Improving Beach won’t be easy

Pensacola Beach needs improving. It’s not enough that Pensacola Beach has the world’s most beautiful, sugar white beaches and crystal clear emerald green waters. No sir. It is an item on the Santa Rosa Island Authority’s “to do” list.

Something should be done. Something must be done. We cannot let Pensacola Beach stay as it is, in such an obvious state of Needing Improvement.

There are those that want to add parking. There are those that want to reduce the need for parking.

There are those that want more hotels and attractions. There are those that oppose the building of another building that will take away from the natural attraction, the beach.

Some say we need a wraparound boardwalk to give visitors an interesting walking path to shops and restaurants. Some say such a boardwalk would ruin the Pensacola Beach experience.

Residents want quiet. Businesses want customers. The Island Authority wants revenue.

The county wants property tax.

Pensacola Beach is being tugged from one end to the other by various interests.

What is going to make Pensacola Beach better? Can it begin to attract clientele from the right side of the tracks?

Right now, Pensacola Beach has a 30-year old retail, dining and entertainment complex that attracts more cars than there are parking spaces.

A recent proposal by island resident Chris Shearman recommended building another shopping/dining/entertainment complex on Pensacola Beach, on the site of the Gulfside Pavilion. That is the site of the previous Pensacola Beach attraction, The Casino.

Another proposal, by Pensacola architects Quina Gruendhofer, recommended building retail/dining/entertainment complexes to hide a new parking garage in the Casino Beach parking lot.

Both projects would spread the demand for parking among two or three different parking areas, alleviating the burden on the Quietwater parking lot.

Those proposals sit, gathering dust, while the new planners study What Can Be Done.

They have a big job ahead of them, improving on what is very close to perfection right now.