Leaders approve a moratorium.

Live oaks grow on this 200-acre swath of former farmland that turns soft where it slopes down to Bogue Sound. Until recently, mobile homes stood here too, but they're nearly all gone.

Supporters jeer as moratorium fails.

The threat to North Carolina's working waterfront isn't an abstract theory for David "Kerry" Gillikin and the eight other workers at Gillikin Marine Railway, which has been on Radio Island about 35 years.

The N.C. Sea Grant sponsored a forum Monday that brought together different groups with an interest in preserving the state's commercial waterfront.

First in a series: The new waterfront: North Carolina's beaches have been heavily developed for years. But along the state's 3,000-plus miles of mainland waterfront, a second land rush is on, with sleepy river towns awakening to dense development.

In this village, where fishermen mend nets and build boats in backyards, three-story houses rising along the shoreline are considered eyesores by natives who grumble about dingbatters -- their term for outsiders.

This summer, The News & Observer will examine the effect of rapid change on North Carolina's inner coastline, exploring potential environmental trouble, the decline of the working waterfront and other issues.

Issues raised by the development boom will be discussed during a forum Monday in New Bern, sponsored by North Carolina Sea Grant.

State and local leaders, who are just beginning to realize the scope of the housing boom along North Carolina's mainland coast, face a struggle to allow economic growth without damaging the environment.