Project: BEACH activities Recommendations

UPDATE:  URGENT REQUEST FOR YOUR ATTENDANCE AT THE 12/11/18 BCC MEETING 

The Board of County Commissioners will discuss recommendations for changes to the BEACH ACTIVITIES ORDINANCE at their meeting on Tuesday, December 11th @ 4:00pm at the South Walton Annex.  They will set a future date for a public hearing to consider changes to the ordinance.

Each year at the end of the summer tourist season, TDC staff holds public workshops and takes recommendations from the TDC Beach Management and Destination Improvement Committees on ways to improve the Beach Activities Ordinance and other related suggestions. They take those recommendations to the TDC Advisory Council who considers them and makes recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. At the conclusion of this process, the BCC considers all input and makes decisions on any changes for the upcoming year.

For a few years there have been talks of implementing significant changes to the way vendors are managed on our beaches as well as other improvements, and this year the support for this has risen to a new level in the community. We are also seeing indications that real change, up to and including implementing a managed vendor program, may be truly possible for the first time ever this year! But the Commissioners need to hear from the community regarding improvements we want to see to vendor management and other beach related issues.

South Walton Community Council presented our recommendations (see below) on beach vendors, code enforcement and trash collection at the last TDC Beach Management Committee meeting and TDC Advisory Council meeting. We will present our recommendations again at the December 11th BCC meeting. These recommendations are based on citizen input from the SWCC Beach Activities Public Forum earlier this year and comments at the post-season vendor meetings.  The TDC Advisory Council voted to recommend many changes similar to our recommendations.

Bottom Line of Our Recommendations:  We need more Code Enforcement and a Managed Vendor Program, and the TDC needs to continue to collect trash on all of our beaches as they have for many years.

The BCC needs to hear directly from our community. PLEASE ATTEND on December 11th and voice your support for our recommendations and/or your own! We understand that badly needed changes have been passed over in prior years, but persistence is needed and the timing has never been better to advocate for real improvements on our beaches.