Are CAMA Land-Use Plans Protecting Coastal Resources? An Evaluation of North Carolina’s Coastal Planning Requirement
Abstract
North Carolina’s Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) was created in 1974 to “establish
a comprehensive plan for the protection, preservation, orderly development, and management
of the coastal area.” One of CAMA’s key tools for managing coastal lands is a state-mandated
land-use planning process, which tries to incentivize environmental protection through
required analyses, planning exercises, and policy creation. The goal of this study
was to determine the degree to which the CAMA planning requirement encourages counties
to think critically about their environmental resources and plan strategically for
future development. This report evaluates the effectiveness of the CAMA planning requirement
through two main analyses: a critical review of plan content and quality using case
studies from Carteret, Dare, and Gates Counties; and a social survey to assess current
opinions and usage of CAMA land-use plans by county officials and planning employees.
Plan evaluation results showed that while counties excelled at data assessments of
current infrastructure and environmental resources, the application of environmental
analyses into responsible development planning fell short. Plan policies were typically
weak and unenforceable, and rarely exceeded state and federal standards. Survey results
communicated overall satisfaction with the planning requirement, and noted that the
process does encourage counties to consider environmental resources but additional
protection is still needed. This report concludes that the required environmental
inventories and suitability analyses are the most beneficial aspects of the planning
process, and encourages the State to dedicate future efforts towards expanding these
elements and providing more localized data assistance and guidance.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2867Citation
Bruce, Jennifer (2010). Are CAMA Land-Use Plans Protecting Coastal Resources? An Evaluation of North Carolina’s
Coastal Planning Requirement. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2867.Collections
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