## Facts

- Plaintiffs were owners of oceanfront (littoral) property within the Town of Oak Island, North Carolina.
- The seaward boundary of plaintiffs’ private lots was the mean high water (MHW) mark.
- With the Town’s consent, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carried out beach renourishment work in the Town, including the Turtle Habitat Restoration Project (completed in May 2001) and the Wilmington Harbor Project (underway when suit began).
- The renourishment placed new sand on the seaward side of the former MHW line, pushing the MHW line farther seaward and creating a new dry-sand beach and dune between plaintiffs’ properties and the ocean.
- To protect the newly placed sand, dunes, and sea turtle nesting habitat, the Town adopted a Beach Access Plan.
- The Plan provided for fencing on and along the renourished beach and required beach access through designated public access points rather than by walking directly from each oceanfront lot across the newly created dune/beach area.
- Before the Plan, plaintiffs had been able to walk directly to the ocean from their own properties.
- Plaintiffs sued the Town, alleging that (1) their littoral status included a property right to direct, unobstructed access to the ocean from their lots and (2) the fencing and access-point requirement took that right without just compensation.
- Plaintiffs also argued that, under the State Lands Act, only the State (through the Department of Administration) had authority over the renourished beach, so the Town lacked power to regulate access there.
- The trial court ruled for the Town, and plaintiffs appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the Town’s Beach Access Plan and fencing on the renourished beach constituted an unconstitutional taking by interfering with plaintiffs’ asserted right of direct access to the ocean from their oceanfront lots.
2. Whether the State Lands Act vested exclusive regulatory authority over the renourished beach in the State, thereby invalidating the Town’s access restrictions.

## Decision

- The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for the Town.
- The court held that the Access Plan did not effect a compensable taking because plaintiffs did not show a legally protected property right to direct, point-by-point access across the renourished beach area that the Town regulated; plaintiffs retained access to the ocean through designated access points.
- The court rejected plaintiffs’ State Lands Act argument and held that the Town had authority to regulate beach access in this manner and was not displaced by the State Lands Act.

## Legal Principles

- In North Carolina, private ownership of oceanfront land generally extends seaward only to the mean high water mark; land seaward of that line is held by the State subject to public trust rights.
- Littoral rights are limited rights associated with shoreline ownership; they are subject to the State’s public trust interests and reasonable governmental regulation.
- A takings claim requires interference with a recognized private property interest; restricting the route of travel across public trust or state-controlled beach areas does not amount to a taking of private property if no protected right to the forbidden route exists and reasonable access remains.
- Beach renourishment that places sand seaward of the former MHW line does not, by itself, give upland owners a private entitlement to treat the new intervening beach and dune as an unregulated corridor for direct access.
- The State Lands Act does not necessarily bar municipal action affecting beaches within municipal limits; municipalities may regulate for public safety and resource protection when consistent with state law.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed for the Town of Oak Island, concluding that the Town’s fencing and access-point system on the renourished beach did not take a compensable property right because plaintiffs lacked a legally protected entitlement to direct access across the regulated beach area and still had ocean access through designated crossings, and the State Lands Act did not strip the Town of authority to adopt the Beach Access Plan.


Slavin v. Town of Oak Island, 160 N.C. App. 57, 584 S.E.2d 100 (2003)