Should cars be kept off a popular Port Royal beach? Here’s your chance to weigh in
Days before Christmas, a popular Port Royal beach destination was empty as strong winds whipped the high grasses and water drained from the marsh on an outgoing tide.
When the weather is right, cars and golf carts line up along the waterfront on Sands Beach bearing coolers and blasting music. The ability to drive up and park on the sand is unique in the area but also carries ongoing safety concerns from some as families navigate the beach in search of shark teeth and children play in large tidal pools.
The town is considering options including whether to restrict vehicle access and how best to implement potential changes. Possibilities include doing nothing, barring vehicles from the beach altogether or crafting a hybrid solution with cars kept from certain areas.
A survey posed to residents and visitors through January includes a series of questions and a forum for open comments. The results will be collected by the town’s Parks and Recreation Commission and reported to town officials early next year.
Committee chairman Greg Shelton said he became involved with the panel after hearing some residents raise the possibility of keeping cars off the beach, —a proposal he said he didn’t find fair — and worries about crime and children’s safety.
Shelton requested data from the police on the number of calls to the Sands during the past year and produced the survey to solicit community response.
“I wanted to get a broader scope, a collective audience that is bigger than a coffee meeting,” Shelton said.
Calls about parking issues near the boat landing are common during busy days in the summer, said Maj. Ron Wekenmann, Port Royal’s deputy police chief. Open containers, periodic vandalism and stranded cars make up other calls.
But Wekenmann said he couldn’t recall any significant incidents of someone being hurt on the beach.
Survey results won’t be publicized until the poll is closed, but Shelton said the majority of people he has heard from directly want the beach to remain the same.
That was the consensus of those who replied to a post about the survey on the town’s Facebook page this week — to keep access as is except to smooth potholes from the route to the waterfront.
“For me, that is part of the charm of going to the sands, to be able to park close to the water,” one woman wrote in response to the post.
The east end of the beach is already off limits to vehicles, allowing unhindered beachcombing out to where the Beaufort River meets the entrance to Battery Creek.
Discussions have included a possible boardwalk from an alternative parking area and new security measures to surveil the beach and technology to report vehicle information of offenders to police,” Shelton said. Ideas have also included requiring permits for cars using the beach or charging for parking.
“How do we take one of the most important resources in Port Royal and continue to develop it in such a way that more and more families can take advantage of it?” Shelton asked. “And the bad elements are highly discouraged from going into that place because they know if they do, there’s going to be hell to pay for it.”
