Celebrating Earth Day: Beach Changes, The Turtle Season And Updates On The Removal Of The Historic Banyan Tree

When we do use our resources we all need to respect them. We need to keep them beautiful and free of trash. We need to keep our waterways clean and yes maintain our trees and landscapes. We need to all do our part, not just for our enjoyment but for the Native Animals, Birds, Fish, and in Florida our Sea Turtles.

Turtle Season has begun. This means our shoreline will be monitored by a group of certified volunteers that look to see if turtles have made their way to the beach to lay their eggs.. Only after they give the all clear we cannot clean the beach, nor can residents set up chairs and umbrellas.

During Turtle Season our City is tasked with ensuring that Turtle Lighting Regulations are being followed. These rules have been in place for years. All the condominiums have come into compliance for their Common Area Lighting that casts light onto the beach. Artificial Light that is not compliant confuses the turtle and they become disoriented and stuck.

These rules were also expanded years ago to require individual condominium units. They cannot have lighting visibly exposed to the ocean. This means shades must be drawn or light turned off. Our Staff goes out to inspect in the evenings and will take pictures of all non-compliant buildings. They then will send a notice of violation to the building. The building is required to come into compliance and will be fined if the Violation/s is not corrected.

As our readers can imagine this is not an easy task. Our inspectors are doing their jobs building managers are doing theirs, but some unit owners are either unaware or simply ignoring the rules. I am encouraging everyone that lives on the beach to make sure once it is dark to follow the rules. Our Staff will be providing pictures to managers and hopefully they will be able to communicate the importance of compliance.

Just like with turtles we also are regulating beach chairs. We have resolved the conflict of possibly having one vendor for the entire beach. I am happy to report that our City Commission has come to a consensus in regard to courtesy beach chair storage and resetting and commercial concessions. While this is great news, the devil is in the details and there are items that must be developed.

The first will be drafting a new ordinance defining beach chairs and regulating them. This must be approved by the commission. The other is a policy relating to licensing agreements and operational plan/s regulating the storing and placing of beach chairs along our beaches.

This sounds easy but each building is different in the facts; they have different numbers of units, different access points, differences in the spacing between lifeguard stations and different levels of space between the shoreline and property lines. Neither of these are something that can be accomplished overnight.

Our City Manager Dr. Earle, City Attorney Merino and Staff are all working diligently towards documentation and implementation. There is still the rule that there is no storage or presetting on our city beaches. We debated temporary fixes to supersede existing laws but there is still no quick fix. I understand that this has created complications for various condominiums along the beach. Your staff are not permitted to store or preset, so please collaborate with them and be patient.

Our Staff as well has been tasked to work within existing codes and will continue to write Violations. Regretfully some individuals, and I stress this is few, believe that they can be abusive and disrespectful to both their service people as well as ours. This is not acceptable.

In order to keep peace along our shoreline our City Manager has directed that our Code Enforcement Officers will be wearing a body camera. Our beach attendants and those that maintain our beaches will be documenting any and all interactions. Common sense tells us there need to be rules and regulations for safe peaceful enjoyment of everyone that lives on and visits our beach.

I will continue to diligently work towards the resolution along with my colleagues and the completion of both aspects. I know our Staff is doing the same. Individual licensing agreements will be established for each building that desires one. I do not have time specifically for each one. These will be worked on at the same time of the ordinance. The ordinance will come back for first reading Wednesday, May 1st and the second and final reading will be on Wednesday, May 3rd.This time it is required by state statute.

The Historic Banyan Tree was removed. What a sad day. After meeting with the community there was a suggestion to create a covered domino area. Final plans will be discussed at our next Commission Meeting. As I said in my article we are working to preserve and add trees. On Earth Day I had a resident reach out about neighbors cutting down trees on their property. Broward County and our City have had very strong rules for preservations. Regretfully the state has preempted many of the laws. We need to work to get them back. If a tree is healthy, it should be protected.

I can be reached at: jcooper@cohb.org. Or: joycooper@aol.com. Or Facebook Mayor Joy Cooper. You can always call me on my office number at: (954) 457-1318. Or Call/Text me at: (954) 632-5700 Working for you! Always have! Always will!