ORANGE BEACH – A city ordinance enforcing the type of commercial activity allowed on beaches, shorelines and waterways in Orange Beach was unanimously approved by city council.

As previously reported by GCM, the ordinance was first mentioned in the March 18 city council meeting where Coastal Resources Deputy Director Nicole Woerner said she is working with the city attorney to create something to prevent the beaches from getting "overrun."

At the meeting, she confirmed the issue is mostly centered around retail businesses such as "ice cream from a boat" or someone "walking up and down the beach selling popsicles." Mayor Tony Kennon confirmed any new ordinance on the matter would not affect beach chair services.

According to Woerner, "We just need it black and white" regarding what types of businesses are and are not allowed on the Orange Beach shore.

The issue was brought up again at the April 2 council meeting, where the item had its first reading. Businesses who operate on the beach such as The Beach Moms and Sand Castle University spoke at that meeting and received clarification on which businesses would be affected.

Kennon was quoted saying, "For the most part, all sanctioned activities now will continue to be permitted. What we're trying to prevent is commercialization of the beachfront."

At the April 15 meeting, no questions were asked before the ordinance was approved after its second reading, but some businesses stood up to ask questions during the public comment section of the Committee of the Whole meeting. Most questions were to confirm how their business would be affected and what type of enforcement would be implemented.

Blane Roberts with Panhandle Salt Beach Fishing said he does not currently operate his surf fishing, or fishing from the shore, business in Orange Beach, rather the "Perdido Key and Pensacola area." Councilman Jeff Boyd said he should be okay since most of the comments the city has received mostly compare what's allowed on the beaches to Gulf Shores' policies.

Boyd also mentioned how anything in that area normally is fine since it is county property or out of state.

"I think you can understand from our point of view, the last thing we needed was people dragging sharks onto the beach for tourism," Boyd said. "… When (the ordinance) occurred, it wasn't about fishing, but fishing got caught up in it."

He said the main goal of the ordinance was to stop people trying to have "barges" where they sell "ice cream, beer, you name it" or "trinkets up and down the beach." He said this ordinance was needed to protect the state of the beaches and the city "can't pick and choose businesses" when setting standards for the ordinance.

"If we're going to tell somebody they can't (have a beach business) we had to have some teeth to stand behind it and until this really happened we didn't have enough teeth to stand behind," said Boyd.

He went on to say with "so many people here now" it became hard to keep up with people trying to create a business without proper licensing or permits.

"We just had to tighten our guidelines up," he said.

Kennon mentioned how he liked the idea and saw "the absolute value" of a surf fishing business being in service during the offseason and he would consider some points mentioned by Roberts about certain times and guidelines for fishing. Kennon said it was necessary to include fishing to be able to enforce the ordinance.

"If you create something that you can't enforce, you've created an issue for yourself," Kennon said.

Councilwoman Joni Blalock said, "We have to do so much on those beaches already, it's hard to regulate every person that wants to open a business there. And some people do it right and some people absolutely do not. So, that's kind of where we were coming from is trying to protect what we've invested so much in."

Boyd said in a previous GCM article, "We've worked hard to protect our islands (so) that we don't become Crab Island, and we've also protected the brick-and-mortars that have paid for years and years to build up after storms."

The ordinance amendment document, as found on the city's website, specifies some aspects of the ordinance such as a correlation between growth in number of residents and visitors and an increase in the "number of requests to operate businesses."

"It is the recommendation of the coastal resources, fire and police departments that commercial activities from beaches and waterways are limited to those commercial activities specifically allowed by the council," the ordinance proposal reads. "The aesthetic, environmental, health and safety concerns of allowing these businesses to operate far outweigh any additional benefit to the city, its residents, visitors or business owners."

The ordinance document details that commercial activity involving transactions of "consumable products" such as food, drinks, sunscreen or "any limited use products" that could create waste on the beaches would be included in the ban on commercial activity.

Other businesses banned include transactions for "trinkets or other souvenir items," booking reservations or renting items, sale or rental of products or equipment, camping or overnight activities, any commercial activity around Bird Island, Robinson Island, Walker Island or Gilchrist Island, and any "guided activities" such as fishing, gigging, crabbing or any activity with the intention of interacting or observing wildlife along the beaches, shorelines and waterways.

Exceptions to the ordinance include weddings and all rentals or services required with that type of event, commercial activity allowed by the Orange Beach Code of Ordinances sections for "Commercial Vessels" and "Environment," commercial vessels for live or fresh-cut fishing bait, or any beach chair rental service.

Kennon was previously quoted saying, "When there's supervision, someone will clean up the mess; someone is responsible. That's a different story. But when someone is walking down the beach handing out flyers, selling hotdogs, trash, whatever it might be, there's no supervision, no oversight. I think we can all agree, if there's oversight and it doesn't violate our family friendly brand it's going to be fine."