Willingness to pay for beach width in Nags Head, NC

Board weighs widening of N.C. beaches via nearby dredging:

Many beaches in South Nags Head are becoming smaller and smaller - narrow even at low tide. Some homeowners have guarded their property with walls of sandbags, but on May 1 the state began requiring that all exposed bags be removed. ... The new project would proceed under a federal regulation that allows sand from federal dredging projects to be placed on public beaches.

...

It's been 16 months since voters shot down a $24 million bond measure to widen the town's beaches. Efforts to fund such a project have failed at the federal and county levels as well.

Earlier this year the town established a beach nourishment trust fund in the hope that residents would donate money to pay for the work. The town must give the money back if a project isn't initiated within six years.

Relatively early contingent valuation method surveys used voluntary trust funds as the payment vehicles. Later research found that voluntary donations lead to understated willingness to pay values. So I'm not out on a limb when I predict that less than $24 million will be collected in the trust fund.

And how about a blog attempt at a CVM hypothetical-real value study (as if we need another one)?

1. What are you hypothetically willing to pay to widen Nags Head beaches?
2. Here is your opportunity to actually contribute to beach width in Nags Head: Town of Nags Head Beach Nourishment Trust Fund [PDF].

Instant Update: Nags Head won't pursue sand dredging project.

Comments

[PaulS]

Beachfront homeowners are presumably the richest folks in town since beachfront property is a positional good in the most literal sense. Does anybody else in town, presumably less rich, have any stake whatsoever in this? If not, why would or should they act to subsidize it?

[SNH]

Same old defective logic. If it wasn't for the beach, Nags Head would not exist. If the beaches don't attract people then how many businesses do you think will be operating in this town? We locals don't keep those businesses open ......that's for sure. AND once the rental cottages and those businesses start to dry up, and the property tax rates on the rest of us start to go up......then, there will be a wail heard about why we didn't do something about beach nourishment. Our neighbors in Morehead, Wrightville, and Myrtle have done this for years......successfully.