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Town of Duck
Town of Duck beaches in the Outer Banks.
In Duck in the Outer Banks, the beaches are public, but the access is not. A Duck resident was arrested last week for trespassing.
BY KARRI PEIFER Richmond Times-Dispatch
Karri Peifer
The Town of Duck in the Outer Banks of North Carolina has been named one of "America's Top 10 Best Beaches" and one of the country's "Best Coastal Small Towns," but the OBX town has been in the news for a different reason in the past week: its beach access.
The 3.7 square mile town nestled between Corolla and Southern Shores boasts a public park, a public boardwalk and even public beaches, but apparently there's one critical thing that isn't public anywhere in Duck: beach access points.
According to the Town of Duck's website, all of the oceanfront land in the town is private property, with most of it governed by one of dozens of subdivision homeowners' associations and all of it - 100% of it - is private, with signs posted at the access points warning beach-goers to stay away if they're not a resident or renter of one of the homes within the subdivision.
So, while the beaches in Duck are public - and maintained in part by the tax dollars of the roughly 400 year-around residents, according to the Town of Duck's website, only those in oceanfront communities can legally access or grant access to the beaches.
The whole issue came to a head last week when a Duck business owner and beach rights advocate was arrested for trespassing as he attempted to access the beach in Duck.
"On Wednesday, May 29, at approximately 8:00 a.m. Robert E. Hovey was taken into custody and charged with second-degree trespass (N.C.G.S. Section 14-159.13) in the location of Seabreeze Drive," Duck said in a public statement.
Hovey filmed and posted on social media the incident in which two beach access residents confronted him for attempting to access the beach and subsequently called police, at which point Hovey was arrested. The post was viewed thousands of times and the Town of Duck responded by issuing a statement amid calls to boycott Duck beaches.
The town has since updated its website with a FAQ section about the beach access and the town's ability to create a public beach access point, which it seems like the town does not have.
Duck is not the only Outer Banks town without public beach access; its neighbor, Southern Shores, also doesn't offer any public beach access. Corolla, N.C., does though.
kpeifer@richmond.com
Twitter: @KarriPeifer
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DAVID PHILLIPS Jun 4, 2019 10:50am
Duck may be one of the "Best Coastal Small Towns", but anyone who thinks it's one of "America's Top 10 Best Beaches" needs their head examined. Duck beaches are narrow with a very steep drop off, with rough pebbly orange sand. Nobody in their right mind would call them a good beach. If you're looking for a great beach on the Outer Banks go 10 miles north to Corolla, where the beaches are wide and have a nice gradual drop off, and the sand looks like sand. Not to mention plenty of public beach access points!
GEORGE SNEAD Jun 4, 2019 10:14am
From early childhood we visited Virginia's Eastern Shore, where my mother was born and raised. Kiptopeke was one beach we frequented, and many years later visiting Kiptopeke State Park, my wife and I were rudely confronted by a resident and informed that we didn't have the right to walk the beach. We ignored this, but cut our visit short and it definitely put a damper on things. No community should be entitled to deny public access to our beaches. (it could be that only this particular stretch of beach near the park was private)
JEROME FRAWLEY Jun 3, 2019 5:42pm
So if they will not allow access to public beaches then the property owners involved should then be charged for any beach maintenance money used. They are basically stealing public property for their private use.. As soon as it dtarts costing the owners thousands of dollars they will allow access.
LINDA FREEMAN Jun 3, 2019 5:18pm
Destin, FL, had this exact situation with beach access. The condo owners even built fences into the water to prevent non-residents from the water. The state of Florida intervened and said that beaches are public, and beaches must have access. I would hope North Carolina would do the same.
TERRY SNYDER Jun 3, 2019 2:50pm
So if you aren't one of the owners of an access point, and you're renting in Duck, but across the highway, and want to go to the beach, you either have to hire an ocean-going vessel that will drop you off several hundred yards from shore ... hire a helicopter to drop you onto the beach ... or start from below or above Duck and walk onto their sacred beach. Nice.
MR.LARRY EAVEY Jun 3, 2019 2:13pm
I guess the beach is award winning nice since they keep the riff raff public out!
Nice insult of people you do not know.
BYRON CHAFIN Jun 3, 2019 1:28pm
This is beyond wrong! How could a town prohibit citizens from accessing a beach? Un-American in my eyes.
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