I have just finished reading your March 7, 2009, issue. What a pleasure it is to read real news regarding my community of Ocean Ridge.
I am an active participant in my community, attending Town Commission meetings as well as meetings of the Planning and Zoning Committee and the Board of Adjustment whenever possible.
Reading your account of the last Town Commission meeting, I realize that over the past year I have been witnessing what to me is a disturbing trend in my town. That trend is a trend of attempting to create more and more law in Ocean Ridge to govern behavior of the residents of Ocean Ridge and not the enforcement of the current laws/code of the town. Two examples include a recent discussion creating a code to govern what plant life is allowed on the beaches of Ocean Ridge. The possibility of fining beach owners for the presence of “exotic” vegetation on property they own was part of this discussion. And now, the commission is exploring expanding the town code concerning dogs on the beaches along the coast of Ocean Ridge.
I am a strong supporter of the proper maintenance of our dunes, and I maintain our piece of the dune in compliance with all town, county and state laws by removing exotics and planting native species in their stead. The problem with writing more new code is that in the town of Ocean Ridge enforcement of the existing code is spotty at best. Every public beach access in Ocean Ridge announces the prohibition of dogs on the beach. I know that the Ocean Ridge police receive calls reporting dogs on the beach, and I also believe that most are not the dogs of owners of beachfront property in Ocean Ridge.
In regard to vegetation on the east side of Old Ocean, there is already town code stating that hedges must be five feet from the road and no higher than four feet. After all, there are no sidewalks on this street and the many pedestrians do have the right to safely get off of the street and out of harm’s way of automobile traffic. Over the past year, formal written complaints to Town Hall regarding the lack of enforcement of this code have been made. The town sent letters asking beach owners (we received one) to comply with the code.
There apparently was resistance from some beach owners. Consequently, the issue was bounced to the Planning and Zoning Committee. This committee recommended back to the Town Commission that the current code not be changed and remain as written. Did the Town Commission then direct Code Enforcement to enforce the code? There is no evidence on Old Ocean that this is the case.
If the town of Ocean Ridge and its commissioners are not active in supporting enforcement of the codes currently on the books, what good is writing more and more code that will likely NOT be enforced. In the end, this talk on the part of the Town Commission is at best rhetoric and at worst grandstanding.
John D Wootton, MD
Ocean Ridge
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