Old Mason's Inlet Closed after new inlet opened
March 21, 2002
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| Crews continue to fill in what used to be Mason Inlet at the northern end of Wrightsville Beach. Residents of Figure Eight Island and the north end of Wrightsville Beach will pay for the project to relocate the inlet 3,000 feet north |
Work on the Mason Inlet relocation project is nearing completion, and that means new property owners as well as a new waterway for the north end of Wrightsville Beach.
Stephen Bassett, president of Southwind Construction, the company conducting the relocation work, said crews hope to wrap up in the next two weeks.
“All my sweating’s over,” he said Wednesday. “We’re on the last leg of our journey here.”
New Hanover County relocated the inlet 3,000 feet north toward Figure Eight Island to protect property at the northern end of Wrightsville Beach. The project’s cost, including engineering work, monitoring and the cost of purchasing the new inlet corridor property, is estimated at $6.5 million.
The wandering inlet, which has migrated more than a half-mile south in the past 15 years, used to lap less than 100 feet from the foundation of the Shell Island Resort.
But today an ever-widening ribbon of sand littered with heavy equipment and their tire tracks now extends north from the old inlet corridor.
The new land at the northern tip of Wrightsville Beach means several property changes, but it probably doesn’t herald any new development or land-use changes.
The property changes include county ownership of the new inlet and state ownership of the old inlet – eventually to be filled with 260,000 cubic yards of sand.
It also means the Hutaff family again owns property on either side of the new waterway.
The family’s property on the southern side of the inlet had been eroded by the inlet’s march south, with much of the sand ending up on their property on Figure Eight Island.
But the county’s purchase of 21 acres from the family trust for the new inlet corridor again leaves the Hutaffs holding title to the northernmost property on Wrightsville Beach.
The purchase price for the 1,000-foot-wide corridor was $340,000, which will be rolled into the project’s other costs and eventually passed onto the 1,044 property owners from Figure Eight and Wrightsville Beach who have agreed to pay for the inlet relocation.
But the New Hanover County Tax Department lists the barren parcel’s assessed value at $3,111.
Bill Raney, attorney for the Figure Eight Island Homeowners’ Association, negotiated the deal with the Hutaff family. The county adopted the contract when it took over the inlet relocation project.
Mr. Raney said the purchase price, while it might seem high, was more than a fair price for barrier island land that might have been developable.
The purchase reduced the Hutaffs’ potentially developable acreage by about 21 acres, or 27 percent.
“I think the price was quite a bit lower than market value, considering the fact that it was accessible and a pretty large hunk of land as acreage goes,” Mr. Raney said.
The Hutaffs retain road and utility access to the property through agreements with Figure Eight.
Mr. Raney said the price also compares favorably with the state’s costs to purchase privately owned 1,400-acre Lea Island in Pender County, which stretches between Figure Eight and Topsail Beach islands, and Bird Island in Brunswick County.
North Carolina is paying an estimated $1 million for Lea Island, which includes about 200 acres that are above sea level, and $4.2 million for Bird Island, which consists of about 150 acres of developable land and 850 acres of marshland.
David Ward, the New Bern attorney who has represented the Hutaff Family Trust, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Deputy County Attorney Kemp Burpeau said the county also was involved in the inlet corridor purchase talks and that officials thought the purchase price was reasonable.
In the past, county officials have said that even though the project is an expensive one, the cost of not relocating the inlet and allowing it to continue its southerly migration would be even higher.
County statistics list the 1999 assessed value of the buildings and property that could have been lost at nearly $120 million if Mason Inlet had continued its southerly migration.
While roughly 58 acres on the 136-acre Hutaff family parcel north of the new Mason Inlet is considered upland and could eventually be developed, there appears little chance any new houses will sprout on the virgin property between Shell Island and the new inlet corridor.
Mr. Raney said a county option for a construction easement across the 21-acre southern Hutaff parcel limits its developable potential.
The annual option, if exercised, will cost $55,000 a year and grants the county full use of the property.
“The county has entered into a 30-year maintenance agreement with the Corps of Engineers and will not release any easement rights in the South Tract while this obligation exists,” states the Environmental Assessment report for the project prepared by the county.
Development on the old inlet corridor, which under North Carolina law reverted to the state when the waterway was filled in, also would be limited to beach-access facilities.
A Wrightsville Beach-maintained beach access that included a 30-space parking lot was lost to the inlet several years ago.
Brian Long, spokesman for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, said part of his agency’s mission is to develop and support beach access.
“But it’s really too soon to tell what we’re going to do there,” he said.
Historically, the Hutaffs have not restricted public access to their property on the north end of Wrightsville Beach.