Candidates in Aug. 28 Commissioner race differ on beach use

Candidates in Aug. 28 Commissioner race differ on beach use
More beach mouse habitat (Underhill) or more public beach (McMillan)

According to a Pensacola News Journal report, incumbent Commissioner Doug Underhill wants a 4-acre Perdido Key beachfront lot owned by Escambia County to remain off limits to the public for the benefit of the endangered and federally protected Perdido Key Beach Mouse while his primary opponent in the Aug. 28 Republican Primary, Alan McMillan, is backing a plan to build a public walkover above the beach mouse habitat so that people can reach the Gulf. McMillan also wants to add public parking to the lot by paving over an existing concrete slab. By keeping the lot closed, the county is furthering economic development by allowing new development elsewhere on the island, Underhill said.
Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who represents a wide swath of western Escambia County, said he is pushing to open the lot because it is an issue of fairness to the public. Bergosh said he has long been concerned about limited public access to the beaches along Perdido Key, according to the News-Journal.
So far, the interests of surrounding condominium owners have been placed above that of the general public, Bergosh told the News Journal. “I think it is selfish to have let that property sit there unused for five years while private property owners have used our Gulf-front property for their own purposes,” Bergosh stated to PNJ reporter Melissa Nelson Gabriel.
The lot is located just east of the Crab Trap across the street from the Sundown Condominium complex, which Underhill told the News Journal “is literally in the middle of nowhere.’’
“That land should absolutely be opened to the public and that will be priority of mine if I am elected,” McMillan stated to the News Journal.”That strikes me as commonsense and I am not sure why it hasn’t been done already.”
McMillan said an elevated boardwalk will separate people from the dunes, sea oats and brush where beach mice live and a concrete slab from a building that was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan can be use for parking.
The News Journal reported that Bergosh said a 2013 county document describing the plan to buy the property stated that the land would also be used to provide local public access to the Gulf.