Surfside Beach Town Council looks to address hole digging on beach

Beachgoers in Surfside Beach might see more hole digging rules if the town council adopts a new proposed ordinance.

On Tuesday, council members voted 4-2 for an ordinance that would ban locals and visitors from digging holes deeper than 2 feet on the beach. It would also require holes to be refilled and would prohibit the use of metal shovels for recreational digging except when metal detecting.

Police Chief Kenneth Hofmann said the ordinance “will just be another tool in our toolbox of enforcement.”

“I don’t think that we will have to write tickets on this, but in the event someone really wanted to take a large, large, large hole and leave it unattended, we would at least have a strategy,” he said.

Hofmann said if beachgoers don’t follow the rules, they would be given a citation as a last resort.

The council decided to address hole digging on the beach because a cubic yard of sand can weigh as much as 3,000 pounds and holes dug deeper than 2 feet are a safety hazard, according to city documents. It also stated that it can be a danger to sea turtles, which are endangered, and it can ruin the town’s beach equipment.

Council member Cindy Keating, who voted in favor of the ordinance, said it should address the size of the shovel, not just the material.

“I would think we want to limit this to the full-size garden shovels because it’s the big shovels creating the big holes,” she said.

Hofmann said he will change the language addressing shovel sizing before the second reading of the ordinance.

Council members Michael Drake and David Pellegrino spoke against the ordinance, saying adopting it would be government overreach.

Pellegrino, who spoke to residents and Hofmann before making a decision, said the ordinance would be hard to enforce.

“We’ve had one incident over the last many years,” he said. “ I understand there could be a risk, but a lot more people get hurt driving or riding their bike ... a lot more people are going to drown than step in a hole and get hurt.”

The ordinance will have to pass a second reading before it can be adopted.

This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 1:25 PM.