A shore thing: in fast-growing Brunswick County, Oak Island clings to its reputation as a low-key oceanfront hideaway.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: TOWN SQUARE

On a warm February morning, a scattering of dog walkers shuffles along an otherwise vacant beach. where pastel bungalows on pilings, the only buildings for miles, sit so close to the surf it's almost possible to fish from their balconies at high tide. On the horizon, the lighthouse at Fort Caswell and a shrimp boat appear in the mist. In a scene so storybook perfect, it's difficult to find flaw; but there's a tacit sense of urgency at work, and the culprit is sea turtles.

Dave Kelly, town manager of Oak Island, one of six barrier-island communities in Brunswick County, is preparing for a meeting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency about sand being shipped to rebuild dunes that didn't hold when Hurricane Matthew brushed the coastline in October.

"We've been working with them to rebuild the first dune," he says. "We only have until May and we have to stop, because it's sea turtle season."

The shoreline habitat of Oak Island, 60 miles north of Myrtle Beach, saw 10,000 sea-turtle hatchlings last summer. Kelly--for whom "beach slope" and "dune construction" are everyday terms--is perfectly content with the laid-back pace of the small beach community. With its two piers, uncluttered beaches and no excessive what-not. Oak Island is a haven of nonchalance.

"There are no high-rises," Kelly says. "It's not a Myrtle Beach--we're not trying to bring in the big-bucks kind of things. We don't have waterslides, but we do have 67 beach accesses so people can come see the beach. We have old surf shops and burger joints." Beachfront property is limited to a height of 42 feet.

Tourists bring money--Brunswick County took in $508.9 million from visitors in 2015--and some bring airplanes. Tiny Cape Fear Regional Jetport on the mainland, with its 5,500-foot runway, is the busiest general-aviation airport in the state, according to the Transportation Security Administration, with more than 72,000 arrivals or departures a year. Multimillion dollar jets, discreetly parked, are not unusual, as celebrities and business barons slip in under the proverbial radar and blend in, unnoticed.

"We know they're here, but we have a 'don't tell' policy," Kelly says. Kelly, 58, has lived on this island or in nearby Southport most of his life. Before Yaupon Beach and Long Beach merged to form Oak Island in 1999 during rebuilding after Hurricane Floyd, he worked as a building inspector and zoning administrator in Yaupon.

The island part of Oak Island, about 14 miles long...