CAROLINA BEACH — The reins have been pulled in a little tighter when it comes to regulating ATVs on Carolina Beach.
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The town council voted 4-1 with council member Joe Benson dissenting at its Nov. 12 meeting to approve text amendments for Chapter 28 Section 28-1 ordinance on beach services, and in particular, over the ATVs used by beach service providers and their employees. The amendments were to add further regulation to rental chairs and umbrellas and to prevent reckless driving of ATVs, a complaint received by the town from beachgoers.
Beachgoers and residents complained of ATV drivers from beach businesses going over the 15 miles per hour speed limit and posing danger to those along the shoreline.
The issue was first brought up at an August council retreat, which prompted a meeting among the police department, fire department, public works, ocean rescue, and community development. The goal was to understand the biggest problems facing the beaches.
While the text amendment doesn’t prohibit businesses from using ATVs, it limits how many ATVs can be driven along the beach from businesses. Only one ATV is allowed northbound and one is allowed southbound, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., with the border between, or beginning of, north and south at Hamlet Avenue. All ATV deliveries are limited from sunrise to sunset.
Outside of a business’ hours of operation, employees and attendants are allowed to help people with their rentals, but cannot use an ATV. The vehicles are also limited to the emergency lanes and stopping within those lanes is prohibited.
Overcrowding is the biggest issue that led to the strengthened regulation, according to council and town staff. Carolina Beach has a 6,665 population that balloons to over 30,000 people throughout the tourist season. Thus an influx of people flock to the beach which also requires lifeguards and people from public works to be present more frequently for beach maintenance and emergency access. More people means more activity and work from town staff, which means more activity on the beach.
Beach service providers rent out umbrellas, chairs, boards, and other items, but staff often help set up the furniture to ensure customer safety. The vendors use ATVs to transport rental furniture across the sand for customers and to get employees across the beach in a timely fashion.
“Beach conditions can definitely change throughout the day, and it’s crucial that we’re out there to be able to attend to these umbrellas and be able to close the umbrellas and to assist people that need help,” said Tony Silvagni, Carolina Beach resident and owner of Tony Silvagni Surf School and Beach Rentals. He is one of three beach service provider permit holders.
Silvagni noted many of his customers are elderly or have physical limitations that make ATVs an accessibility need. He uses two currently, which the new amendment will decrease to one if any of his employees receive a violation on an ATV. He thought the beach service providers could work among themselves to be more on top of their employees’ driving and awareness.
“I’m simply trying to work alongside the other two permit holders to provide a high demand service to the public. I’m confident that there may be issues, but we can work through them,” Silvagni said.
Businesses will get a written warning after one violation. The second violation prohibits the business from using one of its ATVs for 10 days and results in a fine.
The third violation takes the ATV away for 30 days and results in a fine.
“Taking the ATVs away, it will cripple their business,” Healy said.
Port City Daily reached out to the town to ask about the cost of the fines but did not receive a response.
Any further violations will prevent a business from working for the remainder of the calendar year, until the new year comes around.
The newly created legal consequences of violating these amendments was called “extreme” by resident Jim Tollens.
A handful of residents were overwhelmingly concerned the ATV usage suspension for the second offense was too harsh, especially when considering that these beach services often hire teenagers.
“When you’re dealing with 15, 16, 17 year-olds – our drivers are 18 and older – you’re going to have mess ups, but I think that’s where we have to be accountable with holding them accountable and us accountable,” Bryan Sartin of Pleasure Island Rentals said. They are the second of three permit holders.
Public comments invoked sympathy from council member Benson, who echoed the idea that beach services could self-regulate first.
“I think you take one ATV away and you’ve just deadlined that business, put a burden on the other two to the point that it’s a scramble to try to address the need,” Benson said.
However, his colleague, Mike Hoffer, called the business’s ATV use a privilege.
“We’re granting you the privilege to run the ATVs up and down the beach,” he asserted. “So, if you’re not living up to that privilege, you don’t get the privilege. I don’t think that’s unrealistic, unreasonable.”
Council said its decision came after much deliberation, and was also drafted in concordance with representatives from the three permit-holding beach service providers, including Silvagni, Pleasure Island Rentals, and Shorebreak outfitters. According to Community Development Director Jeremy Hardison the second violation consequence came as a suggestion from the businesses after town staff approached them with a survey this year and began discussing the issue.
Mayor Lynn Barbee noted “losing sleep” over the text amendments.
“I know it seems like it’s not a big deal, but it is a big deal. First off, our beach services vendors are some of the finest ambassadors for the town, in many more ways than delivering,” Barbee said. “A lot of stuff that doesn’t even make them money. It’s just about them taking care of the community.”
Hoffer added one addition about prohibiting use of canopies on the front row of the beach, closest to the water.
Businesses are expected to adopt the new changes before the beach season begins again in 2026.
[Ed. note: The article has been amended to denote council member Joe Benson dissented, not Jay Healy. PCD regrets the error.]
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