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Natural forces will win out, and if the state wants to protect its publicly owned shoreline, it must recognize that fact.
Balancing competing interests will be job of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Shorefront Management, whose chairman is Bluffton attorney Wes Jones.
Jones sums up the challenge neatly: "We're trying to save the beaches and at the same time protect private property rights."
Easier said than done, as we've learned since South Carolina passed its landmark Beachfront Management Act in 1988.
That law set out the state's policy of gradual retreat from an eroding shoreline. It banned new seawalls and rebuilding of any that are substantially damaged. It also limited the size of new construction near the beach and stopped most new construction seaward of a line based on erosion rates.
The goal is to protect the public's dry sand beach and reduce losses from major storms.
A three-year study by the Shoreline Change Advisory Committee, which issued its report last April, came to the same conclusion reached two decades ago: The state should seek a gradual retreat from the ever-changing shoreline and work to eliminate hard erosion-control solutions that can make problems worse.
The Blue Ribbon Committee, which began its work last week, introduces more politics into the discussion. On the committee are lawmakers, mayors and business people, as well as environmentalists and lawyers. Members include former Hilton Head Island Mayor Tom Peeples, Rep. Bill Herbkersman of Bluffton and Sen. Clementa Pinckney of Ridgeland.
But even focusing on science can still lead to disputes. Property owners in Sea Pines last month reached a settlement with state regulators over where the setback line was drawn in their area in 2009. The argument turned largely on whether information from maps dating to the 1850s should be used in establishing long-term erosion rates.
The property owners and the Town of Hilton Head Island argued that more recent shoreline information, including the town's renourishment efforts, as well as data from 1920, should be relied on. They questioned the validity and relevance of the information drawn from the old maps. They prevailed, and the line will stay where it was drawn in 1999.
State regulators still maintain the 1850s information is relevant in other areas. Property owners in Hilton Head's Palmetto Dunes also have contested their 2009 setback line. Fripp Island property owners, too, contested use of the old maps, but got an exemption from lawmakers.
Since the 1988 law was passed, Hilton Head and other communities have increasingly relied on beach renourishment to maintain the beaches and protect existing development along the beach.
Hilton Head several years ago passed its own law saying that the 1999 line can't be moved seaward. Officials said they didn't want to see the town's renourishment efforts used to move development closer to the ocean. That helps ensure that its renourishment efforts make a difference in protecting beachfront development.
The Blue Ribbon Committee is expected to take more than a year to come up with its recommendations. It will be up to lawmakers to take the suggestions and turn them into law.
Protecting public resources should be the guiding principle in these debates. Tourism and real estate development are hurt in the long run if we lose sight of that.
