Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Letter to Sunset Beach Town Council

Dear Council Members,
 
I respect you for your dedication and hard work.
 
In 16 years of visiting Sunset Beach, restricting parking is only the second issue that has bothered me. Although parking is not an issue for me because friends allow me to park at their home, I ask on behalf of others that you delay reducing parking until more information is gathered.
 
1. The effect of the new bridge on visits to the island is unknown. Throughout the 25 years of litigation, it was alleged that a new bridge would turn the island into Myrtle Beach. More recently, persons claim the the beach will be overrun with day visitors. Time is needed to see if use changes.
 
2. A formal engineering and traffic investigation will be conducted by NCDOT, probably during spring or summer traffic periods. Wait for those results.
 
3. The Town needs to determine precisely how many public right of way parking spaces will be eliminated.
 
4. Numbered streets are 20 feet wide with a 5-foot-wide public right of way on each side.  I was told is that only the miniest of mini cars are five feet wide. My hunky Subaru Forester is five feet wide. Thus hundreds of vehicles are. Yet if we park on the public right of way, our passengers would step on private property to exit our vehicles. After determining how many spaces there are on numbered streets and how many people you will prevent from visiting Sunset Beach, if you feel the need to eliminate them, consider having parking on the public right of way on one side only. Make it six feet wide, extending onto the pavement. Pave a foot on the opposite side of the road to regain the 20-foot wide roadway. 
 
5. I further recommend using an outside consultant company with experience in parking issues.
 
6. In addition, I recommend surveying people on the beach throughout the summer for their opinions about the recommendations and their suggestions.  
 
7. Neither the fire department nor the police department can tell me how many times per year or if ever improperly parked and/or legally parked vehicles blocked passage during an emergency. Get those numbers. While even one time is too many for those involved, properly enforced parking would prevent blockages.
 
8.  After a holiday weekend last summer, someone wrote that there was no space to set foot on the beach, that it was impossible to walk and find a spot to claim for one's group. Although congestion might occur on each side of the gazebo, there are many blocks of unused beach, full acres of walking area on the east and west ends and on the Bird Island Coastal Reserve.
 
9. If you reduce parking, particularly on numbered streets on the west end, you will end access to the Bird Island Coastal Reserve. Before doing so, I recommend contacting administrators of the Reserve: NOAA, the N.C. of Environment and Natural Resources/Division of Coastal Management, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, component Local Advisory Committees, the Carolina Estuarine Reserve Foundation, and other partners to get their point of view.
 
10. The most grave consequence will be denying it to hundreds of families who legally parked on side streets for decades. They will be denied access to most of the island.
 
11. The notion of limiting parking to three hours is inconsiderate. Each of you had young children and independent teenagers one time. Imagine driving an hour with your family for a day trip to Sunset Beach, an American right. After paying to park, spend 20 minutes minimum, perhaps 30, to find a place on the beach to set down family gear. Two hours later the entire family must leave to be back to its car within three hours. No one will know this before coming to Sunset Beach and everyone will be irate at the Town when they find that out. 
 
12.  Some recommendations of the parking committee are unclear. I will attach a document showing some of my concerns.
 
The system has worked so far. Please consider all options before radically changing it. 
 
Thank you for your consideration.
 
Jo O'Keefe
30 Gate 3
Carolina Shores, NC 28467
H: 910-579-0655
C: 919-606-8345

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