Nags Head Harvey Soundside site project generates safety concerns

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on September 2, 2026

Wind surfers enjoying a stiff southwest wind at the Harvey Soundside Site.
Photo credit: Kip Tabb

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice

An upcoming living shoreline project at the Harvey Soundside site in Nags Head has raised concerns about safety issues affecting recreational water activities.

Nags Head has been losing shoreline on the soundside, and the 2022 “Nags Head Estuarine Management Plan” estimated a loss of 55 acres along the 17.5 miles of estuarine shoreline since the first reliable maps of the shoreline were published in 1949.

That management plan suggests “Thinking Big” in addressing the town’s estuarine erosion and it outlines a number of projects. The first one undertaken by the town is a living shoreline at the Harvey Soundside Site to the restore shoreline and protect infrastructure at the Soundside Event Site.

The site is about 500 feet in length, extending north from the Miller Restaurant property. Current plans call for the project to begin in late October. “We had this living shoreline estuarine shoreline management plan and we were looking for ways to implement the plan,” said Nags Head Town Manager Andy Garman. “This site was identified as a pilot site for a project.”

There has been considerable investment in the plan. The total project cost is a little over $1 million and that will be funded through a $460,000 grant from North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Resilient Coastal Communities Program and a $550,000 contribution from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and the NC Land and Water Fund.

The plan for the site was submitted for public comment last October, and almost immediately, concerns were raised.

In an email to the Voice, Outer Banks resident Billy Moseley said “the development of this project will include hardened structures which I believe will create a lethal hazard to the recreational usage of the surrounding area. Kites surfers, sailors, SUPers [Stand Up Paddleboarders], boaters and even fishing will be affected by this development.”

As is common in living shoreline design, hardened structures are placed close to the shoreline to break up wave energy and allow aquatic grass and sand to accumulate along the shoreline. The structures—typically called sills—are low in the water and allow some wave energy to pass through.

Andy Keeler is an environmental economist who formerly worked at the Coastal Studies Institute. He is “a big fan of living shorelines generally,” but added that “the one drawback to them is risk of harm for recreational water users. In most places that’s not an issue, but this is a place where people have been windsurfing and kite surfing for 40 years.”

Harvey Soundside Access from the viewing pagoda in the sound.
Photo credit: Kip Tabb

After hearing from the public, Garman met with some of those who voiced concerns. Based on that, he said the town removed approximately 50 feet of sill closest to the launch site next to the Miller’s Restaurant property.  The changes, Garman hoped, would create “an adequate window for [wind sport participants] to launch from the site and return and operate without being subjected to these hazards.” In his discussions, Garman also reached out to Brad Cary, owner of First Flight Adventure.

Although widening the launch area addressed some of the concerns, the use of segmented rock sills are troubling, Keeler believes. “If you get dragged into one of those rock barriers, you’re really looking at severe injury or death,” he said.

Underlying the objections to the design of the project are doubts that it is actually necessary. Moseley asserted that “if we dump a bunch of sand out there, that’s what’s going to protect it.” The project does include a small nourishment component.

Keeler also expressed the belief that the shoreline is stable at that location, noting that “there has been no erosion on that shoreline. In fact, it’s silting in like crazy. It gets shallower all the time.”

However, documentation in the 2022 Shoreline Management Plan shows clear evidence of erosion at the project site. And in an email to those who raised concerns, Garman wrote, “We hope you understand that there are competing interests here and our goal is to develop a balanced solution that works for all stakeholders.”

For Garman, trying to accommodate the competing interests over the project has been a balancing act. But with a CAMA permit pending on the project, he says it’s time to move forward.

“We think we’ve done a pretty good job, but at some point, we can only do what we can do,” he said.