A CAMA permit is the coastal development permit required by North Carolina’s Coastal Area Management Act, and New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender are all among the 20 coastal counties it covers. It affects your purchase if the house sits in an Area of Environmental Concern, which for most buyers means within 75 feet of the water, because the dock, bulkhead, pool or addition you are picturing needs a permit before it can be built.
Buyers from inland states hear CAMA for the first time during due diligence and assume it is a formality. It is not. The Coastal Area Management Act dates to 1974, and under it the Coastal Resources Commission designates Areas of Environmental Concern, which are the places where development is reviewed before it happens rather than after. If a property is inside one, a permit comes before a shovel does.
The practical point for a buyer is timing. CAMA questions belong in your due diligence period, while you still have the right to walk, not in the month after closing when you call a dock builder and learn what the setback is.
Which properties are actually affected?
Two things have to be true. The property has to be in one of the 20 coastal counties, which includes all three of ours, and the work has to be in an Area of Environmental Concern. The Division of Coastal Management groups those areas into four categories: the estuarine and ocean system, ocean hazard areas, public water supplies, and natural and cultural resource areas. Ocean hazard areas break down further into ocean erodible areas, inlet hazard areas and unvegetated beach areas.
For the typical Wilmington-area buyer, the one that matters is the estuarine shoreline. Under the Coastal Resources Commission’s coastal shorelines rule, 15A NCAC 07H .0209, the estuarine shoreline Area of Environmental Concern runs 75 feet landward from the normal high water line, and 575 feet where the adjacent water is classified as Outstanding Resource Waters. The first 30 feet landward of the water carries its own buffer, and the rule caps impervious surface within the 75-foot area at 30 percent.
That is the number that surprises people. A buyer looking at a house on Myrtle Grove Sound near Sea Breeze, on Masonboro Sound, or on a canal off the Intracoastal Waterway in Brunswick County is often already close to the impervious cap once the house, the driveway and the existing patio are counted. The pool and the expanded deck are the part that does not fit.
- CAMA minor permit fee: $119 NC DEQ Division of Coastal Management permit fees page, read November 3 2026
- General permit for a bulkhead, riprap, sandbags, maintenance excavation or beach bulldozing: $474 each NC DEQ Division of Coastal Management permit fees page, read November 3 2026
- Major permit: $297 for private, non-commercial development with no wetland or open-water fill; $474 or $563 where fill or excavation is involved NC DEQ Division of Coastal Management permit fees page, read November 3 2026
- Transferring an existing permit to a new owner: $119 NC DEQ Division of Coastal Management permit fees page, read November 3 2026
- Fees adjust every four years under G.S. 143B-279.19, with the first adjustment effective July 1, 2025 NC DEQ Division of Coastal Management permit fees page, read November 3 2026
Minor, general or major: which one applies to you
Minor permits cover small, single-family projects inside an Area of Environmental Concern and are issued by local permit officers, who are employees of the town or county rather than the state. That is useful to know, because it means the person who can answer your question about a specific lot usually works ten minutes away rather than in Morehead City or Raleigh.
General permits cover the common shoreline work that the state has already decided how to review: a bulkhead, riprap, sandbags, maintenance dredging of an existing canal. They move faster than a major permit and all cost $474 on the current fee schedule. Major permits are for larger or commercial projects and for anything that fills or excavates wetlands or open water, and those run $297, $474 or $563 depending on the scope.
There is also a case with no permit at all: a project outside any Area of Environmental Concern but inside the 20 counties that needs a federal permit goes through a consistency review instead. That is more common with larger sites than with a house purchase, but it is why a seller can honestly tell you there is no CAMA permit on the property and still have had a state review.
What we tell buyers to do during due diligence
Ask three questions. First, is any part of this lot inside an Area of Environmental Concern, which you can confirm with the local permit officer for that town or county. Second, if there is an existing dock, pier, bulkhead or sandbag structure, where is the permit paperwork, and is the structure built the way the permit describes. Third, if your plan involves a pool, an addition, a new dock or anything within 75 feet of the water, what does the permit officer say about the impervious cap and the buffer before you remove your due diligence contingency.
On the oceanfront the question changes shape. Ocean hazard areas carry building setbacks measured from the first line of stable natural vegetation, and the setback scales with the size of the structure and the long-term erosion rate measured for that stretch of beach. A lot at Carolina Beach, Kure Beach or Oak Island can be perfectly buildable on paper and still not fit the house you have in mind once the setback is applied. If you are buying oceanfront to rebuild, that conversation happens before the offer, not after. The same lots usually raise flood zone and insurance questions at the same time, and our Wilmington flood zone and flood insurance guide covers that side of it.
CAMA is one of the places where we tell buyers plainly that our answer is not the one that counts. We can tell you which questions to ask and which office to ask them in, and we can read a permit on an existing dock. We cannot tell you whether your specific project will be approved, and neither can your builder, because the local permit officer and the Division of Coastal Management make that call on the specific lot. The honest downside of a waterfront purchase here is that the rules add time and cost you would not face a mile inland, and for some buyers a lot with deep water and a short permit list is worth more than a prettier lot with a hard one. If a seller or an agent tells you a permit is a formality, treat that as a reason to call the permit officer yourself.
Related questions people also ask
How much does a CAMA minor permit cost in North Carolina?
The minor permit fee is $119 on the current fee schedule published by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, read on November 3, 2026. That is the state fee only, and it does not include what you pay a contractor, surveyor or engineer to prepare the application. The same schedule sets general permits at $474 and major permits at $297, $474 or $563 depending on whether wetlands or open water are filled or excavated, and under G.S. 143B-279.19 the fees adjust every four years.
Does a CAMA permit transfer to me when I buy the house?
An existing permit can be transferred rather than reissued, and the Division of Coastal Management lists a permit transfer fee of $119 on its current fee schedule, read November 3, 2026. The practical step is to confirm during due diligence that the permit exists, that it is still active, and that what was built matches what the permit allowed. A dock or bulkhead that was built without a permit, or built differently from the permit, becomes your problem once you own the property.
Do I need a CAMA permit to build a pool on a waterfront lot?
You may, and the limiting factor is often not the permit itself but the impervious surface cap. Under 15A NCAC 07H .0209 the estuarine shoreline Area of Environmental Concern extends 75 feet landward of the normal high water line and caps impervious surface inside that area at 30 percent, with a separate buffer on the first 30 feet. On a lot where the house and driveway already use most of that allowance, a pool and its decking may not fit. Ask the local permit officer before you sign a pool contract.
If you are under contract or about to write on anything with water behind it, send us the address and we will tell you which local permit officer covers it and what to ask them, before your due diligence clock runs out. If you are earlier than that and still deciding whether waterfront is worth the extra steps, schedule a consultation and we will walk through what the rules mean for the kind of house you actually want.
Sources: North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Coastal Management, CAMA permit fees page, read November 3, 2026; 15A NCAC 07H .0209, coastal shorelines rule of the Coastal Resources Commission; NC Division of Coastal Management guidance on Areas of Environmental Concern and the 20 coastal counties; Tidal Realty Partners Sea Breeze and Masonboro community guides.
