Pending state review and a select board vote, Westport could soon have a voluminous new plan to manage and protect barrier beaches on town property along Atlantic Avenue, Beach Avenue and East Beach Road.

Members of the conservation commission signed off on the town’s NOI (notice of intent) to establish a Barrier Beach Management Plan (BBMP) last week. It has already been reviewed by the state’s division of marine fisheries, and authors expect review from the state Department of Environmental Protection and natural heritage and endangered species program. Following that review, it will head to the select board.

The plan was two years in the making, following a series of winter storms that decimated East Beach Road and other low-lying coastal area two and three winters ago. Those storms stripped East Beach of much of the cobble that serves as a foundation and protection for private seasonal properties, and soon after the most recent of storms, select board members put an interim plan in place that details what town workers can and can’t do when they clear the road of storm overwash.

While the management plan only details what town workers can and can’t do on public land, the plan, at the insistence of the East Beach Improvement Association, includes that interim policy without changes.

“We didn’t rewrite it or touch a thing,” said Justine Rooney of the Woods Hole Group, which conducted the management plan study with the town’s planning department.

“We instead decided we would keep that document ... so along East Beach, it just says everything that’s carried in the select board policy is what’s going to happen.”

While several East Beach residents added that they are happy a policy is being codified, Kevin Curt, president of the beach’s improvement association, said he hopes policies will be followed in the future — having a cohesive plan all can agree on is crucial not just for residents, but for the town too, he said.

“What are we going to do to save this valuable resource? As a community, that’s our goal here.”

“I hope that people will understand where we are coming from,” conservation agent Chris Capone said. “We’re trying to work with everybody. I think the highway department is supportive of this document because of all the bad press they’ve been getting” following earlier storms, in which some overwash was removed from the area and deposited in different areas of town.

What’s it say?

The management plan includes nourishment and reclamation policies that will be carried out at East Beach, Atlantic Avenue and Beach Avenue. According to Capone, that includes:

East Beach Road

• Strategies for beach nourishment will be encouraged for all private land owners to manage their beach under the wetlands protection act.

• The select board’s cobble policy will remain in effect.

• Storm overwash will be brought by town workers to the edge of the right of way (public street) on the south side and deposited there:

“It will be the private land owners’ responsibility to have an order of conditions and allow the spreading of the overwash back on the seaward side of the road.”

“This is not the reccomended practice for managing a barrier beach,” Capone said. But “it was decided by the select board after numerous meetings with East Beach land owners. This plan will allow under extreme storm events some material to remain on the north side, where it would cause more damage to remove it than leave it.”

Atlantic Avenue

Officials have worked with the Elephant Rock Beach Club “to enhance dune systems with beach grass plantings.”

Overwash will be placed along the road and adjacent properties under the town’s guidance.

Beach Avenue

Town officials worked with the Westport Land Conservation Trust and commission on disabilities to maintain the road and provide access for disabled individuals.

“This area does experience washover along the east section,” Capone said. Some overwash could be pushed onto land trust property as needed.