Dear Wendy -

Thank you for your efforts in working with the GLO on the beach access plan. The city's willingness to work with the GLO on this has been encouraging, and we look forward to having in place a beach access plan for the city that meets the diverse needs of local residents and Texans from across the state that visit Galveston.

Based on the access plan we saw at the June 24 meeting of the Galveston Planning Commission, we believe the city has made significant progress toward this end. However, the plan as adopted by the Planning Commission will likely need to be revised before it meets the statutory requirement of maintaining "free and unrestricted right of ingress and egress to and from the state-owned beaches."

In particular, the treatment of vehicular access to the beaches in the plan should be reviewed by the city before it submits the plan to the GLO.

While it is often a desirable objective to reduce vehicular traffic on the beach, there are many instances where vehicular access is desirable. Fishermen, surfers, kayakers and families on outings all have a need to access the beach, and do not generally create the traffic or nuisance issues that many have cited as a reason for closing the public beaches to vehicles. In addition, the increased presence of law enforcement officials on the beaches would alleviate many of the concerns that have been raised regarding vehicles on the beach.

There are several aspects of vehicular access that the Land Office suggests that the city look into:

* Opening up new areas, and keeping existing areas, that are accessible to vehicles on either a year-round, seasonal or use-restricted basis. This could include permitting or pay-per-use type accessibility. Areas that might be used in this way include the beach to the west of Apffel Park, the beach to the east of Stewart Beach, undeveloped beaches on the eastern portions of the west end, and the beaches in front of Bay Harbor and Playa San Luis. We were pleased to see the concept of seasonal restrictions implemented on the 1200 ft. stretch of beach near San Luis pass.

* Expansion of some of the on-beach parking areas to provide more vehicular access to the beach.

* Improvement in the maintenance of the roads that provide vehicular access, where the sand can become soft and block vehicular access.

* Expanded presence of law enforcement personnel on the beaches.

* Placement of additional trash receptacles on vehicular and pedestrian beaches.

We recognize that the city might incur limited costs in implementing some of these concepts, but the city's plan to install parking meters along the sea wall should bring in a substantial amount of revenue for the city that can only be used for beach related services and facilities. We encourage the city to look at ways to use some of the parking meter money to improve its proposed beach access plan.

We look forward to working with the city on the further development of its plan.

Sincerely,

Bill

Bill Peacock
Deputy, Coastal Resources
Texas General Land Office
(512) 463-0928
bill.peacock@glo.state.tx.us