The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management (DCM) is awarding grants to 22 communities for Phase 3 of the Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP). More than $1.14 million dollars will be made available for the completion of Phase 3.
“Our coastal communities have seen the impacts of climate change firsthand,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “These grants will help make our state stronger and more resilient.”
The RCCP serves to support communities in developing and implementing locally driven Resilience Strategies and to implement projects or activities which reduce the impacts of coastal hazards like flooding and storms. This initiative provides funding to local governments to help overcome barriers in coastal resilience and adaptation planning, boost local government capacity, and support a proactive, sustainable, and equitable approach to coastal resilience planning and project implementation.
“Supporting the resilience of our coastal communities is a high priority in North Carolina and we are pleased to work with our local partners to fund the next phase of the projects in their communities that help protect them from flooding and other hazards,” said DEQ Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser.
The primary objective of Phase 3 of the RCCP is to provide funding to assist communities with the engineering and design of a prioritized project identified in their RCCP Resilience Strategy or other existing plans that meet the RCCP’s Phases 1 and 2 planning criteria. Some communities will also receive funds to develop or amend ordinances that improve their resilience to flooding and other coastal hazards, or to otherwise take steps to manage stormwater and flooding. Most of the engineering and design projects feature natural and nature-based elements such as wetland restoration and living shorelines design.
RCCP is being implemented over four phases:
1) Community Engagement and Risk & Vulnerability Assessment
2) Planning, Project Selection, and Prioritization
3) Project Engineering and Design
4) Implementation
Five counties and seventeen municipalities will receive engineering and design funds for the completion of Phase 3:
- Beaufort County
- Bertie County
- Craven County
- Dare County (focus on Hatteras Island)
- Hyde County (focus on Ocracoke)
- Town of Aurora
- Town of Beaufort
- Town of Belhaven
- Town of Cape Carteret
- Town of Duck
- Town of Hertford
- Town of Leland
- Town of Nags Head
- Town of New Bern
- Town of Pine Knoll Shores
- Town of Sunset Beach
- Town of Swansboro
- Topsail Island (Including the Towns of Surf City, Topsail Beach, and North Topsail Beach)
- Town of Vandemere
- City of Washington
Community applications were reviewed based on the following criteria: project alignment with the community Resilience Strategy priority ranking; project outcomes including environmental, social, and economic; the project’s ability to reduce the vulnerability of a critical asset or population; the project’s inclusion of nature-based or hybrid components; and the project’s ability to achieve the community’s vision and goals.
The RCCP receives funding from a combination of state and federal sources.
For more information about the Resilient Coastal Communities program: go to the DCM website.
