Virginia Assateague beach move: Make your voice heard now

Carol Vaughn | The Daily Times

Show Caption Hide Caption WATCH: Chincoteague ponies during the morning beach walk A video of the ponies being lead by the Saltwater Cowboys at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

The public has until Sept. 13 to comment on an environmental study for the planned move of the recreational beach on Virginia's Assateague Island.

Relocating the beach to a more stable area of Assateague, about 1.5 miles north of the present location, was approved in fall 2015, after it was identified as the preferred option in the final version of the comprehensive plan for Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

The National Park Service in 2017 issued a final general management plan in which the preferred alternative also adopted as the plan for a new recreational beach.

A public information meeting about the environmental assessment and site design for the beach will be held Monday, Aug. 27, from 4-7 p.m. at the Herbert H. Bateman Educational and Administrative Center on the refuge.

The project team will be available to answer questions at the meeting.

Funding is not currently available to move the beach, but planning for the project is underway.

It could cost an estimated $18-$20 million to complete the project, an official said previously.

BACKGROUND Assateague beach site moving north to avoid storm damage

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The environmental assessment analyzed the proposed site design of facilities to support the recreational beach's relocation, as described in the 2015 comprehensive conservation plan for the refuge.

The proposed action would configure parking, roads and other facilities needed for the new recreational beach.

Included are construction of a new, two-lane access road and roundabout intersection; improvement of the entrance fee booths; new parking areas and paths to access the beach; toilets, showers, foul weather shelters, changing room cabanas and other facilities; a new multi-use trail adjacent to the new access road; replacement of water control structures on two dikes; relocation of the National Park Service offices and educational programs that currently are at Toms Cove Visitor Center to the Herbert Bateman Center; and a new, 35-space parking area at the South Pony Corral.

About 75,000 people a year visit Toms Cove Visitor Center, according to the study. The center has been relocated twice, in 1991 and 1998, as conditions changed on the island.

Under the plan, a gate would be installed on Beach Road and the existing recreational beach would be converted to non-recreational beach use and winter over-sand vehicle use. Toms Cove Visitor Center and other structures at the existing recreational beach would be demolished.

The new facilities are intended to have a 25-year lifespan and account for anticipated shoreline changes — studies have found the shoreline moves on average 13 feet per year on Assateague.

Additionally, among the project's goals is to provide a reasonable walking distance from parking to the beach. Studies have found 600 feet is the average maximum distance people are willing to walk from their car to a destination.

The beach relocation gives an opportunity to correct operating deficiencies that contribute to congestion during periods of high use, the study said.

Congested areas now include the entrance fee booths, the entrance to the beach parking area, and the South Pony Corral area, it said.

The relocation to the north "is necessary because the parking area has been washed out numerous times in the past," according to the assessment.

The new recreational beach would be centered on D-dike, and facilities needed to support it would be located west of the new beach. The facility would not increase in size — the same number of parking spaces, about 1,000, as is currently at the beach would be made available.

With the new beach's development, the North over-sand vehicle zone will be open year around and the South over-sand vehicle zone will be open September 16 to March 14, the study said.

Slightly more than two miles of new paved trails for bicycle use will be created under the proposed action.

The existing beach, near the southern tip of Assateague, is particularly vulnerable to storm damage. The southern end of the island is migrating west at a rate of about 10 to 13 feet per year. In one location, the island rolled west 75 yards in five years.

Since 2003, major repairs have been needed seven times, at a total cost of nearly $3.5 million. The cost for repairs after Winter Storm Jonas alone in 2016 was $600,000, after overwash destroyed the entire parking area.

The beach and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge attract more than one million visitors each year — 90 percent of whom are primarily visiting the beach, the study found.

Tourism at the refuge generates about $50 million for Chincoteague and $200 million for the Eastern Shore of Virginia as a whole each year, according to the study.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 estimated that a reduction by one half of parking spaces in the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day could result in a $38.4 million loss in local tourism revenue.

The frequency of washouts resulting in beach access closure is expected to increase in the future, the document said.

BACKGROUND Beach relocation part of final Assateague management plan

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The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service worked collaboratively to develop the environmental assessment with local stakeholders, including Chincoteague and Accomack County, the document said.

Comments were received from 21 people during a public comment period, after public information meetings were held in July 2017.

Eleven of the comments supported a cluster parking option and one comment supported a secluded parking option.

Concerns raised most frequently were about walking distance to the beach from parking and accessibility for visitors with limited mobility.

A second workshop with cooperating agencies was held in November 2017, and included consideration of the comments.

During the workshop, another, hybrid parking option was developed "to capture the most appealing elements of the cluster parking option and minimize environmental impacts," the study said.

The hybrid option, which is preferred in the report, provides for separate parking pods, with larger pods along the northern end of the recreational beach — the approach reduces wetland impacts and spreads parking more evenly along the beach.

Three smaller lots would be constructed south of D-dike, and three larger lots, increasing in size to the north, would be built north of D-dike.

The new parking areas would have a clay-sand-clamshell surface — the same as existing parking.

The shortest and longest walk from parking to the beach on trails is about 480 and 535 feet, respectively.

Showers, vault toilets, changing room cabanas and three to five foul-weather shelters would be distributed among the parking lots.

Construction of the facilities will take about a year and may be done in phases if funding is not available to do the whole project at one time, the study said.

In other options described in the study, parking areas either would be concentrated to the northernmost portion of the site to minimize impact to existing impoundments or 10, 100-space lots would be evenly distributed along the road, providing the most protection from shoreline loss. A cluster parking option combines one, 95-space parking area with two, 34-space areas to create a pod concept.

The environmental assessment is available at https://flh.fhwa.dot.gov/projects/va/chin-10/. Hard copies are available for review at the Herbert H. Bateman Educational and Administrative Center and at the Chincoteague Island Library, located at 4077 Main St.

Submit comments via email to NorthChincoteagueBeach@dot.gov

Comments can be mailed to: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, ATTN: North Chincoteague Beach, P.O. Box 62, Chincoteague, VA 23336. Enter or mail comments by Sept. 13.

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