Town of Kiawah Island Local Comprehensive Beach Management Plan Table of Contents
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TOWN OF KIAWAH ISLAND 2012 LOCAL COMPREHENSIVE BEACH MANAGEMENT PLAN TOWN OF KIAWAH ISLAND LOCAL COMPREHENSIVE BEACH MANAGEMENT PLAN TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 Section 1.1 Purpose .................................................................................................... 1 Section 1.2 History of Plan Approvals and Revisions .................................................. 1 Section 1.3 Overview of Municipality/History of Beach Management Approaches ...... 1 Section 1.4 Current Beach Management Issues ......................................................... 2 2. INVENTORY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS ............................................................. 3 Section 2.1 General Characteristics of the Beach ....................................................... 3 Section 2.2 General Land Use Patterns .................................................................... 10 Section 2.2.1 Beach Uses ............................................................................... 11 Section 2.2.2 Benefits and Values of the Beach .............................................. 11 Section 2.3 Beachfront Developments and Zoning .................................................... 13 Section 2.3.1 Beachfront Structural Inventory ................................................. 13 Section 2.4 Natural Resources and Ecological Habitats ........................................... 13 Section 2.4.1 Threatened and Endangered Species ....................................... 14 Section 2.4.2 Turtle Nesting ............................................................................ 21 Section 2.5 Existing Public Access and Map ............................................................ 24 3. BEACHFRONT DRAINAGE PLAN ....................................................................... 25 Section 3.1 Drainage Plan Details ............................................................................ 25 4. BEACH MANAGEMENT AND AUTHORITIES ...................................................... 26 Section 4.1 State Authorities .................................................................................... 26 Section 4.1.1 Overview of State Policies ..........................................................26 Section 4.1.2 Beachfront Setback Area ........................................................... 27 Section 4.2 Local Government and Authorities ...........................................................29 Section 4.2.1 Municipality's Comprehensive Plan .............................................30 Section 4.2.2 Municipality's Hazard Mitigation Plan ......................................... 30 Section 4.2.3 Municipality’s Disaster Preparedness and Evacution Plan ......... 31 Section 4.2.4 Beachfront Development Regulations ....................................... 32 Section 4.2.5 Regulations on Beach and Shoreline Protection ....................... 33 Section 4.2.6 Other Regulations on Beach Management ................................ 34 5. EROSION CONTROL MANAGEMENT ................................................................. 35 Section 5.1 Shoreline Change Analysis .................................................................... 35 Section 5.1.1 Beach Profiles ........................................................................... 35 Section 5.1.2 Long-Term Erosion Rates and Shoreline Change ..................... 46 Section 5.2 Beach Alteration Inventory ..................................................................... 48 Section 5.2.1 Beach Renourishment ............................................................... 48 Section 5.2.2 Emergency Orders and Sandbags ............................................ 50 Section 5.2.3 Previous Hurricane and Storm Events ....................................... 51 Section 5.3 Discussion of Erosion Control Alternatives ............................................. 55 Section 5.3.1 Beach Renourishment ................................................................ 56 Section 5.3.2 Other Measures ........................................................................ 56 6. NEEDS, GOALS, AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES ................................. 57 Section 6.1 Retreat Strategy ..................................................................................... 57 Section 6.2 Strategy for Preserving and Enhancing Public Beach Access ................ 57 7. APPENDIX ............................................................................................................. 58 Section 7.1 Beach Management Overlays ............................................................. 59 Section 7.2.1 Structures Inventory Table .................................................................. 62 Section 7.2.2 Structures Inventory Maps .................................................................. 63 Section 7.3 Public Access Inventory Table ............................................................ 80 Section 7.4 Prior Studies ....................................................................................... 81 Section 7.5 Copies of Local Laws and Ordinances ................................................ 83 SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION The Town of Kiawah Island Local Comprehensive Beach Management Plan has been created to fulfill requirements established by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) for beachfront municipalities. Section 1-1 Purpose This document will serve as an important planning and decision-making tool for the Town of Kiawah Island. Section 1-2 History of Plan Approvals and Revisions The Town of Kiawah Island was incorporated in 1988 and its first Local Comprehensive Beach Management Plan was produced and approved in 1992. In 2006, Town Staff completed a complete revision of the document and submitted it to OCRM. The document was given “conditional approval” on August 30, 2006 but was never officially approved by OCRM. Section 1-3 Overview of Municipality/History of Beach Management Approaches Kiawah Island is gated residential-resort community located 20 miles southwest of Charleston. Approximately 4,100 of the island’s 10,000 acres are 5 feet or more above mean sea level. Development of Kiawah Island began in the 1960’s and continues today. The island is home to 5 golf courses, 1 hotel, villas, and single- family homes. Kiawah’s beach is very healthy and requires very little maintenance. There have been 2 beach management projects in the past 20 years. The first was a very small-scale sand-scraping project in 1996 to address some minor erosion along Eugenia Avenue. The second was a large-scale beach renourishment project conducted in 2006 on the eastern end of the island in response to extensive erosion along the beachfront adjacent to the Ocean Course Golf Club. The project plan was designed by the Town’s beach consultant, Dr. Tim Kana, incorporating suggestions from several state and federal agencies. L. Dean Weaver Construction, Inc. was contracted to do the work and officially started on June 8, 2006. The primary objective of the project was to close an existing beachfront creek and open a new channel to the east, in order to reestablish the natural flow of sand to the beach in this area. In addition, 550,000 cubic yards of sand was placed along heavily eroded beachfront areas from the Ocean Course Clubhouse down to the 16th fairway. Work was done with land-based equipment and the project was completed on July 28, 2006. The Town funded the majority of this $3.6 million project with the balance being covered by financial contributions from 1 the Kiawah Island Golf Resort (KIGR), Kiawah Development Partners (KDP), and the Kiawah Island Community Association (KICA). Section 1-4 Current Beach Management Issues Kiawah Island has a very healthy beach that requires very little management or manipulation to maintain. Kiawah’s main issues are dog management, beach walkover maintenance, and protection of critical wildlife habitat areas. 2 SECTION 2 INVENTORY OF EXISITING CONDITIONS Section 2.1 General Characteristics of the Beach Kiawah Island is a ten-mile long barrier island bounded on the east by the Stono Inlet and Folly Beach, and on the west by Captain Sam’s Inlet and Seabrook Island. The center of Kiawah Island is located 15 miles southwest of the Charleston Harbor Entrance (Figure 1). The beach along Kiawah Island is composed of well-sorted, fine to very fine sands. The beach tends to be relatively wide and flat, and is backed by one or more dune ridges along most of the island’s length. The areas adjacent to the inlets may not exhibit this characteristic profile due to the effects of inlet shoal bypassing and inlet migration. Tides in the vicinity of Kiawah Island are semidiurnal, with a mean tide range of 5.2 feet. Waves along the shoreline tend to be relatively small, approaching the beach from the south and southeast during the summer months, and from the northeast during the winter. South/southeast waves are the most common but northeast waves tend to be stronger. This means that the net direction of sediment transport along Kiawah’s beach is from east to west. Large-scale coastal processes The beaches and barrier islands of the Atlantic coast all respond to winds, waves, and tides that predominate in a particular area. No physical process is more complex or variable than the interaction of loose sediments with breaking waves and currents. It is little wonder