Waiting game to rebuild along coast

The storm surge from Hurricane Sandy shifted Richard Broccoli’s Charlestown cottage on its pilings, ripped off the front deck and ruined the electrical system.
Like many property owners affected by Sandy, Broccoli wants to rebuild, but doesn’t know when or whether he will be allowed to by authorities concerned with the future of homes built precariously close to an encroaching ocean.
“We all feel we don’t know what is going to happen,” said Broccoli about the future of his and other damaged beach houses on Charlestown Beach Road. “If we are going to rebuild, we need to rebuild now.”
While he and neighbors wait, they put up snow fences around their property to catch sand and try to build back parts of the dune that were lost in the storm.
Along with the great views, oceanfront property has always come with the inherent risk of the sea.
Seldom has that risk seemed more acute than now, as beaches shrink and devastating storms seem increasingly common.
But how Sandy’s wrath will affect people’s desire to live by the water or alter the valuable real estate there is still unclear and depends on the tricks of geography that caused some areas extensive damage while nearby neighborhoods were unscathed.
With offices in southeastern Connecticut and South County, Rhode Island, and a strong presence in the Misquamicut and Charlestown summer rental market, Randall Realtors, Real Living Real Estate has seen the damage caused by Sandy up close.
CEO Douglas Randall said the firm expects to take a hit from lost commissions on damaged rental listings and pending sales of homes – at least three – that didn’t close and might never because of the storm.
On Sandy’s future impact, Randall said the seasonal rental market will probably be affected more than anything else because so many beach cottages are rented.
Even properties that weren’t seriously damaged might find it hard to find bookings, he added, because of the perception that their beaches and villages were compromised.
But in the long run, Randall said people will return to beach properties if owners are allowed to rebuild and another major storm doesn’t come along soon. “Storms have happened before and people come back,” Randall said. “There were people who bought [beachfront homes] the week before the storm. Most of the times these houses are a lot of money and people know the risk going in.”
Although Lila Delman Real Estate is focused in areas east of the worst damage, agents there have been debating what rising sea levels and extreme weather might mean for coastal real estate, said President Melanie Delman.
Personally, Delman said she is bullish on waterfront property, but that storms like Sandy will widen differences in value between premium ocean properties – those seen as protected – and second-tier listings.
“I believe in the long term that quality oceanfront or ocean-view will go up in value,” Delman said.
In this case, older homes, ones that have survived 1938, 1954, and 2012, along with those elevated from the Atlantic by rock, not sand, will be seen as safer bets, Delman said.
On whether the rising oceans will eventually threaten the majestic homes up on the rocks of Narragansett, Jamestown and Newport, Delman said, “not in my lifetime.”
Delman agreed that in the short-term, the rental market will likely be affected more than sales, but that those properties that survived Sandy could benefit from a tighter market.
“I think it is an incredible time for someone who has a rental summer property to get it on the market and get it into condition, because of all the people, not only in Rhode Island, but Connecticut, New York and the Jersey shore, who won’t have a house to rent again,” Delman said. “I think we are going to have a lot more people coming in from New York and New Jersey that wouldn’t have typically rented.”
The New York metropolitan area is where Broccoli, who lives in Carmel, N.Y., has typically found tenants for his Charlestown rental.
And making his cottage rentable for next summer is what Broccoli said is now in doubt because of permitting hurdles put up by state and local officials in the wake of Sandy. Since the storm, the state Coastal Resources Management Council, which regulates activity up to 200 feet inland of a coastal feature, and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, have been issuing emergency permits to homeowners so they can repair damaged buildings.
But the emergency permits only go so far, at most to return a property to the way it was before the storm.
In Broccoli’s case, the state has asked him to wait on his plans to replace the deck and damaged pilings with new, taller ones until next spring, after seeing if some of the beach that washed away in the storm returns over the winter.
Broccoli acknowledges that 6 feet of sand disappeared from the foot of his cottage during Sandy, but said the state’s priority should be rebuilding the dunes and houses, not waiting around to see what happens next. Broccoli, who bought the house, built in 1978, three years ago, said renovations will likely cost approximately $100,000. It was unclear last week how much of that cost would be covered by insurance.
While Broccoli respects the challenge Rhode Island’s state agencies face, he said waiting to rebuild could come with long-term consequences.
“We are trying to book for rental season and the recipient of new business will be [Cape Cod],” Broccoli said. “Rhode Island will miss out. [N.J. Gov. Chris] Christie is not waiting. Jersey will be rental-ready or will die trying. We are seeing what happens.”
Statewide, CRMC has issued 360 emergency permits since Sandy, spokeswoman Laura Dwyer said.
Dwyer said CRMC and DEM are working on developing a long-range plan with hard guidelines for developed areas dealing with coastal erosion.
The issue has taken on new urgency this year after contentious pre-Sandy debates about what to do with roads and properties in the Matunuck section of South Kingstown.
While Matunuck Beach Road survived Sandy, many properties, including two of the nearby National Historic Register Browning Cottages, did not. •


See next week’s edition for a special section on Sandy’s long-term effects.

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