With a brand new dune to protect it, 150 to 250 feet of new beach in front of it and a new, improved bandstand capping it at Garfield Parkway, Bethany Beach’s boardwalk is now the most dated of the oceanside public spaces in the town, and town officials this week took a look at remedying that situation by possibly expanding the boardwalk’s width a full two-thirds, to accommodate recent and future growth.
Town Manager Cliff Graviet told council members at their Feb. 11 workshop that he planned to ask them to consider and vote at their monthly meeting this Friday on whether to submit to state natural resources officials a coastal construction permit application.
If approved by the state, the permit would give the town permission to build seaward of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) building line and expand the boardwalk from 12 feet to 20 feet in width. It would approach the dune but not touch it.
Graviet said cost estimates for the project had been set by engineers at $587,000, with an additional $88,000 recommended to be allocated for contingencies.
“We are not requesting to elevate the boardwalk or for any portion of it to be elevated,” Graviet emphasized to council members on Monday.
He cited requirements of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) that would force the town to create access ramps to any elevated portions of the boardwalk. He said such notions were simply impossible, requiring a 32-foot-long ramp to reach upward 3 feet. That was a target elevation some in the town have already recommended in seeking to recover the overlooking view of the beach that has been somewhat blocked since last fall by the new 16-foot-tall dune fronting the existing 12-foot-high boardwalk.
“I would suggest it’s a design you wouldn’t really be happy with either,” he added.
Graviet emphasized that the idea behind a boardwalk widening project was to accommodate an ever-increasing number of people traveling along the wooden span.
With some 33,000 counted crossing Garfield Parkway at Atlantic Avenue on a summer Saturday a few years back by those performing a traffic study for the town, Graviet said, “I expect we will have even more visitors with the new beach.”
“This project would benefit the entire community for the long term,” he added.
Council members appeared intrigued by the idea.
“This would be a great thing for the crowds in the summertime,” said Vice-Mayor Tony McClennny. “It would have a bigger impact than removing the poles,” he added, referencing a current proposal to help beautify Garfield Parkway by removing utility poles from the 100 block of the street, at a similar cost to the boardwalk project estimate.
Onward and upward?
But resident Phil Boesch, who was present at Monday’s workshop, objected to the idea of just widening the boardwalk. The town needs to go up, he argued.
“The problem is that we’re not connected to the beach,” Boesch said. “We used to stand on the boardwalk and see people, umbrellas and the surf. If we went up 3 feet, we would be connected to the beach again. We’ve lost the beach.”
It’s an ongoing refrain heard in the town as it awaits word from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which designed and oversaw the construction of the new dune, on whether DNREC officials’ requests to examine the possibility of lowering the dune by 2 feet would be approved after further examination of the impact such a move might have on storm protection.
While the wider beach and enhanced storm protection provided by the project were widely sought and welcomed, the impact of the dune on the view from the boardwalk that many had become used to has been controversial, and Boesch has been among its most vocal critics. Town officials have tried to keep a positive attitude about the change and the project’s overall benefits.
“We’ve gained a beach,” Mayor Carol Olmstead and Councilman Jerry Dorfman countered to Boesch on Monday.
“Change happens, and we’ve had a change,” Olmstead acknowledged.
“We all enjoyed that view,” she said. “However, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. What we have gotten in exchange is protection of our beach, boardwalk and our homes for the future.”
Graviet said costs to elevate the entire boardwalk would run to “millions and millions and millions” of dollars. To elevate just the requested 8-foot width extension would require ADA-compliant ramps and handrails for safety, as well as ADA-compliant access for existing residences and businesses fronting along the boardwalk.
He argued that such a mixed-elevation structure would run contrary to the intention of the boardwalk widening plan — opening the area up for beachgoers.
“I would argue that, instead of a cramped 12-foot boardwalk, you’d end up with a cramped 12-foot section and a cramped 8-foot section,” Graviet said.
Both the town manager and mayor said that they expected the dune itself to change, possibly becoming less of a visual impediment to seeing the beach. “It already has,” Olmstead said.
Graviet emphasized that the idea behind such the project would be to simply make more space, not to increase visibility of the beach. Elevating any section of the boardwalk to overcome the height of the dune would necessitate ADA ramps that would have to cross the existing boardwalk and thereby make it unusable as well, he said.
He was more open to the notion of gazebos, as suggested by Planning Commission Chairman Lew Killmer, who referenced sheltered benches provided on Rehoboth Beach’s boardwalk, but Graviet questioned whether such structures would serve to reduce the desired effect of opening up the boardwalk space.
Town could dip into boardwalk fund
Costs also factored into Monday’s discussion by the council, particularly in the wake of earlier discussion of the proposed Streetscape project and anticipated needs for capital improvements at the town’s water storage and treatment facility, as well as drainage problems on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Graviet pointed to $750,000 currently saved up in the town’s boardwalk and beach emergency fund. While expanding the boardwalk might not itself be an emergency by anyone’s definition, Graviet said he expected threats to the boardwalk to be reduced with the new dune. He said he had checked with Finance Director Janet Connery and she had said borrowing money from the emergency account would be possible. A repayment schedule of $150,000 per year would restore the fund to its full size after five years, he said.
It was a move he recommended.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that could have a major impact on the community,” Graviet said.
McClenny appeared to favor the project as well.
“It would allow people much more room to walk,” he said.
Resident Joan Thomas said she generally favored the idea, citing its ability to make room for bicycles and pedestrians to better co-exist on the boardwalk. But she said she felt the town’s limited parking would serve as a cap on the final number of beach and boardwalk visitors the town might see.
Assuming approval of the coastal construction permit — which he said was not guaranteed but certainly possible — Graviet said actually moving forward with the project would cost the town just a few thousand dollars for engineering costs, to start. With a permit granted and the engineering done, construction could begin within the year.
“I would hope the permitting could be done in late winter or early spring,” he said. If funding for the project was done as a supplementary item in the town’s budget, he added, “We could move forward in the fall.”