The National Park Service has pushed back its target date to implement a final special regulation for off-road vehicles on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore until Feb. 15.
The date has been pushed back numerous times as the Park Service, local governments, pro-access groups, islanders, and visitors try to come to terms with the contentious issue of regulating ORV use on the beaches.
The latest delay of the final rule barely caused a ripple on the Outer Banks, where folks are looking at increasingly limited use of the seashore beaches and the economic consequences that will follow.
?We like the consent decree better than the final rule,? Dare County manager and attorney Bobby Outten said yesterday. ?It doesn?t make any difference to us when it?s implemented.?
John Couch, president of the Outer Banks Preservation Association, which advocates for more reasonable access to seashore beaches, noted that in every step of the long and controversial journey to ORV regulation, NPS proposals have been more restrictive.
?A betting man might think that the final rule will be even more restrictive (than the proposed rule),? Couch said.
Since 2008, the seashore has been managed under the terms of a consent decree that settled a 2007 lawsuit filed against the Park Service by Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society over the seashore?s lack of an off-road vehicle regulation to protect threatened and endangered sea turtles and shorebirds. The two environmental groups were represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Dare and Hyde counties and the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance are defendant-intervenors in the case and parties to the consent decree.
When the consent decree was signed off on by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle in April, 2008, the parties all agreed that there would be a final regulation by April 1 of this year.
But that deadline came and went.
In an April 7 status conference in Boyle?s courtroom, parties to the consent decree agreed to a new date for the final rule ? Nov. 15.
A proposed special regulation was published in the Federal Register in July and the public comment period closed on Sept. 6. However, after Hurricane Irene, the Park Service re-opened the comment period until Sept. 19.
On Nov. 15, assistant U.S. attorney Rudy Renfert filed a motion in federal district court to modify the terms of the consent decree ? specifically to extend the deadline for the final rule.
In his filing, Renfert said that the federal defendants need additional time and noted that ?the final rule package is under review in the National Park Service Washington office.?
He noted that the Park Service had received 21,000 comments on the proposed rule and that the agency expected to send the final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for its regulatory review in early December.
The motion said that NPS expected to publish a final rule in the Federal Register in January with an effective date of Feb. 15.
Renfert said all parties to the consent decree had been consulted and that the plaintiffs do not object.
Judge Boyle signed off on the motion on Nov. 20.
Meanwhile, the Park Service is pushing ahead with plans to implement the new ORV management plan.
It has been a long and tortuous 35-year journey to this point, during which the seashore beaches were fenced off for nesting birds and turtles but pedestrians and beach drivers were still allowed reasonable access.
Under the consent decree, that access has been limited for both pedestrians and ORVs.
The management plan and proposed final rule call for changes that would greatly alter the historical and traditional access to the seashore?s beaches by islanders and visitors.
And it?s based on science that has been challenged by access advocates but defended by the Park Service.
Among the upcoming changes is a permit to drive on the beach, which users could buy for a week or year-round.
The Park Service has not made many details of the permit public yet, including the cost.
But we do know that all drivers will have to attend a video presentation on ORV use
before they can take their vehicles onto the beaches.
The Park Service advertised for employees to run this program earlier this year, but apparently has not hired anyone yet.
And seashore officials are pushing ahead with the installation of trailers at three sites where ORV drivers will have to go to apply for the permit, view the video, and pay the fee.
Those sites are at Coquina Beach on Bodie Island, near Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and next to the NPS Visitor Center on Ocracoke.
The ORV management plan also calls for added infrastructure, including new ramps and parking areas, to accommodate the new restricted access.
So far, the Park Service has had little to say about what these improvements will cost, how they will be funded, and whether all aspects of the final plan will be implemented while they are being planned and constructed.
Park officials have said that an environmental assessment will be necessary to make the improvements, and that process can be lengthy.
The once-despised consent decree is looking better every day.
So it?s not surprising to advocates for free and open access to the seashore?s public beaches that a final rule is delayed once more.
Even longer would be just fine by them.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Click here to read the Nov. 15 motion to modify the consent decree.
Click here to read the editor?s blog from July 20 on preparations to implement the final ORV rule
Click here to read the proposed final ORV regulation, published July 6.
Click here to read the Record of Decision on the NPS selected alternative for ORV management.
