Bethany Beach bans tents and canopies on beaches

Bethany Beach became the third town Friday to set restrictions for tents and canopies on its beach.

The council voted 6-1 and Vice Mayor Lew Killmer was the lone dissenting vote.

Bethany joins Rehoboth Beach in completely disallowing full-size tents and canopies on the beach. Fenwick Island has also restricted the use of tents and canopies on its beach, however, not to the extent of the other two beach towns.

The Bethany ordinance will allow umbrellas 8 feet in diameter or smaller and baby tents 36 inches by 36 inches by 36 inches.

All other shading devices, such as sport umbrellas, cabanas, tents and canopies would be banned.

Enforcement won't be extreme. Town Manager Cliff Graviet suggested hiring seasonal employees to work with lifeguards to kindly remind people what the new beach rules are and ask that they remove any tents the ordinance bans.

"I won't say we won't enforce anything," Graviet said. "If somebody says, 'We're not going to (remove the tent),' then we will enforce the ordinance." 

The year-round ban has similar penalties to beach rules in place right now, such as prohibiting sleeping on the beach between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., flying a kite or fishing. People found to be in violation would have to pay a fine that is no less than $50 but no greater than $100.

There were no comments prior to the vote. Bethany did send out a survey to gather input from the public on the potential ban.

"Is there going to be any outreach to the commercial community about what's coming in terms of what the limitations on sizes are?" resident John Vaughn said, referring to merchants who sell larger tents and canopies to visitors intending to use them on Bethany Beach. "I think it would be worthwhile to have some kind of discussion with those merchants ... to make sure they understand what's coming so they're not inadvertently selling things that (beachgoers) are not going to be able to use."

Graviet said it was a great idea and they will do that.

A total of 1,253 people responded and nearly 90 percent of responders said they used an umbrella to shade themselves on the beach, 8.62 percent said they used a canopy and 5.43 percent used a tent.

Those who responded could pick more than one item.

Of those who responded, 73.58 percent of people said tents should be banned and 70.55 percent of people said canopies should be banned.

Nearly 17.5 percent of responders said there should be no ban.

BACKGROUND: Bethany Beach tent and canopy ban proposal: 4 things to know

BACKGROUND: Bethany Beach mulls own tents, umbrellas ban