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Credit to: Coastal Point, Susan Canfora
Despite objections from Mayor Edie Dondero, the South Bethany Town Council will ask the Town’s Charter & Code Committee to review what size cabanas, or tents, should be allowed on the beach.
Tents — discussed during the Friday, July 11, council meeting — were situated on the beach during the Fourth of July weekend, when the beach is particularly crowded, Councilman Bob Shields said, adding that they “occupy a lot of space on the beach and often don’t have anybody sitting under them.”
He suggested not allowing large tents that have anchoring mechanisms that stretch out on the sides and only permitting small tents.
He said the Town of Bethany Beach doesn’t allow structures except umbrellas (it also allows "baby tents") and Fenwick Island only allows 10-foot-by-10-foot or smaller tents with all anchoring devices contained inside the footprint. After recent changes in its beach rules, Ocean City, Md., allows up to 10-foot-by-10-foot tents and only if they are open on all four sides, with anchoring within the footprint and only if erected after 10 a.m.
Shields said that, often, nobody is in the tents and they occupy prime space close to the ocean.
He suggested South Bethany restrict structures to those no larger than 10 by 10 feet, with all anchoring inside. The Town already requires tents to be located behind the lifeguard stands.
One councilman asked about Shibumi beach shades, and Shields said they can be annoying but they don’t block others’ views as much.
Shields said Ocean City officials have been discussing restrictions and put them into effect in late June. Fenwick Island officials talked about it, too, and set restrictions, Councilwoman Chris Keefe said. She said that, about half the time she notices tents, they have only coolers inside and tent owners are sitting outside the tent itself.
“They put their chairs around the tent, which is really crazy and obnoxious, and it drives everyone crazy. … They are using a lot of space they shouldn’t use. The only problem with any of these regulations is who regulates it? Is somebody going to go around with a measuring tape? I don’t want to put this on the lifeguards. Not a good idea … and is there a fine? What is this? How does this work?” Keefe asked.
Dondero said she doesn’t believe there is a need to restrict tent sizes or how close together they can be. Other towns have more crowded and sometimes more narrow beaches, boardwalks “and less real estate, in a lot of ways, than we do,” she said.
“There is nothing more annoying than spreading out and putting chairs around it, but my feeling is you can’t regulate common courtesy,” Dondero said. “I don’t think we have a need for restrictions at this time, and my biggest issue is enforcement. This is going to fall to the beach patrol, and I think that is an unfair to ask of them. We want them with eyes on the water. We don’t want them turning around, measuring tents or space between tents, or getting into altercations with folks. … There are already things they are checking for that are taking their time away from the water,” Dondero said.
She said the beach patrol captain is also concerned about enforcement and asked her, “Am I supposed to arm each lifeguard with a tape measure?”
“Sometimes the difference between 8 feet and 10 feet is not that obvious. … I do know Bethany, for one, has code enforcement officials who can walk on the beach and check on this. We don’t have that. We have one guy. … We just don’t have that like Ocean City does, like Bethany does. So, it would fall exclusively to the lifeguards. And what happens when folks don’t comply? Then we have to call a police officer and take an officer away from a call or whatever they are doing and tell somebody to take their tent down,” Dondero said.
Other than during the Fourth of July weekend — which the mayor called “just Crazy Town, U.S.A.” — she said she doesn’t see many tents on the beach.
Keefe suggested adding wording to signs on the beach that list rules.
“We don’t have anybody enforcing any of those rules. They are more like suggestions for people to behave correctly,” Keefe said.
Shields recommended referring the matter to the Town’s Charter & Code Committee and asking for feedback from other town officials, but Dondero said officials “won’t come up with an answer to the enforcement issue.”
“Do we want to put this burden on the beach patrol? We have to make that decision, because that is what this boils down to,” she said.
But Shields said dogs aren’t allowed on the beach during the summer, and there are other rules, as well, that don’t require code enforcement officers.
“Put those signs up, and people are expected to comply with them. Who enforces those things?” Shields asked.
The council agreed to refer the matter to the Charter & Code Committee.
The council this week presented a resolution to former councilman Tim Shaw, who was greeted at the council meeting with a friendly “You’ve been here before” by one council member as Shaw stepped forward to be honored.
Dondero read the resolution, which states that Shaw dedicated years of service to the Town, serving in several positions during his time on the council, supporting the staff and being an invaluable resource.
Shaw thanked the council, and Dondero said the council was sorry to lose him.
“Don’t go too far away,” she said.
Code revisions get OK
The council adopted on first reading an ordinance outlining general code revisions of town ordinances.
Dondero explained that, during the last year, “We have been working with the firm General Code to do a review of the Town’s ordinances and to do some housekeeping on the ordinances, to look for errors, contradictions, antiquated terms … to bring our code up to date.”
She said the ordinance update covers specific changes to the various changes in town code.
“If I were to read through all of these, we would be here for the better part of the morning,” she said at the council meeting, which began at 9 a.m.
Keefe asked about a reference to parking and said fines were lowered “for certain things.”
She asked about “fines dealing with parking issues, and towing and storing vehicles that have gone down to $300” and asked why a lower number was chosen. Town Manager Maureen Hartman said the fines were discussed with Police Chief Jason Lovins and wording changed “to clean it up.”
“It was just cleaned up from past discussions we have had,” she said.
Dondero said town officials have been working on this for the past year, that it has been reviewed by General Code, three lawyers, the chief of police and staff, and that she hoped it was ready to adopt.
Councilman Mark Giler asked about wording concerning competitive bids being “not more than $10,000” and also said he’d like to see masculine pronouns changed to gender-neutral terms.
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