Construction of two federally funded dune walkovers in Atlantic Beach will be deferred after complaints from residents.
The City Commission unanimously agreed Monday to halt installation of the proposed wooden structures at the 11th Street and 14th Street beach accesses. Staff will proceed with construction at five other locations identified in the city’s federal grant application. The deferred walkovers can be revisited based on future needs.
“I’ve heard mostly from people at 14th Street, probably 12 to 14 different families, only, ‘Don’t do it.’ I haven’t heard anybody say, ‘Let’s do it,’” Mayor Curtis Ford said. “I’ve heard from several people on 11th that said, ‘Don’t do it,’ but when I go down to the end of the beach closer to Town Center, there seems to be more of an appetite for it.”
Ford said the need for walkovers is typically determined by usage, particularly in areas with heavy foot traffic and greater impacts on the dune system. Providing access near Town Center would serve more visitors while protecting natural resources, he said.
“We have more usage the closer we are to Town Center because people filter into the beach, get a parking spot and cross the dunes,” Ford said. “Do we alleviate concerns with modifications of construction, or do we alleviate concerns by pushing off on one or two of them and doing them elsewhere where there seems to be no concern?”
City Engineer Steve Swann said the city was awarded a $1 million reimbursable grant to build a series of dune walkovers as part of the city’s sustainability plan. The locations were identified in planning documents dating to the development of the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the Parks Master Plan and the Connectivity Plan.
The City Commission passed a resolution in April 2025 identifying the accesses and seeking federal funding to complete construction.
“I don’t do policy. That is you guys. I was directed by you, so we went and got the money. We did the preliminary design and here is where we are,” Swann said. “That being said, this money is 100% federally funded and being administered through a NOAA grant. We have not signed that grant with NOAA yet, but we will within a week or two.”
Many residents have voiced concerns about plans to build what they described as a “super structure” at 14th Street, where neighbors have maintained the landscaping and irrigation for years and want to continue without interference from the city.
“At 14th Street, the deck is at 18 feet. The top of the dune is at 19 feet, so it is a foot lower. Of course, the rails would stick up 42 inches above that,” Swann said.
Others are concerned that the height of the structure would damage the character of the beachfront and could harm the dunes it was designed to protect.
“If we don’t have walkovers at 11th and 14th, what is to become of those dunes? Do you think they will be in danger? With the sea oats there, it does seem like they are in good shape long term, whereas a walkover may not be the best option,” Commissioner Thomas Grant said.
The shoreline is an unstable environment that is constantly changing, Swann said.
“One year we have 20-foot dunes. The next year we might have zero-foot dunes, so you just don’t know,” he said. “If we have a severe hurricane that really destroys a lot of the dunes, we’ll have the walkover there and the Corps of Engineers can rebuild the sand underneath it the next time they redo the beach renourishment. The walkovers are more for ease of access to the beach than they are for the health of the dunes because our dunes are pretty healthy.”
Rather than lose the funding altogether, commissioners approved construction at five locations, with funding for the deferred walkovers to be considered for future projects. Swann said he planned to reach out to NOAA to discuss redirecting the remaining funds to other sites.
“Can I change the grant at this point? I don’t know, maybe. We’ll see. I haven’t asked them because I was waiting for guidance to see what you all wanted to do,” Swann said. “One of the walkovers at Fifth Street is partially funded by a Florida Department of Environmental Protection Coastal Partnership Initiative grant. That’s a 50-50 match, so we were able to add that one to it.”
If the city moved ahead with the project as initially approved, every beach access that is not a vehicle access would have a dune walkover except Second Street, increasing accessibility for people with disabilities, Swann said.
Swann said the city does not have the staff to maintain equipment such as Mobi-Mats, which are designed to improve accessibility for people with disabilities without requiring a walkover. The only walkovers in Atlantic Beach that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act are at Ahern and 10th streets, he said.
“If you want to move 14th to Second Street, that could happen. If you want to eliminate 14th, you could eliminate 14th, 13th, Sixth. I’ll talk to the grant administrator and see what we can do,” Swann said. “Obviously, where there’s more parking, we get more beach traffic. But at 11th Street, we get a lot of people from Linkside and Selva Lakes that use 11th. It’s not just parking. It’s the access for the other residents.”
