By DOTTY NIST
“There are 100 different solutions to this problem we faced last summer…somewhere in the middle we think the answer is,” said Jim Bagby.
The Walton County Tourist Development Council (TDC) director’s remark was made at the Jan. 6 Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) workshop at the South Walton Annex on the county’s regulations for beach vending. The meeting was well attended by vendors and the public, with all five county commissioners present as well.
Regulations for beach vending are contained in the Walton County Waterways and Beach Activities Ordinance, which was passed in its current form in 2013.
In Walton County, vendors provide beach chairs, umbrellas, and other items for beachgoers within the terms of permits issued by the county. Vendors serve private beachfront condos and homes and also obtain permits to provide and deliver set-ups to public beach access areas.
The commissioners had heard complaints from beachgoers last year, with crowded beaches and an increased number of vendors resulting in more conflict between vendors and beachgoers wanting to put their own chairs and umbrellas on the beach. The officials had directed the TDC to formulate recommendations to address the problem.
At the workshop, Brian Kellenberger, TDC director of beach operations, stated that most of the complaints had been related to just a dozen or so of the vendors operating on the beach last year. The total number of vendors operating during the season was reported as 42.
Presented at the meeting were the TDC’s recommendation in written form.
The meeting was conducted as a question and answer session, with questions taken on index cards and Bagby and TDC staff responding. At the outset, Bagby stated that suggestions provided by the public in written form would be read if sufficient time remained after all questions had been answered. However, the two-hour allotted time for the meeting was completed without enough time left for the suggestions to be read.
During discussion at the meeting, the terms “public beaches” and “public property beaches” were used in the sense of regional beach accesses, neighborhood beach accesses, beaches not adjacent to upland private property deeded to the mean high water line, and beachfront property leased to the county. It should be noted that the Florida Constitution claims beaches in general seaward of the mean high water line as held by the state “in trust for all the people.”
It was discussed that most neighborhood beach accesses consist of an access or easement only about 10 feet wide. Regional beach accesses are much larger, generally with parking and bathrooms.
The TDC recommendations set forth three options for beach vending. These were continuing to allow vending on all public property beaches, prohibiting vending on all public property beaches, or issuing permits for beach vending based on a requests for proposals (RFPs).
The TDC presented several choices in the event the BCC opts for the use of RFPs. The first of those was using one beach vendor for each of the regional beach accesses and discontinuing vending at neighborhood beach access. The second was to use one to five beach vendors for all county public beaches, assigning beaches to particular vendors. The third was the same as the latter but using five to 10 beach vendors.
Among recommended operation standards for beach vendors on public beaches were for a limit on the use of the beachfront by vendors to 50 percent in a tiered/staggered arrangement.
Both for vendors operating on public property beaches and private beach vendors, the recommendations included beach vendors furnishing a certified payroll, marking all equipment with company name address, and contact information, having a vendor employee on site, refraining from setting up equipment before it is rented, leaving six-foot aisles at specified intervals, refraining from setting up in front of lifeguard towers, and setting up no closer than 20 feet north of the wet sand or wrack line or confining set ups to property boundaries. Restrictions for driving and transport of vending equipment were also proposed.
The current ordinance provides for no setting up by vendors during sea turtle nesting season prior to 8 a.m. or the completion of the morning sea turtle nesting survey, whichever is earlier. Vendors have the ability to sign up for a phone text program that notifies them when the nesting survey is completed.
The TDC recommendation was to allow set up at 7 a.m. outside of the sea turtle nesting season and at 7:30 a.m. or when the text notification is received during sea turtle nesting season, as vendors had requested being able to set up earlier.
According the Kellenberger, South Walton Turtle Watch volunteers typically clear the beach for set up between 6 and 6:30 a.m.
In addition, changes to other parts of the Beach Activities Ordinance were recommended. For the portion known as Leave No Trace, these included omitting the tagging of items left out in the evening on the beach and reassignment of the TDC beach crews to removal of all items left on the beach in the evening. Currently this task is assigned to Walton County Code Enforcement. Disallowance of the use of generators on the beach was recommended. For special events, approval of a permit for events to be held on public beaches prior to the event was recommended. For events to be held on private property, it was recommended that the application be submitted 14 days before the event.
Progressive fines for violations of the ordinance were recommended, ranging from $100 per violation to $500 for successive violations, and five citations against a company during a permit year would result in automatic revocation of the company’s permit, per the recommendations.
In response to a question, Bagby confirmed that the sea turtle surveys are mandated by the state.
Kellenberger responded to the question of why vendors’ customers who “pay good money” for waterfront seats should be denied that privilege with the statement that the public beaches should offer “access for all.”
Later he explained that some of the proposed ordinance revisions had been motivated by concerns about vendors “monopolizing” the beachfront by setting up all along the wrack line and not providing access to the water for visitors arriving later in the day.
When discussion turned to the five-citation limit for vendors, also called the “five-strike rule,” District 1 Commissioner Bill Chapman, a former law enforcement officer, thought this to be a rather lenient proposal. “I didn’t do that as a cop, I can tell you,” he said.
District 2 Commissioner Cecilia Jones asked Bagby why he had not assembled a committee with vendor representation in formulating the proposed revisions. He responded that a previous vending workshop was held by the TDC with 40-50 people attending and with vendors invited and participating. Bagby said he and his staff used input from the workshop to write the proposed revisions.
Jones responded that she thought it would have been helpful for him to have vendor and turtle watch representatives present during the actual drafting of the proposed revisions. This was met with applause from attendees.
Jones later expressed concern at the prospect of eliminating vending at the neighborhood beach accesses, which had been part of one of the options provided by the TDC. She foresaw a hardship for a beachgoer walking to a neighborhood beach access, already carrying a number of items, not being able to call a vendor for a beach chair and umbrella.
Bagby responded that there have been problems with vending at neighborhood accesses because the actual accesses are so narrow and are often flanked by private upland property. A current ordinance provision is that an upland property owner’s permission is required in order for a vendor to set up adjacent to their property, he explained. Vending at neighborhood accesses has resulted in many complaints from these property owners, Bagby said. However, he expressed willingness to research different options for neighborhood beach accesses.
Jones said that the main problem she saw with the vending process was vendors setting up chairs that had not been rented. “If vendors would quit putting out stuff that’s not rented, we would not be having the problems that we’re having today,” she said.
District 4 Commissioner Sara Comander agreed. She added that she had heard of people putting out their own chairs on the beach and vendors removing and setting them aside. “That just cannot be tolerated,” Comander said.
District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows saw an advantage in the RFP process in that the working relationship between the county and vendors would improve and there would be better control over the vending process. “It is chaos out there in the summertime,” she said of the current situation.
As this was a workshop and not a regular meeting, there was no vote by the BCC on the recommendations. The proposed changes are to be brought before the BCC in public session at a future date. According to Walton County Attorney Mark Davis, one public hearing will be required in order to approve revisions to the Waterways and Beach Activities Ordinance. Public comment is to be taken prior to a vote.
