|
Beach access lawsuits will cost the community
March 26, 2008
 Print  Email
Two weeks after the Bonanza first posted its Web poll on beach access, the tallies are still coming in.
Should all Incline Village/Crystal Bay residents be allowed to access Incline's three beaches? From when we posted the results March 19 to today, as more votes trickle in, the poll's No votes barely edge out the yes votes.
The Web polls presented by the Bonanza are fun to read, have interesting results and provide a pulse on the community. However, we don't pretend they are scientific, since anyone with a computer can vote. And, no, you can't vote twice, unless you went to some extreme measures we aren't going to divulge.
What is the most interesting about the vote is not the results - about 50/50 for yes or no - but the amount of interest in it.
It by far exceeds the number of votes in our other polls.
The beach access issue has the potential to tear our community apart. The interest is high, the positions polarized.
After an unsuccessful months-long effort to find a compromise, the issue now rests in litigation after two separate Crystal Bay residents filed suit in court for access to Incline's beaches. The courts (one district, one federal) will decide if there is any legal manuevering around the 1968 deed which restricts access to the beaches to the parcels in place at the time.
Whatever the decision, we already know some of the results: it will be costly, it will be damaging to community cohesiveness, and it will take attention away from other issues.
|
M/CLOUDY 42°
