Take down the fence on 5th Street. Take a few steps.
If readers head to the end of 5th Street in Boca Grande, they will see a seaside attraction like no other. It is a wood fence, built completely across the whole length of the street, blocking access to the Gulf of Mexico. It is at the end of a parking lot with 91 parking spaces that now sit empty for most of every day.
In the midst of a renewed discussion over parking in Boca Grande, and possible new restrictions on parking across the island, its status is a metaphor for the poor condition, and ill planning, of many public amenities on Gasparilla Island.
The fence, built in pieces by Lee County, is there to only prevent people from getting to the beach. Officially, the county says they are waiting for beach re-nourishment to rebuild the ramp. Wednesday, we asked Commissioner Kevin Ruane about the fence, and the lack of access.
“It’s our intent to put things back,” Ruane said. There is a long list of Hurricane related repairs that Lee County still has ahead, and the construction is something they “just can’t leapfrog.”
“What most people don’t realize is that FEMA signs off on every park,” Ruane said.
The use of the area as a public space dates from the earliest conception of the street plan for Boca Grande. While this editorial is not about discussing the original conception for the island, or throwing out the names of original designers of the street plan, suffice to say there was a much more noble purpose for the street and the view in those early plans. From the beginning, the street was to be a central axis leading from The Gasparilla Inn to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2016, the area had about 46 parking spaces, and was more highly landscaped. It had the space for a pavilion at the end of the street. The street and park were seen to be the beginning of Gilchrist Avenue, with a veterans’ memorial and flagpole at the center in a traffic circle.
(The veterans memorial was restored in November, after the plaque there was damaged. The Shively Charitable Foundation worked with the Boca Grande Historical Society to fix the memorial.)
In October of that year, Lee County commissioners voted five to zero to increase the parking in the lot from 46 to 91 spaces, adding parking bumpers, landscaping and a new Americans with Disabilities Act “boardwalk” to get to the beach. There was also to be more signage.
Storms in 2017 swept away the bottom of an earlier ramp, just after it had been installed. The ADA accessible ramp re-opened in 2019. In September of 2023, parks closed the Fifth Street beach access. At the time, they cited the fact that Hurricane Idalia had eroded the beach and access ramp. In February of 2024, they completed the fence.
We call it a fence, but it is really a wall. A wall is something that blocks people from getting from one place to another.
One wonders if Lee County would allow a homeowner to build any such wall on a piece of private beachfront property. Indeed the fence violates the first commonly understood rule of fences, that the pretty side faces out. So from the beach, you see the back of an ugly, Lowe’s worthy, salt-treated fence.
Is there a beautiful seaside destination where the sea access is actually cut off in such a way? Is there another such wall anywhere in Florida? The fence-wall is put up with such industriousness, and such strength, that only a few families can take their children and jump around it, to do something so daring as to walk and play on the beach.
While there Thursday morning, an employee of The Gasparilla Inn came over graciously, as this editor looked at the fence and took pictures. “Do you need any help finding a way to get on the beach?”
We told him we were just here from the Beacon, seeing as we wanted to write about getting the problem fixed. He replied that people ask him all the time how to get to the beach, because of the fence.
Let us wonder of the studiousness with which the fence was constructed. What if that determination was put to the cause of building a simple ramp? It is only a few feet down. A new ramp or steps would not be a major engineering feat. Members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church each year erect a temporary ramp for their Easter Services, so as to have access to 4th Street. It is used by the elderly.
A note that the other numbered street access points south of 5th Street have no access, either. Residents have to jump down. But the jump is not too far for some. It is literally about four feet, depending on the amount of sand deposited with the latest storm.
A reader called the Boca Beacon about the lack of steps to the beach across the village.
“I am absolutely done at age 65 with jumping off, and breaking a leg five feet down,” said the resident. She said that her husband could build some steps in a few hours. “It’s about five pieces of lumber,” she said.
The resident lives in the village, and rents out her house on the other times of years to help make it pay. She, like many, has been coming to Boca Grande since childhood. She is not among the one percenters, but a normal, upper (upper) middle class person of means who just wants to get to the beach, and not break her leg.
The 5th Street access has another issue. Many who frequent the island assume that The Gasparilla Inn owns the parking area, as they keep the area around it so beautiful. In fact, there is no welcome signage there that would indicate that it is a Lee County public park, except for the brown “Lee Parks” trash cans strewn about, lined up firing line style, that you only see once you get in the parking lot.
There is an unfortunate irony in both the closure of 5th Street access, and the refusal to rebuild the ramp accessible access there. The irony is that the late President George H.W. Bush, the 41st president and signer of the Americans with Disabilities Act, frequently visited The Gasparilla Club, next door. And his son, 43, also visits the club. Today, their income group has access to the beach, through the club, albeit with steps. The rest must go elsewhere.
There are many other issues with parking in the village and across the island. The 91 spots on 5th Street are an important part of the solution. But because such a small item, such as a few necessary steps, cannot be resolved, it makes one wonder if any new plan for parking would be implemented fairly, or competently.
Garland Pollard is the editor of the Boca Beacon. Email editor@bocabeacon.com.
Beacon archives photos.
