The official "opening" of the Beaches is Sunday as a parade snakes through much of Jacksonville Beach, but the onslaught of people jamming the shoreline in increasing numbers has been under way for years.
And some say the crowds cramming the coastline may never thin out, especially during the springtime. This year has already seen tens of thousands of people flocking to the Beaches, especially during key events such as the George's Music Springing the Blues festival this month, the Opening of the Beaches Parade Sunday at 2 p.m. and the Dancing in the Streets festival at Beaches Town Center in May.
"It's gotten larger and larger and larger," Neptune Beach Police Chief David Sembach said.
Beaches officials agree, there's no easy way to deal with the rising number of visitors to the coastline while others say it's time for Duval County to start considering other targets of outdoor water recreational opportunities beyond the beach.
Visitors to oceanfront Hanna Park near Mayport have increased slightly over three years, although there was a dip last year. There were 353,438 people in the fiscal year of 2008-09, 403,248 in 2009-10 and 395,417 in 2010-11.
Jacksonville Beach City Councilman Rick Knight said traffic on Third Street is sometimes backed up to the off-ramp from Butler Boulevard leading to the Beaches on weekends, and weeknights are seeing an uptick in visitors, too.
"The Beaches offer such fun and cheap entertainment that there's not much you can do about it. They're going to come," Knight said.
The crush of people slamming the city was so heavy that Jacksonville Beach was the first and still the only Beaches city to institute paid parking of $5 per vehicle at key parking lots in downtown two years ago. That still leaves dozens of street ends with parking lots that remain free to beachgoers who use vehicles to get to the shore.
"Really, the best way to handle it is paid parking," Knight said Friday.
Neptune Beach considered paid parking at and near the Beaches Town Center shopping hub in 2008. Sembach researched paid parking but the city backed off.
Read more:
Crowds cram Beaches; some say time to target other waterways
Source:
Source:
Source: