Although I completely understand the need for more beach access in appropriate locations, I respectfully advise all those in favor of the Walton Dunes access to please educate yourselves prior to voicing your opinions to expand this beach access. There is a current parking lot that is completely underutilized even during peak seasons.In contrast, the beach area is over utilized during peak seasons from all the condo/home rentals in the area within walking/biking distance. So, the beachgoers that do travel to the area (which is .6 miles off 30A taking 2 different neighborhood streets), usually turnaround and go elsewhere even though they have ample space to park but because there is no beach real estate to enjoy for them. We have repeatedly asked the county to perform a study to show this information as part of their beach access analysis. We ask all of you to please visit this area as well - you will see a neighborhood with many pedestrians, cyclists, and children playing in the streets because it is, in fact, a neighborhood. Advocating more vehicular traffic to this area will cause a major safety issue for our residents and tourists since the county has not provided any proper walking or bicycle paths - collisions with cyclists are already a major issue on the two 90 degree turns that do not have any safe path for pedestrians and cyclists. Promoting more vehicular traffic to this area is a negligent act.
Please remember that allowing the BCC to make such intrusive changes within a neighborhood is a precedent setting action - even though this particular vote is not affecting your neighborhood, there may be a vote that does in the future - sowal residents need to be supportive to ensure long term precedent setting actions are not taken that will lead to the permanent decline of the area. And yes, there is a dune that will be destroyed with the expansion proposal for Walton Dunes. This dune was washed away during the last hurricane many years ago and is now finally built up to provide valuable protection to the nearby homes and structures. It is unfortunate that the county and some residents are so quick to make such permanent decisions to remedy parking issues that present themselves only 12 weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year (less than 25% of the year) - not to mention that this particular area has never had a parking issue with the existing lot. There are several better options to alleviate such a temporary issue without causing permanent damage to the beauty of the are and intrusion to the many neighborhoods. One example is to coordinate with Deer Lake State Park just as was done with Top Sail State Park. Deer Lake State Park is completely underutilized, so that would be the perfect place to initiate action to provide more parking for those desiring to come to this particular area of beach - I believe the Topsail State Park was given 20-25K from the county from Memorial Day to Labor Day in exchange for unlimited tourists to park free between those dates. Obviously, this would be a much better first step and provide some proof of concept as to what beaches the driving tourists desire to go to when parking issues are at its peak. Shuttles are also an option that the BCC has discussed in the past and is a vital method in the Naples, Florida area that is promoted by both residents and tourists alike because it retains the natural beauty of the area and provides door-to-door service from their cars to the beach access. As a community, please help your fellow neighbors by encouraging the BCC to perform the necessary analysis to thoroughly understand the issues before them and to think outside the box for solutions that will be positive for residents and tourists without making unnecessary permanent changes. I assume everyone would want this level of thoughtfulness to part of the decision making process if a permanent change physically and environmentally was being proposed close to your home.
