Sullivan's Island, the Isle of Palms, and the City of Folly Beach have allowed their residents access to beaches, while denying island (and beach) access to non-residents - hurting local businesses that cannot be accessed in the process.  Sullivan's Island, the Isle of Palms, and Folly Beach are beautiful and wonderful places, with fantastic beaches normally open to the public. The South Carolina Governor closed public access to beaches on March 30, 2020, but issued a new executive order opening them again on April 20, 2020.  Both before and after these dates, these towns denied access to State highways by non-residents, while allowing residents to use these highways to leave and return.

These towns receive State and Federal tax money for Highway and Beach maintenance.  The only road access to these towns are via State highways.  

Island and thus beach access has been denied under the guise of public health.  While it is undeniable that there is a public health emergency, the towns have addressed this in a way that provides far favorable treatment to residents, instead of fairer, appropriate alternatives.  Some reasonable alternatives include:

• Restrict public parking on certain days of the week based on license plate patterns (such as even numbers on certain days), 
• Limit public parking to two hours.
• Restrict public parking during the hour before and after high tide (when the beaches are most compact).
• Limit island access to some reasonable number of non-resident vehicles per day before closing. 
• Patrol for crowds and poor social distancing.

This issue is admittedly not earth-shatteringly important, but, this is a needless, selfish power grab by these towns that should be challenged.

The State and Federal taxes pay to support these communities; the public should have reasonable access to the public roads, spaces, and beaches.  Should the towns desire to impose reasonable, fair restrictions, for public health - so be it - they perhaps can and should, especially with appropriate, fair rules.  However, should they continue to unfairly restrict access to tax-payer supported resources while enjoying the spoils themselves, these towns should repay any State or Federal resources received in the last 10 years for highway and beach maintenance, hurricane mitigation, etc., and future maintenance expenses for roads, bridges, and beaches, should be paid by residents.

Proposed acceptable solutions:

1) Change access rules to provide reasonable public access accommodations; OR,

2) The town residents repay expenses for their highway and beach maintenance, and future expenses.