Finally, a glimpse of sanity on beachfront

A good, strong dose of sanity was delivered last week by the General Assembly on the tricky issue of oceanfront development.

The new law passed at long last and sent to the governor will literally draw a line in the sand.

It will stop development from inching ever closer to the ravaging sea.

South Carolina tried to get a handle on this problem with the 1988 Beachfront Management Act. It drew a line in the sand based on years of erosion data. It prohibited construction seaward of that line.

It was a progressive law, based on the science and common sense of a very simple principle: retreat from the encroaching ocean.

But loopholes were used to circumvent that sound principle. We trust the new law closes the loopholes.

Under the Shoreline Management Bill (S. 319), that line in the sand will never move seaward after Dec. 31, 2017.

Developers, property owners and even some local governments got around the restriction by arguing that the baseline should move seaward if sand built up on the beach after taxpayers spent tens of millions of dollars in beach nourishment projects. But moving the baseline seaward is pure foolishness because that sand buildup is usually only temporary. You can fool state law, and you can fool a court of law, but you cannot fool Mother Nature.

State Rep. Bill Herbkersman of Bluffton sponsored the House version of the bill. He says it grew out recommendations of the 2011 Blue Ribbon Committee on Shoreline Management that he served on and Wes Jones of Bluffton chaired. To show how long this bit of common sense took to enact, the original legislation said the baseline would never move seaward from the position it occupied in June 2011.

As Herbkersman explained: “If we move the baseline seaward to account for a temporary event, when that event reverses, any buildings that were built during the previous years are in jeopardy. Property owners then want permission to build protective structures, even though we know that these structures increase erosion on neighboring properties.”

Also, it is always the general public (taxpayers) who get stuck with the bill when foolish construction demands more beach restoration, and when losses skewer the flood insurance and wind and hail insurance rates for everyone.

State Rep. Weston Newton of Bluffton and state Sen. Chip Campsen of Charleston, whose district includes parts of Beaufort County, are also credited with helping get this bill passed.

It’s overdue.

A statement from the Coastal Conservation League based in Charleston, which has pushed for these reforms for more than a decade, tells why it matters to the general public.

“When Gov. (Nikki) Haley signs S. 139, South Carolina’s shoreline will have a baseline that never moves seaward — a delineation that establishes a seaside boundary for construction — protecting our beaches and the communities that depend on them.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2016 at 8:03 AM with the headline "Finally, a glimpse of sanity on beachfront."