SurferMag Message Boards: City of York Puts Surfing Rules to Ballot; Property Owners Oppose Surfers

MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT - PORTSMOUTH HERALD NEWS

York surfing rules to ballot

By Rachel M. Collins
news@seacoastonline.com

YORK, Maine "" Voters will have the last word on whether the town's surfing zone should be expanded on days when there are big waves and an "increased number of surfers."

The Board of Selectmen decided Monday night to forward to the May 19 ballot the first proposed change to the town's surfing ordinance in 20 years, after a public hearing in which the only opponents were property owners across the road from where the zone would be expanded.

Police Chief Douglas Bracy said the change "" which would allow the surfing area on Long Sands Beach to be doubled, when needed, from 120 to 240 yards "" would make the beach safer.

"We don't think this is a giant step," he said. "But (this past summer) the conditions got to the point where we were endangering people "" whether it be surfers or swimmers," Bracy said.

Parks and Recreation director Michael Sullivan or one of his "designees" would decide when to widen the surfing area.

David Ballou, a surfer and local lawyer who helped Sullivan and Bracy draft the ordinance, said he was "disappointed" selectmen had nixed opening the entire beach "during inclement weather." However, he said, "I think we got mostly what we wanted." In fact, Bracy said, the proposal "goes at least two-thirds" of the way toward correcting beach management problems.

Although local surfer John Clancy has started a petition drive attempting to force a special election to consider opening, with limitations, all of the beach to surfers, no surfers criticized the ordinance at the hearing. Instead, Ballou said the majority of "those in the surfing community are strongly against legislating by petition."

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