Beach Nourishment Project Coming To Kill Devil Hills
The Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners voted this week to proceed with a $20 million beach widening project along the town’s oceanfront, using Nags Head’s successful beach nourishment project as a template.
The proposed project would widen about 12,000 feet of beach on the northern end of the town using approximately 910,000 to 1.7 million cubic yards of sand pumped from offshore borrow areas, according to Outer Banks Voice.
The project would use $10 million from Dare County’s Beach Nourishment Fund, which is made up of a portion of occupancy tax collections, and borrow $10 million in the form of a five-year general obligation bond.
Kill Devil Hills Commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to ask the Dare County Board of Commissioners to begin collecting the 1 percent additional occupancy tax that was authorized by the General Assembly in 2010 for beach nourishment.
The county’s Beach Nourishment Fund was originally intended to help finance Nags Head’s project, which was completed in 2011 after more than 10 years of red tape, but county commissioners found that the additional tax was not necessary at that time.
Adding another one percent to the county occupancy tax would generate half of the $2.1 million annual debt payment, while the other half would come from a town-wide tax of 3 cents per $100 of value and an additional municipal service district tax of 32.09 cents for the municipal service district to include the northern beachfront area where the sand would be placed.
Let us hear your thoughts on a bigger beach coming to Kill Devil Hills in the comments!
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