By ALEXANDREA
BAILEY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.
At the May 3, 2023, meeting of the South Padre Island City Council, Mayor Pro-Tem Kerry Schwartz spoke prideful words regarding the recent building of Whitecap Circle Beach Access #8.
“I can’t express how pleased I was with not only the turnout, but the turnout of the enhancements to Whitecap Circle,” said Schwartz. “It is absolutely stunning.”
The grand opening of the new access was held on Wednesday, May 3. A statement released from the City of South Padre Island on July 8, 2022, a few weeks before the start of its construction, reads that the build was originally estimated to take only 150 days and that the access would be closed coinciding with this duration.
“The Shoreline Taskforce, committee, as well as our Shoreline Department did a phenomenal job in putting that together,” said Schwartz.
The new and improved Whitecap circle includes a parking lot, sidewalks, permanent restrooms, rinse stations and an ADA dune walkover. In order to achieve the design of these improvements, the city partnered with Green, Rubiano & Associates.
“Every detail done in that beach access was done perfectly,” said Schwartz. “If you hadn’t had a chance to look at it, go see it.”
Schwartz expressed that the design of Whitecap Circle is the “model” that the city wants to follow for future beach accesses.
This construction has not been without controversy, as concerned citizens have turned to social media to express their worries of the build causing damage to the natural environment.
“We are trying to build over dunes, because anytime, in the old days, that we wanted to have an access to the beach…we cut a ditch through the dunes, destroying the dunes, vegetation, disrupting habitat…The goal of these accesses now is to build over the dunes, allowing those dunes to grow back,” said Schwartz.
He went on to stress the importance of South Padre Island’s dunes, describing them as “critically important” to the Island.
“Lately we have seen a lot of king tides. We’ve seen what storms do…We now see the devastating effects that storms, high tides, do via these cut-throughs,” said Schwartz.
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