DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers at the 91 Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., have launched a two-year study aimed at documenting community perceptions of development and land-use change on coastal communities in North Carolina’s historic Down East region.

The study, “Change in Coastal Communities: Perspectives from Down East,” will focus on change in Carteret County, but will be applicable to coastal communities experiencing rapid land-use change throughout the Southeast, says principal investigator Lisa M. Campbell.

“Almost half of the nation’s population lives in coastal counties now, and the population is expected to rise by about 25 million more people over the next 15 years,” says Campbell. “Tourism, migration to the coast by year-round or seasonal retirees and people with second homes, and associated development is changing the character, economies, cultures and environments of Down East communities as we speak.

“Our study aims to gather data from these communities, bring together stakeholders on all sides of the issue, and facilitate public dialogue about the area’s future,” she says. “The ultimate goal is to help communities, developers and planners envision long-term strategies for sustainable land use and development.”

Campbell is Rachel Carson Assistant Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. She is based at the Duke Marine Lab, which is part of the Nicholas School. Her research focuses on coastal conservation and development, and the impacts they have on human communities and natural resources.  

The study is funded by North Carolina Sea Grant.  

Down East refers to a rural section of Carteret County stretching from the fishing community of Harker’s Island in the south to the ferry port of Cedar Island in the north. Located on a narrow peninsula between the Pamlico Sound and Atlantic Ocean, Down East’s economy has traditionally been dominated by commercial fishing. The isolated region’s distinctive dialect and culture has long attracted the attention of linguists, sociologists and historians, but in recent years the area’s low cost of living and proximity to coastal waters and beaches also has attracted an influx of tourists and seasonal and year-round retirees and second-home owners.  

“On one hand, this development can bring much-needed new sources of revenue and employment. On the other, it can bring inflation, displacement and other economic, environmental and cultural impacts. Some of these impacts can undermine the very features that make the region attractive in the first place,” Campbell said.

In 2006, conflict resulting from land-use changes Down East erupted into a hotly contested public debate between local residents, property owners, developers, environmentalists and elected officials. The divisiveness of the conflict convinced Campbell and her collaborators that a more productive approach was needed.

To that end, the research team is assembling a group of community advisors, representative of all sides in the land-use debate, to help guide the study. With their input, Campbell and her team will conduct a regional household survey and hold one-on-one interviews with Down East residents and landowners this summer, to learn their views on the area’s environment, economy and culture; their attitudes toward current and future development; and their levels of support for various options for managing the growth and development.

Campbell is optimistic about how the research will be received locally. “It is with survey results that we can start to speak confidently about what residents and landowners think about changing land use and the future of development,” she says. “Given the importance of these issues and the media attention they’ve received, we hope residents will be enthusiastic about this work and see it as a meaningful addition to their own lives.”

Responses from the survey will be analyzed and made available as a documentary DVD, which will also contain selected interview texts, images of the region, and geospatial analysis and mapping that provides visual snapshots of the recent land-use changes that have occurred Down East.      

In year two of the study, the researchers will host public workshops to show the DVD and present the detailed results of their study. Following the presentation, members of the public will break into small groups, led by trained facilitators, to discuss the study’s findings. Their feedback will be shared with the study’s community advisors and, through them, the communities at large.

The participatory approach of the Down East study is modeled on a project recently conducted by two of Campbell’s collaborators, Gabe Cumming and Carla Norwood, as graduate students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Their study assessed public attitudes about land-use changes and development in the once-remote mountain communities of Macon County, N.C., where out-of-state residents now own 42 percent of all property. Cumming and Norwood’s workshops and meetings drew capacity crowds, and their findings are now being used to help guide future development and land-use planning by communities in the county.

Campbell hopes for similar success in Carteret County.

“The objective isn’t to tell local stakeholders what to do,” she emphasized, “but to give them tools to determine for themselves how to accommodate development while protecting resources critical to local ecosystems, economies and quality of life.”

Campbell’s co-investigators in the study are: Michael K. Orbach, professor of the practice of marine affairs and policy at the Duke Marine Lab; Zoe Meletis, assistant professor of the University of Northern British Columbia and a former PhD student at the Duke Marine Lab; and Cumming and Norwood.