A Wise Person Doesn't Build Their House Upon the Sand
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25797)
United States
March 19, 2023 10:39am CST
This condo complex at Fort Fisher was built right of the edge of the high tide line, or at least where the high tide line was several storms ago. Now, you can see the giant sandbags they are using to stop the beach from eroding out from under the foundation of the southernmost building.
What irks me is that the condo owners aren't paying for the sandbags, the state taxpayers are. In my humble opinion, if you build or buy a property on the edge of the beach on an island you know is subject to erosion and it falls into the ocean, that's on you, not on the taxpayers of the state the beach is located in.
What do you think? Is saving this condo complex the responsibility of the taxpayers of the state or of the owners of the condos?
7 people like this
7 responses
@FourWalls (86707)
• United States
19 Mar 23
I’d give the most blame to the condo complex (and all of the payment responsibility); however, the fact that the state approved the building of the condos at such a precarious spot needs to be checked out.
Gotta wonder if the insurance companies are holding their breath, too, especially after that collapse in Miami a couple of years ago.
3 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
21 Mar 23
The local government issued the building permit. The state writes the code but does not review the permit unless the building falls into the ocean.
I've been told that a lot of those condos on the waterfront are self-insured by the developer and condo association because ordinary insurance companies won't underwrite policies for them.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86707)
• United States
21 Mar 23
@DWDavis — that sounds like a house of cards waiting to collapse in a wind storm. Figuratively and literally.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
21 Mar 23
@FourWalls Someday a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane will hit that beach at just the right angle, and all those condos built up along there are going to be obliterated.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
19 Mar 23
Well, I think that the developers and the state should be sued for building and approving the site. Now that it's there, it's a problem for all. Were the condo buyers sophisticated enough to even think of the problem? Did they sign a hold-harmless contract with the developer? It gets to be a can of worms.
2 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
21 Mar 23
The local county approved the construction. I don't believe the state was involved, though I could be wrong.
As to the condo buyers being sophisticated enough to foresee the problem, obviously not, or they wouldn't have bought a unit on an eroding beach.
Yes, the legal ramifications will be Byzantine.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
21 Mar 23
@DWDavis That's an apt choice of words.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (135770)
• Marion, Ohio
19 Mar 23
I would be unhappy helping pay for that.
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
21 Mar 23
The setback would have been a minimum of 60 feet/18.3 meters when the condos were built. And, yes, for any of us that lived in the area, the rate of erosion along that stretch of beach was well-known and the developer was warned. However, the town and country were eager for the tax revenue and approved the project anyway.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (91297)
• United States
19 Mar 23
Oh yeah when I lived up North on the shore..all the houses on Plum Island constantly having to be shored up to the tune of millions of dollars of Federal money..Ridicilous.
1 person likes this
