INDIAN SHORES – Some people are leaving portable sun canopies on the public beach at night.
Others apparently take the covers with them but leave the frames, which prompted Indian Shores Mayor Jim Lawrence and the Town Council to discuss the need Aug. 11 for an ordinance that addresses the issue.
“I do think there is a problem. I have walked the beach and seen what appears to be an abandoned frame,” said Councilor Bill Smith. “You cannot just leave personal property there on a public beach.”
A beach canopy ordinance would address the public portion of the beach.
“We don’t want to police people’s private property,” Lawrence said.
The beach tents crop up most frequently between the erosion control line and the coastal construction line.
Some residents own their lots up to the erosion control line.
Beaches are renourished up to that point. It’s a demarcation the state uses to make sure it keeps from using federal funds on private property, Lawrence said.
Town Administrator E.D. Williams said currently the town doesn’t have any real authority to get people to take the frames down at night.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection doesn’t consider the discount store type tents to be structures.
It would probably take an ordinance to control leaving the tents on the beach at night without a permit. During the day the canopies provide a necessary service of protection from the sun, Williams said.
The state DEP Web site describes construction and the state’s coastal management program.
“The Coastal Construction Control Line Program is an essential element of Florida’s coastal management program.
It provides protection for Florida’s beaches and dunes while assuring reasonable use of private property,” according to the state DEP Web site.
