According to Coastal Review’s September 2026 reporting, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management is currently accepting applications for resilience grant funding — and the application window closes at 5 p.m. on November 10. For municipal governments, county officials, and tribes across Carteret County and the broader Crystal Coast region, this is a firm deadline, not a soft one.
The total available is approximately $2.5 million, split across two distinct phases of the state’s Resilient Coastal Communities Program. Understanding which phase your community is eligible for, and what each one funds, is the first practical step before anyone drafts an application.
Who Can Actually Apply
The grant is not open to individual homeowners. Eligible applicants are municipal and county governments and federally or state-recognized tribes located within North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties. Carteret County — which encompasses Emerald Isle, Cape Carteret, Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Morehead City, and Beaufort — is among those 20 counties.
There is a prerequisite that matters. According to the Coastal Review report, applicants must have already completed the first two phases of the NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or an equivalent process. If your municipality or county hasn’t done that groundwork, phase 3 or 4 funding isn’t yet on the table — but knowing that now, rather than two weeks before the deadline, is itself useful information. Local planning offices should be able to confirm where their community stands in the program sequence.
What Each Phase Actually Funds
The two phases available under this round of funding cover different stages of project development.
Phase 3 supports:
- Engineering, design, and permitting for priority resilience projects already identified by the community
- Development of ordinances or policies that strengthen community resilience
Phase 4 is for construction and implementation — specifically, projects that reduce risks to critical assets, people, and property from coastal hazards including flooding, sea-level rise, and storm surge. The Coastal Review article notes that phase 4 projects should incorporate natural or nature-based solutions where appropriate, with examples including wetland and stream restoration, flood mitigation, living shoreline stabilization, and stormwater management.
For communities along the Bogue Sound shoreline or in low-lying portions of Cape Carteret and Morehead City, the phase 4 emphasis on living shorelines and stormwater management aligns directly with the infrastructure challenges those areas face from routine tidal flooding and major storm events. If your town has already designed a living shoreline project and holds the necessary permits, phase 4 may be the path to move it from a drawing to a physical installation. (If the permitting side of a living shoreline project is still being sorted out, our guide to Living Shorelines on the Crystal Coast: Permitting covers what that process typically involves.)
The Program’s Track Record
Context for the current round: Coastal Review reports that the Resilient Coastal Communities Program has, over the past five years, awarded 91 grants totaling more than $16.3 million and helped 60 communities complete resilience strategies. That history suggests this is a functioning pipeline with documented outputs — not a new or experimental program.
What that means practically for Crystal Coast local governments is that there are likely precedents, prior grantees, and institutional knowledge within the Division of Coastal Management about what successful applications look like. Reviewing any publicly available documentation from prior grant rounds in similar coastal counties would be a reasonable preparatory step.
The October 13 Webinar — Register Before You Apply
The Division of Coastal Management will host an applicant webinar from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13. According to the Coastal Review report, the webinar will cover grant information, the application process and requirements, and will include time for prospective applicants to ask questions. Registration is required.
For any municipal or county staff member who is seriously considering an application, attending this webinar should be treated as a prerequisite rather than an optional step. Application requirements for state grant programs often hinge on specific documentation formats, eligibility certifications, or project narrative structures that aren’t fully apparent from the general announcement — and those details tend to surface during Q&A.
A Checklist for Crystal Coast Municipalities Before November 10
If you’re a planning director, town manager, or county official evaluating whether to apply, work through these items before the deadline:
- Confirm phase completion. Verify with your planning office or with the Division of Coastal Management that your community has completed phases 1 and 2 of the NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or an equivalent process.
- Identify your priority project. The Coastal Review report specifies that proposed projects must already have been identified as a community priority. An application built around a newly conceived project likely won’t qualify.
- Determine the correct phase. Is the project still in design and permitting (phase 3), or is it construction-ready (phase 4)? Applying to the wrong phase wastes the deadline.
- Register for the October 13 webinar. Do this early — registration is required and slots may be limited.
- Gather supporting documentation. Prior resilience planning documents, community vulnerability assessments, and any existing project engineering or permits will likely be referenced or required.
- Confirm your match or cost-share obligations. State grants of this type often carry match requirements. Verify the current terms directly with the Division of Coastal Management — the Coastal Review article does not specify a match percentage, and we won’t assume one.
The Practical Angle for Property Owners
Individual homeowners can’t apply here, but the downstream effects of these grants are real. A phase 4 award to Morehead City for stormwater infrastructure, or to Emerald Isle for living shoreline stabilization along a vulnerable stretch of Bogue Sound, reduces the flood exposure of nearby properties — and flood exposure is directly tied to insurance costs and FEMA flood zone designations. Buyers evaluating parcels in low-lying areas of any Crystal Coast town should ask their municipality’s planning office whether any resilience projects are in the pipeline, permitted, or funded. That’s public information, and it belongs in a due-diligence checklist alongside the flood zone check. (For the FEMA side of that research, see our guide on Emerald Isle Buyers: Check FEMA’s Flood Maps Before Closing.)
The immediate next step for any local government considering this funding: contact the NC Division of Coastal Management to confirm your community’s program status, then register for the October 13 webinar. The November 10 deadline is close enough that waiting another week to start those conversations carries real risk.