read other subcommittee reports and information from the December meeting, go to
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=358&projectId=10641&documentID=25276

All of the subcommittee reports are preliminary have not been voted on by the entire committee.

For a list of the entire negotiated rulemaking committee, click here:

Updated List of Negotiated rulemaking committee members and the organizations they represent

UPCOMING MEETINGS OF THE NEGOTIATED RULEMAKING COMMITTEE

The final meetings of the negotiated rulemaking are coming up after the first of the year.

There are two scheduled meetings, of two days each, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 6-7, and Wednesday and Thursday, Jan 21-22, at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Pavilion in Kill Devil Hills.

If necessary, there will be one last meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 3, also at the Wright Brothers Pavilion.

Agendas for the meeting will be available closer to the date.

The public can attend the meetings and can make comments at noon both days of the two-day meetings and at 5 p.m. on the first day.


 Comments are always welcomed!
     Subject :

     Name :  (Fist and Last Name required)

     Email :  (required, will not be published)

     City :   (required)    State :   (required)

     Your Comments:

May be posted on the Letters to the Editor page at the discretion of the editor.