COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – The last round of the long-standing struggle between people in South Carolina who have money to live on the beach and those who want to visit is about free parking on the beach.
A Senate subcommittee unanimously passed a bill unanimously requiring local governments to obtain state permission before altering or altering any parking on state roads or blocking a road owned by South Carolina.
And senators and the secretary of the state’s Transportation Committee, Christy Hall, left little doubt that the main purpose of the legislation was to help support a long-held belief – and established in state law – that once public access the beach is allowed, it must always be maintained.
“The beaches belong to everyone. If you block parking, you are blocking access to the beach, ”said Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, who sponsored the project.
The barrier islands around Charleston have a long tradition of allowing people to park on the side of state roads, open the trunk or truck, pull out some towels and coolers, and head for the waves and sand.
But as Palms Island, Sullivans Island and Folly Beach grew and large mansions replaced beach bungalows, traffic on the islands gets more intense during sunny summer weekends, as people look for free spaces in instead of $ 15 or more a day in the city a lot.
People with homes of more than $ 1 million said they have a right to control what happened in their own local governments. Parking and other restrictions are necessary for safety, because how can fire trucks or paramedics make quick trips through streets full of confusion?
The COVID-19 pandemic was the spark that brought the matter to the Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. When the virus first spread, barrier islands restricted parking and for weeks even closed the highways leading to the island for visitors, for fear of spreading the virus.
But as it became clear that a sunny day was good for mental health and much less likely to cause new infections, the islands were slow to remove the barricades and sought to make the parking changes permanent.
This led to the founding of a group called the Charleston Beach Foundation, which organized local meetings on barrier islands and ultimately sued Palms Island.
Myra Jones told senators on Tuesday that island governments cover their pockets with families who profit from parking and cannot afford a hotel or beach vacation that they could spend at local businesses. She gave them a report showing that Palms Island earned more than $ 700,000 in parking fees last year.
“The money you saved to buy an ice cream cone or a hot dog from a local store goes to the parking kiosk,” said Jones.
No one from any of the barrier islands spoke on Tuesday. Scott Slatton, of the South Carolina Municipal Association, urged lawmakers to take care that inner cities do not lose their autonomy when deciding when to move parking meters or eliminate street parking as part of the downtown renovations.
Most barrier islands have eliminated pandemic parking restrictions. But state transport officials said the law is necessary to ensure that the problem does not arise again.
State transport officials “pinched our noses” with the restrictions early because the pandemic was so different and unprecedented, Hall said. Before the pandemic, the state tried to stay out of local decisions as long as the roads were kept clear and safe, the secretary said.
“For lack of a better term, they may have taken advantage of a system we had in place,” said Hall.
The senators noted that none of the barrier islands came on Tuesday.
“The actions that many of these communities took in my area were unforgivable. Please convey this in the strongest sense, “said Republican Senator Sean Bennett of Summerville.” I would have shared that today if any of these island communities had chosen to be here. “
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.