Beach elicits passion

Voters say ‘no’ to vending on the beach



In the aftermath of the beach vending referendum, folks on the winning side said the people of Port Aransas have exercised their will to prevent over-commercialization of the beach and all of the negatives that could go along with that.

Some on the losing side said the result was largely due to a lack of passion by the people who favored giving the city the freedom to someday possibly put additional vendors on the beach.

The referendum on Saturday, May 12, was sparked by a 4-3 city council vote on July 21 to alter the city’s Coastal Management Plan (CMP) to give the city the power to later, if desired, create an ordinance to provide for food and drink concessions and beach-related services such as surfing or sailing lessons on the shore.

Despite the council’s vote, the change never became offi cial, because it had to get ap- proval by the Texas General Land Office first. The matter never got to that stage, because a citizens’ petition and the resulting referendum came about first.

As currently written, the CMP allows the city to have only one vendor, and the document specifies that the business must be the kind that rents items like umbrellas and chairs. The vendor also must sell beach parking permits.

The CMP’s language doesn’t allow for sales of food and drinks or for beach services.

Council members Charles Bujan, Edwin Myers and Glenda Balentine voted against the CMP amendment, and they got behind the petition drive that garnered more than 400 signatures of people against changing the CMP. The petition prompted the council to call for the referendum.

Some 534 voters cast ballots opposing the council’s move to change the CMP. Only 172 voted in favor of allowing the city to someday permit more vending.

Bujan said he was pleased by the election’s outcome. He said he wasn’t particularly surprised that it went the way it did, though he was a little worried before the election that the ballot’s wording could confuse voters.

People who didn’t want more beach vending had to vote yes to enact an ordinance to overturn the council’s earlier action to allow for the possibility of more vending.

Voters who wanted more vending, or at least the possibility of it, had to vote no to oppose enacting the ordinance.

While supporters of beach vending showed little to no organized efforts to sway voters their direction, folks against additional beach vending took out newspaper ads, wrote letters to the editor, sent out fliers and posted outdoor signs advertising their positions.

“I think one of the key phrases was, ‘Vote yes to say no,’ ” Bujan said.

A majority voted the way they did because “their vision of beach vending is carts and vending trucks and trash, and they simply don’t want that,” Bujan said. “They don’t want that type of atmosphere on our beaches. There are a number of other reasons.”

One of those reasons was rooted in a concern that more vending would produce more trash on the beach.

“They know they pay a lot in taxes to get that picked up every year,” Bujan said.

Port Aransan Bill Sims, who publicly has spoken out against more beach vending, said he believes many voted to disallow more vending because the wording of the proposed CMP change was overly broad.

“It was the ‘ocean-related services’ part that bothered a lot of people,” Sims said. “Those people on this council or on a future council could do with this whatever they wanted to. It was a Pandora’s box. It covered a lot of ground.”

Those against more beach vending also have argued that beach vendors could rob eateries in town of business.

Mayor Keith McMullin was the one who originally brought the idea of the CMP change to the council. Asked for his reaction to the vote, he said he didn’t take the outcome personally.

“It was the Democratic process at work,” McMullin said. “Exactly as the city charter scripted it is what transpired, and I think all of those that were passionate in their concerns over the potential expansion of beach vending are to be commended for getting organized and having their voices heard and getting the vote out.”

McMullin said he wasn’t surprised at how the referendum turned out. What it boiled down to was passion, he said.

People on the winning side “were passionate in their dislike of what they could envision the beach being (as a result of more vending),” the mayor said. “The people who are in favor of giving the city options down the road – they’re not passionate about that. I’m the one who thought it was a good idea in the first place, and I’m not even passionate about it. I think it’s the right idea, but I’m not passionate about it. It’s about positioning the city for the future, and it’s hard to get all hot and bothered about that.”

Even if the CMP change had gone through, it wouldn’t have automatically meant more beach vending would have been allowed. The current council or a council in the future would have had to go some steps further, first directing city staff to draw up a proposed ordinance to set up an expanded vending program and then holding votes at three separate public meetings to approve the ordinance.

A majority of council members went on the record a few months ago as saying that, while they favored changing the CMP change, they didn’t favor creating an ordinance to bring in more vending right now. Still, four of them – Mc- Mullin and council members Steve Lanoux, John Price and Keith Donley – said they wanted the CMP changed so the city would have the flexibility in the future to allow more vending if it became a good idea.

David Bendett, owner of Coffee Waves, is part of a small number of people who have spoken publicly in favor of more beach vending. Part of the reason for the referendum’s results lies in the fact that few who wanted more beach vending made their voices heard, he said.

Bendett said he would have set up a trailer to do business on the beach in Port Aransas if the referendum hadn’t gone the way it did and the city would have moved forward with an expanded vending program.

The election result is “a real loss for our community,” Bendett said. “As someone who is local and cares deeply about our beaches and our economy and hires a lot of staff and puts a lot of money into this community, I feel like it was a real loss for our community in a variety of areas.”

Bendett said his vending trailer is doing good business on North Padre Island. He said he hired seven employees, all from Corpus Christi, to staff it, and so now the money being generated by the operation is going out of town.

It’s a pity, Bendett said, that the mobile service won’t be able to employ Port Aransans on Port Aransas beaches or generate tax or fee revenue that the city could have used to combat litter along the shore.

Questions? Comments? Contact Dan Parker at (361) 749- 5131 or dan@portasouthjetty.com.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.