The addition of a beach to the frisco Marina has proven to be wildly popular amenity, so much so that it has created significant parking issues.

Where do the majority of beach users come from, and how are they using the beach? Perhaps we saw a similar dynamic in the early days of buddy passes.

Pass holders would show up, bringing their lunch, ski and leave. These visitors would contribute to traffic and parking problems. Their usage pattern did little to support our tourist economy. This is an example of unsustainable tourism.

With the marina, Frisco has provided a costly amenity. Much of beach usage is high impact without generating correspondingly meaningful income. Further impacts include overall quality of life for residents whose taxpayer dollars built the marina for their benefit.

Paid parking is a poor solution that will have other unintended effects. Beachgoers won’t stop coming, they will spill out and park in other areas.

What I’m saying here is that if we are going to facilitate buddy beachgoers, ways to do that without impacting local residents need to be more thoughtfully explored.