Dunedin Causeway Parking

Overnight parking permits are now available at the Dunedin Community Center @ Highlander Park, 1920 Pinehurst Rd.

The cost is $100/year. this allows you to leave your car/trailer/boat overnight 2 nights a week. There was originally mention of a 1 use pass (if you don't need an annual, or similar but i have no info on that.

we worked with the police/parks dept/city council to get this privilege. IF this program doesn't work, it is revocable (they can end the program at anytime and we lose the privilege).

apparently police are now leaving notes on cars parked overnight to get a permit.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Does this mean out of town catsailors cannot leave boats and trailers overnight? Bummer- the end of me going to Dunedin Causeway after doing it for 35 years.
Why?

there are single weekend passes available as well. the cost is $10 but you need to pick it up at the rec center prior to overnight storage. the rec center is about 2.5 miles south/east of the causeway.


A couple reasons. there are a bunch of people who live in condo's at the end of the causeway that complain (often) that this is a public beach and not a parking lot or marina. they stop and complain to the cops. apparently they also send lengthy emails complaining about it. Also the police told me they had no "powers" to ticket or tow boats that are left there (the previous laws only stated the park/causeway was closed after 11) and they had no idea if boats were abandoned or what (there have been many cats left there for weeks and longer over the years. one year a guy left his Hobie there all summer and it eventually ended up in the middle of the road after a storm). Also some people either don't have tags for their trailers or they remove them when they leave at night so the police have little way of knowing who owns them.... etc

local police were at the beach yesterday telling all the boat owners (that had left their cat overnight) about the new permits. the officer was very nice and polite and just wanted the word out (and hopefully the locals who wrote him a 2 page email about the boats will stop giving the police a hard time... so it doesn't trickle down to us)

Don't you love folks who move to your town, because they like it, and then want to make it just like the place they left.
Kudos for working with the cops/council to alleviate the bloodloss.

I always enjoy sailing at Dunedin...well almost always (last Feb was an exception)!

However, the view is ruined now by the condos. Can't you start a movement to get them torn down? They are much worse to look at than a few broken down and abandoned beach cats.

I bet those same folks have store bought velvet prints of sailboats with multi-colored sails in their living rooms.

can't you all just get along, remember we took this land from the Indians

It is sad that people complain about this type of thing.. there is about 2 miles of causeway (north and south side) and beach cats almost exclusively only use 1 small area so it is hard to see why people would complain about it. Also there are 2nd and 3rd generation locals who use this area for catsailing (and sunfish, and optis) and they now have to purchase a permit to leave a boat overnight... granted i am VERY happy they are letting us ... and $100/year is less than $2/week.. i can live with that.

Good job Andrew. I'll try to get something like that here at home. It is so depressing, begging for beach access.

cause we don't really have a coordinated positive PR campaign.

We are, after all, one of the few "green" watersports (besides maybe swimming and snorkeling)