REDINGTON BEACH, Fla. — Many of you are making plans to head to the beach this holiday weekend and you'll probably bring some sort of shade like an umbrella or canopy.
But in Redington Beach, there's confusion about exactly what type of shade you can bring. A woman was recently told her canopy wasn't allowed.
Redington Beach is one of many small beach towns here in Pinellas County. It's just one square mile in size.
In 2018, the city commission passed an ordinance that limited the umbrella size on private beaches versus public beaches here, which can get very confusing when talking about the wet sand line and dry sand.
Now, a new ordinance is being considered to clear the confusion. It prohibits all tents on any part of the beach. Now residents here are more confused than ever.
Chely Hernandez-Miller has lived in Redington Beach for more than 30 years and even went to talk with a city commissioner to find out why this is such an issue.
She was told the city was facing lawsuits from people who live directly on the beach and don't want people putting tents on their private part of the beach.
"They are calling everything tents. Speaking with the commissioner today I said 'There is a difference between tents and canopies' and I explained it to him, but they're calling everything tents."
There are a couple of small sections of the beach in front of resident parking areas that are excluded from the ordinance. Click here to look at the current ordinance. Click here to see the proposed ordinance.
Hernandez-Miller is encouraging anyone else who's concerned about this ordinance to show up at the next commission meeting on June 5.
We reached out to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to find out if they are writing tickets for this, and they said they have only given eleven warnings since January, no tickets.
There are different rules and regulations for the different beaches in Pinellas County. Click here for more information on that before heading to the beach.