York Town News
Former selectman drafts petition to open all of Long Beach for surfing
By Melissa Wood
YORK - Frustrated by a perceived unwillingness by the Board of Selectmen to understand the merits of a proposed surfing amendment, some residents have now decided to take the matter into their own hands by drafting a petition.The idea came in the aftermath of a packed meeting on Monday night, March 26, where residents expressed anger that the board had not communicated that it already considered any discussions regarding the changes made to the amendment were closed. Many of those in the audience were there under the mistaken belief that there would be more time for public input.
Former Selectman Ron Nowell, who has drafted the petition, said it deletes the town's current surfing ordinance completely, opening the beach up to surfing but requiring surfers to maintain a 30-foot distance from swimmers and wear a 10-foot leash to their boards at all times while in the water during the summer months.
"Then they can surf where surf is best," said Nowell, who added that those requirements would be posted on signs all around the beach.
At the meeting neither surfers nor non-surfers spoke in favor of the selectmen's prior decision to delete a paragraph that would have allowed the Parks and Recreation Department to open the beach to surfing on days of inclement weather, and members of both groups questioned the necessity and the legality of the surfing ordinance.
"The whole surfing thing is just foolish," said Nowell, pointing out that similar separation and leash laws are in place on New Hampshire beaches including Hampton Beach and Jenness Beach in Rye. He also noted out that the York surf ordinance was drafted in the 1960s, a time when surfboards were large wooden boards that would feel like getting hit by an "Edsel."
Nowell said York resident and surfer John Clancy would be organizing the collection of signatures for the petition. He explained if they get 100 signatures, the selectmen could opt to call a special town meeting, but if they gather signatures totaling 10 percent of the number of people who voted in the last election, about 400 signatures, then it would force the selectmen to call a special election on the issue.
"The idea is to make it mandatory so they have to call a special town meeting," he said.
Clancy, who has been surfing for 40 years, asked the board on Monday night for an explanation of why they had previously decided to change the language of the proposed ordinance without clearly stating their reasons for dropping the paragraph allowing unrestricted surfing during inclement weather.
"I think the exact wording was, 'I don't like it,'" he said of the selectmen's deliberations on Feb. 26. "We want to know why that was taken out and why it can't be put back in … that part of the language was actually more important than expanding the area."
The petition also follows months of collaboration between surfers and town officials after incidents on Long Sands Beach last Labor Day. Those efforts began with a meeting on Nov. 30 and resulted in several drafts of a proposed ordinance and a final draft that was presented to the selectmen on Feb. 26, which allowed for greater flexibility in enforcement.
After deleting the paragraph that opened the beach to surfing during inclement weather, selectmen voted to hold a hearing on the amendment, which allows for the area to be expanded another 120 yards toward the Sun-n-Surf property on days when the waves are big and a large number of surfers are crowded into the zone.
Although selectmen had decided to postpone their vote to April 2 on whether the amendment should be included on the May ballot because of a technical error in the meeting notice, on Monday night the library meeting room swelled to standing room only with roughly 100 surfers and property owners, some bringing along young children.
Sheila Lessard, a property owner on Long Sands Beach, came to the meeting with her 91-year-old aunt, who is an avid bodysurfer, and said she would be in favor of eliminating the ordinance altogether.
"Open the beach and I doubt we'd have a few problems," she said. "Then you're not infringing on my rights as a property owner and a taxpayer."
Members of the Juniper Park Association, a group of property owners, stated they were not against surfing but were upset that the proposed ordinance restricted surfing exclusively to an area of the beach near where they live.
Dick Anderson, president of the association, said the neighborhood group was opposed to the changes because it had a direct bearing on them as property owners.
"I, too, am a bit dismayed and surprised that the issue had been closed," he said.
Anderson said he understood the point of view of the surfers for opening the beach during bad weather and agreed with the suggestion for no restrictions on either surfing or swimming.
"Why not let everybody open up the beach totally than our little area?" he asked.
However, Selectmen Chairman David Marshall said that there is not sufficient time to revise the ordinance changes to make the May election and be in effect for next summer. He requested that people only speak as to whether they believed the ordinance changes - as now written - should be on the ballot or not.
Police Chief Doug Bracy said he would support the ordinance changes, even though he, along with Parks and Recreation Director Michael Sullivan, had recommended the version that allowed for opening of the beach during bad weather.
"I would say go forward," he said. "If we don't put this forward then we haven't solved anything."
Nowell, who said he's never surfed or even contemplated surfing, drew a round of applause from the many in the audience when he suggested that the town may not have the authority to enforce an ordinance on the beach.
Nowell said the town does not meet the basic principals for passing an ordinance - that they are the authority on the beach and they can show that the lawful activity of surfing is a threat or hazard to public health or welfare.
"What I'm talking about is that Long Beach is not a public beach," said Nowell. Instead, he said the property is owned by heirs of Roger Norton, which he said he has proof of in a 1936 tax deed sale when the land west of Long Beach Avenue between where the Anchorage and Cutty Sark are now was bought in a tax deed sale for $175.
The idea of private ownership of the beach was further emphasized, he said, after the town purchased land from the Nortons in 1957 to construct the Long Sands Beach bathhouse, which Nowell's father helped build. A property owner across the street sued to stop the construction, claiming he owned that part of the beach, but the court ruled in favor of the town's ownership rights as transferred to it by the Norton deed.
"I'm telling you that you're on very shaky legal ground," said Nowell, "and you're opening yourself up for a court suit."
Nowell, who was told by Marshall that he had reached the three-minute limit for speaking imposed by selectmen for the hearing, later explained that there has only been one accident in the past 40 years involving a swimmer and surfboard. According to Nowell, it involved a young man in the 1970s, who deliberately went into the surf zone, despite being told not to, because he thought he could get some money from the town.
Surfer Mike Morin called Lessard a "genius person" for first suggesting at the meeting that the beach be opened up entirely, a solution he said would reflect the use of the water by swimmers and surfers, who naturally use different parts of the water, and take away the problem of enforcement. Morin said he has been told by a lifeguard that they can't protect the swimmers while they're chasing around the surfers.
Morin said that at the Feb. 26 meeting Marshall had told the public that nothing would be voted on.
"It's not only unfair to the Juniper Park people, it's unfair to the surfers," he said.
Marshall said he would check what he said at the meeting and apologized if he was misinterpreted, but said there was nothing selectmen could do now except go forward, or not, with the ordinance changes as written at this time.
"We have a charter government that's very strict on how we change laws," said Marshall. "We didn't get a recommendation to open the beach entirely … No one's recommended that to us."
When asked why surfers had not come forward with a proposal to open up the beach, Morin said, "They're afraid to ask for it."
He said the proposed ordinance would not do much to change problems at the beach.
"I don't think it amounts to anything other than it makes it a little easier for the lifeguards to do their job," he said.
Karen Nader, who brought her sons up with her to the podium, said she and her children were not in favor of the ordinance changes.
"My kids are learning to surf; we don't want to get rid of surfing," she said, but added that with the changes, "What have we got? Where are we going to go? There has to be a middle ground somewhere here and I don't know if it's been investigated or not."
Alan Ford, another longtime summer resident, said that people who were concerned for their grandchildren will be thanked by them when they become surfers and the surfing area is bigger.
"If you want to do something nice for your grandchildren, support this surfing area," he said.
Sullivan said the ordinance was not an attempt to broker a deal between the surfers and Juniper Park but an attempt to solve a problem. He said he recognized everyone in the room would be watching how he used the discretion to expand the zone this summer if the revised ordinance is passed.
Local attorney and surfer David Ballou, who has made it his mission to facilitate the changes to the ordinance before the next summer season begins, said he supported the board's decision and asked that it maintain its 4-0 vote to put the changes on the ballot at their next meeting.
"I watched very carefully the tape recording of your deliberation and I understand the positions that you took," he said. "I respect them."
Ballou asked people watching at home to support the article when they saw it on the ballot.
"We have to be happy with what you did because it is an improvement, a substantial improvement," he said.
