Jones’ bill would restore ORVs to Hatteras beaches

Legislation would return to rules friendly to local residents, fishermen

Outer Banks residents and businesses are clinging to the hope they can reverse the National Park Service’s restrictions for off-road vehicle and pedestrian access on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

This time, their vehicle is a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Walter Jones Jr., a Republican from Farmville who represents North Carolina’s third Congressional district.

Jones’ bill (HR 4094) would revert management of the seashore back to the National Park Service’s June 13, 2007-April 30, 2008 Interim Plan.The NPS devised that interim plan while two competing groups — environmentalists and local residents/business-owners/ORV clubs — tried to work out a negotiated settlement.

However, the environmentalists filed a lawsuit a few months after the “negotiated rule-making” process began. It reached U.S. 4th District Court  Judge Terrence Boyle, who decided April 30, 2008, to impose his own Interim Access Plan until the Park Service could study the issues more thoroughly and devise a final access plan, which was announced Feb. 15, 2012.

Neither Boyle’s interim plan nor the NPS final rule were acceptable to traditional beach users and local businesses, who had, in the meantime, formed the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance. CHAPA filed a lawsuit the same day (Feb. 15, 2012) the NPS final rule was announced.

Boyle met with the two parties Feb. 24, 2012, and declared his interim plan for beach access at CAHA would remain in place for 120 days, ostensibly until the courts decide the CAHA suit and he might have to defer to that decision. Boyle’s 120-day extended interim-plan ruling will end May 24, 2012. It is unclear what will happen if the CAHA lawsuit isn’t settled by that time.

In the meantime, Jones has entered his bill to return CAHA beach access to earlier regulations. The bill would “authorize pedestrian and motorized vehicular access in Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area, and for other purposes” and “after the date of the enactment of this Act, Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area shall be managed in accordance with the Interim Protected Species Management Strategy/Environmental Assessment issued by the National Park Service on June 13, 2007.

“The Secretary (of the Interior) shall not impose any additional restrictions on pedestrian or motorized vehicular access to any portion of Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area for species protection beyond those in the Interim Management Strategy, other than as specifically authorized pursuant to section 3 of this Act.”

The recently-announced NPS “final rule” would have these effects:

* Of the 67 miles of the seashore, ORVs will be banned totally at 26.4 miles, while  27.9 miles will be open year-round to ORVs and 12.7 miles will be open seasonally to ORVs and pedestrians until a piping plover or sea turtle appears; and additional 38.4 miles will be open only to pedestrians.

Rep. Jones has unsuccessfully attempted several times to get bills approved that would lift or end NPS restrictions on beach access at CAHA. North Carolina’s two senators Democrat Kay Hagan of Greensboro and Republican Richard Burr of Winston-Salem also have introduced similar bills with the same result.

The web site Govtrack.us gives Jones’ current bill a 9-percent chance of becoming law. H.R. 4094 has been shuttled into the House Commerce and Judiciary committees, where it may or may not see the light of day.