My name is Lisa Leidig and I am the president of the Lynnshore Condominium HOA. I am travelling on business and will unfortunately not able to attend the vote on Tuesday. I am speaking on behalf of my community that we oppose the closing of the public beach access at the end of Starfish Road for many reasons:

First: a public right-of-way should only be closed when there is no other alternative. Westminster has admitted that they do have a plan that would not involve closing the access. Since this is the case, this should be an easy decision to make – deny the request. You should not have to decide who is more important – the public or residents of Westminster and who is going to be inconvenienced. The only reason that Westminster wants to close the public beach access is that a handful of people expressed concern about walking through a parking garage. I am sure that Westminster has a contingency plan to protect the residents and prevent public access to their buildings. So is it better to inconvenience the thousands of people that use the Starfish beach access to accommodate a few people by making them walk through a garage? Why is it constantly ok to impact the public and residents but not Westminster?

Second: With the pier remaining, there is a problem when we have persistent northeast winds or a storm off our coast – the winds push the waves up to the point that during the periods around high tide (2 hours before and after) the beach west of the pier is inaccessible due to the water rising and being pushed up past the fencing under the pier. This has happened 5 times this year since September (once this past week) and even resulted in significant dune loss in front of Casa de Playa.

Third: Perception. Closing this access provides the perception that the beach in front of Westminster’s property is now private. I have had conversations with residents of Westminster and they stated that they “couldn’t wait until the beach is private and THOSE people (pointing to fisherman/crabbers) won’t be able to come down here anymore”. WC is also leaving the stairs from the bulkhead to the beach, further cementing the perception that the beach is now private. Surf Rider foundation advocates that public beach access remain public – https://www.surfrider.org/pages/policy-on-beach-access – excerpts such as “Development must not be allowed to interfere with public access”, “The public should be afforded full and fair access to beaches which are public trust resources by minimizing the possibility of impediment including development”, “Should not be burdensome for the potential beachgoer to utilize”.

Fourth: Ben Unkle has said that this new beach access is more convenient to “everyone”. That is simply not true. Anyone that lives on Starfish road – the access is more inconvenient. For anyone riding HRT route 35 which drops off in front of Westminster, this is not more convenient. For anyone wanting to access the beach and are crossing Shore Drive at a crosswalk (there are two – one at Starfish, the other at Great Neck) – this is not convenient. For anyone wanting to sit west of the fishing pier, this is not convenient. Ben Unkle has also said that the beach access bisects Westminster property – while that is now a correct statement, the access was in existance long before they bought the properties. Westminster took a chance by buying these properties with full knowledge of the public access. Do not punish the public for a risky venture made by Westminster.

Fifth: The sidewalk on the south side of Ocean Shore and Starfish Road is almost impassible. It has not been maintained for years and the sidewalk is blocked by shrubs and growth. The City had also just spent public dollars to repair the beach access at Starfish road so those improvements are wasted money if you allow the access to close and be torn up.

In closing – this should be an easy decision to make as Westminster has a plan to work around the public beach access. Deny the request and keep our beach access public and open.

Sincerely,

Lisa Leidig
President, Lynnshore Condominiums
xxxx Starfish Road
757-xxx-xxxx