It's beyond inconceivable. Just when most scientists are predicting more intense and probably more frequent hurricanes in coming decades, and months after the most destructive hurricane ever to hit North America, the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission may relax coastal development rules and allow development to creep ever closer seaward.

For over 30 years North Carolina required construction to be set back from the "active beach" in recognition of inherent hazards associated with building along dynamic shorelines. If a beach moved naturally, so did the point from which the setback was measured. The intent of the policy was not to prohibit development along the coast, but to make it better, safer and smarter, and to hold down density. And for the most part, it has.

When coastal construction setbacks were introduced in the 1970s, the state acknowledged that some undeveloped beachfront lots might remain undeveloped, and that some developed lots would inevitably become unbuildable as shorelines continued to erode and as houses were damaged or destroyed by storms. The state believed having a few less oceanfront buildings was a small price to pay to protect and preserve beaches for future generations of North Carolinians. It was good public policy then, and it is good public policy now.

As we saw in Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, Isabel and most recently Katrina and Rita, any house, condo, hotel, road, pool or septic system placed at the water's edge remains there at the whim of nature, regardless of human efforts to protect it.

But some beachfront property owners and coastal development advocates are lobbying to move coastal setbacks seaward along "nourished" beaches so buildings can be bigger, closer to the ocean and rebuilt when damaged or destroyed by storms.

Beach nourishment -- the emplacement of sand along an eroding beach -- may provide a wider beach, but it also provides a false sense of security. A nourished beach is temporary, erodes much faster than a natural beach and typically lasts between three and five years. In recognition of the ephemeral nature of nourishment, setback rules expressly prohibit development from moving seaward along artificially widened, nourished beaches.

But reality is easily obscured by greed. And that's just what's happening along the North Carolina coast, where in places beachfront lots now sell for millions of dollars and where already affluent property owners are cashing in on a lucrative rental industry. Money talks. And the CRC is apparently ready to listen.

This is another step in the march towards the degradation of North Carolina's beaches:

• Although we have a state ban against seawalls, a CRC exception allows sandbag seawalls to remain in place for 2 years. While sandbag seawalls are no different than concrete seawalls in terms of their negative effect on beaches, permits for sandbag seawalls are routinely issued. And, once they are built, sandbag walls are never removed (except by storms). There are probably hundreds of sandbag seawalls lining the North Carolina shore, some about to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

• Although the state has rules governing the quality of sand used for beach nourishment, spectacularly bad projects have occurred in the past five years.

• Although the state has rules requiring that beach nourishment sand be taken from environmentally safe locations, the ebb tidal deltas of Bogue and Shallotte Inlets have been extensively mined. This will increase erosion along adjacent beaches; as it already has on Ocean Isle Beach next to Shallotte Inlet.

The irony of allowing buildings to be closer to the beach is that taxpayers will eventually be asked to protect these cash cow buildings through future beach nourishment projects. Not only will taxpayer money be involved, but if the past is any indication of the future, the public beach is likely to be damaged.

It seems no one is minding the beach. We deserve better from the CRC, the state Division of Coastal Management and the governor. This may well be the last straw for North Carolina beaches

(Orrin Pilkey is James B. Duke professor emeritus of earth sciences at Duke University and author of "How to Read a North Carolina Beach." Andrew S. Coburn is associate director of the Duke University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.)