Chincoteague fears proposal to move beach would hurt tourism, economy

Chincoteague, Va. — Over the years, residents and tourists in this picturesque resort town have been guided by five gentle words: “Relax, you’re on island time.”

But these days, laid-back Chincoteague is on edge.

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Proposed plans for the future of Chincoteague’s beach.

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In a new plan to deal with beach erosion and prepare for sea-level rise, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed changes that the mayor, the chamber of commerce and homeowners say would eventually drive away summer tourism and drive down the economy that depends on it. Some of those changes would involve closing the beach and its parking lot, then opening a beach with parking farther away and shuttling tourists.

Town leaders say vacationers won’t board shuttles with all their beach stuff — umbrellas, chairs and food. They’ll bypass Chincoteague for Ocean City, where hotels sit near the water.

Feelings are running high, as Beth Hanback learned after she helped shuttle tourists to the public beach after Hurricane Irene washed out the parking lot.

Approached in a grocery store by a little old lady who asked whether she helped with that shuttle, Hanback thought she was about to get a sweet, neighborly “attagirl.”

Not quite. “She sort of cleared her throat and spit at me,” Hanback said. “She said, ‘You’re going to kill this town with your [darn] shuttle.’ ”

Hanback, executive director of the Chincoteague Natural History Association, was flabbergasted. She was helping tourists, not endorsing the part of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan residents dislike most.

“We had so many happy folks who said this bus saved our vacation,” Hanback said. “I was really happy.”

For a town that relies on tourism, the stakes are high. The beach is the lifeblood of Chincoteague, swelling its 3,500 population about tenfold in summer.

But Chincoteague doesn’t control its beach. It’s part of the Assateague Island National Seashore, run by the federal National Park Service, and sits within the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, controlled by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Charged with protecting endangered animals and managing the refuge on a shrinking budget, the Fish and Wildlife Service ar­gued in a 15-year comprehensive refuge plan that it can’t save the beach and its parking lot from the unrelenting forces of nature.

More than 100 yards of shoreline has been lost to the Atlantic Ocean since the mid-1960s, said Louis Hinds, the refuge manager. A federal visitors center has been moved twice from rising waters. And if cars didn’t occupy the 8.5-acre parking lot, piping plovers, an endangered shorebird the refuge protects, would nest there.

The changes facing Chincoteague are coming to coastal communities across the nation. In Hampton Roads, planning commissions are preparing for the day, 30 to 50 years from now, when sea-level rise reshapes the coast, and a few landowners are resisting.

At the core of the debate in Chincoteague are questions of fairness.

Should the federal government close a beach it established and helped popularize? Over a half-
century, it shored up Chinco­teague’s way of life, spawning dozens of hotels and hundreds of rental houses, restaurants and shops.