Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Southern Shores, NC
Southern Shores has been an incorporated, council-manager town since March 26, 1979, sitting in Dare County the same as Duck, Kitty Hawk, and every other Outer Banks town north of Oregon Inlet. That county location is what actually governs whether an oceanfront owner here can build a seawall or bulkhead: Dare County is one of the 20 counties covered by North Carolina's Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA), and CAMA's statewide rules -- not anything Southern Shores' own town council decides -- set the real answer. The short version: a new permanent hardened structure on the ocean shoreline generally isn't obtainable under current law, and hasn't been since the mid-1980s. What Southern Shores does have instead is its own active beach-nourishment program, run separately from neighboring towns' efforts, plus a genuinely open governance question about whether that nourishment is even needed as often as it's been done.
North Carolina's Statewide Ban Reaches Southern Shores the Same as Every Other Oceanfront Town
The NC Coastal Resources Commission adopted a policy prohibiting new permanent hardened erosion-control structures -- seawalls, bulkheads, groins, jetties, revetments -- on the ocean shoreline in 1985, after studying how other states' experience with hardening had gone. That policy stood on its own for roughly 15 years, and in 2003 the General Assembly wrote it directly into state law as N.C. General Statute 113A-115.1, "Limitations on erosion control structures." The operative text is close to a flat prohibition: "No person shall construct a permanent erosion control structure in an ocean shoreline," where "erosion control structure" is defined to include "a breakwater, bulkhead, groin, jetty, revetment, seawall, or any similar structure," and "ocean shoreline" is defined as the Atlantic Ocean, oceanfront beaches, and frontal dunes. CRC Science Panel chair Laura Moore has described the underlying problem with hardened structures as "zero-sum": a wall that protects one property tends to accelerate erosion next door and, over time, contributes to the loss of the public beach in front of it -- the reasoning behind treating this as a statewide rule rather than a lot-by-lot judgment call.
Dare County -- where Southern Shores sits -- is one of the 20 counties covered by CAMA, meaning the Coastal Resources Commission's rules and this statutory ban apply to Southern Shores' ocean shoreline exactly as they apply to any other North Carolina beach town. Southern Shores incorporated on March 26, 1979, with its Town Council taking office that April 1, and runs its own council-manager government today under Mayor Elizabeth Morey and Town Manager Cliff Ogburn. None of that local self-governance changes CAMA jurisdiction: shoreline hardening in Southern Shores is regulated development requiring the same state-level review as it would anywhere else on the Dare County coast.
The Narrow Exceptions -- and the Terminal Groin Program's Expanding Cap
The statute carves out a short, specifically enumerated list of exceptions, not a general eligibility test any oceanfront owner can apply under: (1) structures already authorized under Coastal Resources Commission rules that predate the July 1, 2003 codification; (2) permanent structures built before July 1, 1974 that have been in continuous use protecting a navigable inlet; and (3) terminal groins -- sand-trapping structures built at the end of an island or beside an inlet -- authorized as a narrow pilot program by 2011's Session Law 2011-387. That program was originally capped at four permits statewide, raised to six in 2015, and raised again to seven via 2024's Session Law 2024-45. NC DEQ's guidance also describes two rule-level scenarios where a structure can be considered outside the statute's enumerated list: protecting a bridge that serves as the only access to a substantial barrier-island population, or maintaining a commercial navigation channel of regional significance.
None of these exceptions realistically fit a Southern Shores oceanfront lot. There's no terminal groin sited in Southern Shores, no documented pre-1974 navigation structure, and no bridge-access scenario in play on this stretch of coast. The realistic starting assumption for any Southern Shores oceanfront property is the same as everywhere else on the North Carolina coast: a new permanent seawall or bulkhead is not obtainable under current law, full stop, not simply a harder permit to get.
Southern Shores' Real Alternative: Beach Nourishment -- With an Unresolved Question About How Much It's Actually Needed
Southern Shores runs its own beach-monitoring program, historically through APTIM and more recently Coastal Protection & Engineering (CPE), separate from neighboring towns' efforts. The town's most recent major renourishment project, completed in October-November 2022, placed over 1 million cubic yards of sand across its 3.7-mile coastline -- roughly 343,700 cubic yards on the south end, 580,800 in the central section, and 124,000 on the north end. What makes Southern Shores' story genuinely different from a typical nourishment writeup is what happened next: between November 2022 and June 2023, the town's own beach-profile surveys found the shoreline gained an additional roughly 400,000 cubic yards through natural accretion alone -- with zero nourishment assistance -- split across the north (161,400 cy), central (140,600 cy), and south (97,900 cy) sections. At a December 5, 2023 Town Council presentation, the town's CPE consultant, Ken Willson, put the question to the council directly: did Southern Shores need beach nourishment in the first place? That's a real, sourced, still-open governance question, not a rhetorical one.
That question carries directly into a live decision in front of the town right now. Southern Shores is weighing whether to join a 2027 regional beach-nourishment project together with Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills, at a total project cost of $6-8 million; if Southern Shores participates, it would cover roughly a quarter of an approximately $8 million mobilization cost, versus a third each for the other three towns if Southern Shores opts out instead. On August 5, 2025 the Town Council unanimously approved an additional $111,406 (roughly $134,000 total) from the town's Beach Nourishment Capital Reserve Fund for design and permitting work, while delaying the actual commit-or-opt-out decision to as late as May-June 2026. Recent surveys reportedly show healthy sand accretion -- roughly 333,900 cubic yards gained between 2022 and 2025 -- which local reporting has framed as arguably undercutting the case for spending more on nourishment so soon. None of this changes the underlying legal picture: nourishment, not hardening, is Southern Shores' actual tool, and the open question is how much of it the town needs, not whether it can build a wall instead.
2026: This Ban Is Under Active Legislative Pressure
This is not a settled, decades-frozen policy right now -- it's a live legislative fight as of this research, and it would affect Southern Shores exactly as it would any other North Carolina beach town if any of it passes. Three bills in the NC Senate would each chip at or repeal the ban: Senate Bill 1009, sponsored by Sen. Bob Brinson, would repeal the 1985/2003 prohibition outright, and advanced out of the Senate's Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee on June 17, 2026, headed next to the Appropriations Committee; Senate Bill 1008, sponsored by Brinson along with Sen. Lazzara and Sen. Hanig, would authorize a pilot program for seawall and wave-attenuator projects, funded by local governments or HOAs rather than the state, sited by the NC Collaboratory based on erosion severity; and Senate Bill 1001, sponsored by Sen. Michael Lazzara, would let the state's Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund pay for terminal-groin construction or repair on public land.
None of these three bills, or the news coverage around them, names Southern Shores specifically. Coverage instead centers on Buxton and Rodanthe -- where 32 houses have collapsed into the ocean since 2020 -- and on a Currituck County board of commissioners' resolution supporting repeal, which was reported as "expected to approve" ahead of its May 18, 2026 meeting; no post-vote reporting confirming that resolution actually passed could be found in this research, so it should be treated as expected, not confirmed. If you're evaluating a Southern Shores oceanfront lot, confirm the current status of G.S. 113A-115.1 and any related rule changes directly with NC DEQ's Division of Coastal Management before assuming either "walls are permanently banned" or "walls are now allowed." As of mid-2026, neither statement is settled.
What This Means for a Southern Shores Buyer or Owner
Don't buy an oceanfront lot in Southern Shores assuming you can armor it later if erosion becomes a problem. Under current law, a new permanent seawall or bulkhead generally isn't obtainable regardless of how threatened a specific house is, and none of the statute's narrow exceptions realistically fit a Southern Shores property. What the town does have is its own active nourishment program with a real, if debated, track record -- and its own live decision, due by mid-2026, on whether to join a shared regional project with Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills. That's a legal, town-run alternative to hardening, even as the town's own consultant has openly questioned how much of it is actually necessary.
Because this legal picture includes three live, undecided Senate bills that could change the rules within the next year or two, and because Southern Shores' own regional nourishment decision remains open as of this writing, treat anything on this page as a starting point, not a final answer. Consult a coastal engineer or CAMA permitting specialist for current regulations before buying, building, or planning any erosion response on a specific Southern Shores lot -- and confirm the town's latest beach-monitoring numbers and nourishment decision directly with the Town of Southern Shores rather than relying on a listing description.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: N.C. General Statute 113A-115.1 ("Limitations on erosion control structures"), including its definitions, core prohibition, and the pre-1974/pre-2003/terminal-groin exceptions; ncanchor.org/NCpedia and ncleg.gov confirming the Coastal Resources Commission's 1985 policy adoption and 2003 statutory codification, plus the terminal-groin cap history (2011 Session Law 2011-387; raised to 6 permits in 2015; raised to 7 via 2024 Session Law 2024-45); NC DEQ's guidance on bridge-access and navigation-channel rule exceptions; confirmation that Dare County is one of the 20 counties covered by the Coastal Area Management Act; the town's own 1980 federal land-use-plan document and its current governance pages confirming March 26, 1979 incorporation, Mayor Elizabeth Morey, and Town Manager Cliff Ogburn; the Southern Shores Beacon (Dec. 19, 2023), reporting on a Dec. 5, 2023 Town Council presentation, for the October-November 2022 nourishment project's cubic-yardage figures by section, the subsequent November 2022-June 2023 natural-accretion finding, and consultant Ken Willson's direct question to the council about whether nourishment was needed in the first place; the Southern Shores Beacon (Aug. 24, 2025) for the open 2027 regional nourishment decision shared with Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills, its $6-8 million total cost, the August 5, 2025 council vote on design/permitting funds, and the commit-or-opt-out decision delayed to as late as May-June 2026; and Outer Banks Voice and Public Radio East/WUNC reporting on Senate Bills 1008, 1009, and 1001, including SB1009's June 17, 2026 committee advancement and the Currituck County commissioners' May 18, 2026 resolution vote. Hedges: a companion Coastland Times article covering the same 2027 regional-nourishment story returned a persistent 403 and could not be independently confirmed, though the Southern Shores Beacon's reporting on the identical topic is treated as reliable; the Currituck County commissioners' resolution was reported as "expected to approve" ahead of its May 18, 2026 meeting, and no post-vote confirmation that it actually passed could be found; and the status of Senate Bills 1008, 1009, and 1001 remains unresolved as of this writing, meaning the core policy described on this page may have changed by the time you're reading it. Regulatory details and shoreline data are parcel-, time-, and jurisdiction-specific -- consult a coastal engineer or CAMA permitting specialist for current regulations, and confirm any specific lot's status directly with NC DEQ's Division of Coastal Management and the Town of Southern Shores before making any decision. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or insurance advice.