The Columbia Board of Aldermen on January 2 nominated town manager Rhett White for a seat on the Coastal Resources Advisory Council. The action came on motion by Alderman Seth Gibbs, which passed unanimously after brief discussion.

Four vacancies exist on the 20-member Council, and more than 40 coastal towns and counties have been asked to nominate local government representatives.

The Council “works with the Governor and General Assembly appointed Coastal Resources Commission to balance and foster the protection and wise development of the State’s coastal resources through both planning and regulation,” wrote Council chairman Greg Rudolph of Emerald Isle.

He stated that recent amendments to the Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) “provides more of a ‘blank canvas’ with respect to our role serving the Coastal Resources Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality, and how we can aid it in term of policy development and rule-making.”

White’s chances of appointment to one of the four vacancies seems enhanced by Rudolph’s explanation that in recent years “the Commission has been focused on rules and policies that are more oceanfront related and the Council membership has followed this trend as well. To provide more of a balance on the Council, we are looking for more inner banks/coastal plain representatives.”

CAMA, enacted in 1974, regulates environmental policies in 20 coastal counties of North Carolina and the cities and towns within them.

The Coastal Resources Advisory Council gives local governments a voice as new policies are formulated or existing ones amended.