SCARBOROUGH – After months of debate, Scarborough is allowing a few more parking spaces on Bayview Avenue – welcome news to those enjoying a sunny afternoon last week on Higgins Beach.

“I am in favor of keeping this public beach as accessible as possible on the very basis that it is a public beach,” said surfer Connor Garvey, who rents a home on Ocean Avenue in the off-season.

In a 5-2 vote Feb. 16, the Scarborough Town Council approved off-season parking for up to nine vehicles along the ocean side of Bayview Avenue from Morning Street to Vesper Street. Councilors Mike Wood and Richard Sullivan voted against the additional parking.

The decision was a reconsideration of a Jan. 19 vote in which the council banned parking in the neighborhood outside of a dozen specially marked spaces along Bayview Avenue, where parking is permitted for one hour in the summer months. The spaces have no parking limit from Sept. 15 to May 1.

Councilor Carol Rancourt, who asked for the reconsideration, said after reflecting on the decision on Jan. 19, she realized she voted for something that she hadn’t intended to.

The council had originally voted not to include parking on that section of Bayview because it was thought that the street was not wide enough. That turned out not to be the case.

“I think we were trying to correct a non-existent problem,” Councilor Karen D’Andrea said of the Jan. 19 vote in her support for more parking in the area. “There was no parking problem there. We heard this over and over again from the professionals.”

“I’ll be the first to admit sometimes we don’t get things right,” said Councilor Jessica Holbrook, who supported reversing the original decision.

The parking issue has been ongoing since a citizen group, the Ad-Hoc Higgins Beach Parking Advisory Committee, was formed last summer. The charge of the group was to address the traffic safety concerns of Higgins Beach residents. After meeting for months, the committee initially recommended eliminating on-street parking in the off-season months, from October to April, except for six 30-minute spaces on Bayview Avenue. As a compromise between the views of the residents and visitors, who wanted convenient short-term parking, the Town Council adopted a parking plan that introduced a 5-minute drop-off zone on Bayview Avenue and 14 parking spaces that would have a one-hour time limit in the summer, but no time limit from Sept. 15 to May 1.

On the beach the day after the Feb. 16 Town Council vote, Garvey said he was glad parking was expanded beyond the original ad-hoc committee recommendation.

“Banning parking,” he said, “is one step closer to the privatization of the beach.”

He said in his estimation there is no shortage of parking spaces for the public, whether people are coming for a few hours to surf like he does, or a half hour or so to walk their dogs.

Garvey said he comes down to the beach every day to surf.

“I am attracted to living out here to have access to the city, access to the surf and being closer to the natural environment,” said Garvey, who makes his living as a musician.

Meghan Wakefield, a resident of Cape Elizabeth who works as a personal care assistant at the Piper Shores complex just east of the beach, said she supports the additional parking along Bayview Avenue, but understands the homeowners concerns with parking so close to their property lines.

“It would be a very sad if there was no easy place to stop to park to spend 20 minutes to a half hour walking on the beach,” she said.

Wakefield was on the beach to take in the scenery and walk her 7-month-old dog, Maisey, who is training to be a therapy dog.

“All you have to do is look and you can see why I like to come here,” she said during a break in Maisey’s training. “It is a stunning piece of property and an amazing place to be able to come and walk your dog.”

While many people, Garvey included, tend to use the beach more in the off-season months from October to April, Dick Winslow, of Acorn Lane, can be found strolling along the beach every day, weather permitting.

“I come down here for my exercise and to keep healthy,” said Winslow, 86.

Winslow said there should be convenient parking to make sure the public has access to the beach.

“It is a public beach,” he said. “I think the public has a right to come down here, park and enjoy the beach.”

Connor Garvey, left, and Otto Neumuth, who live in a rental on Ocean Avenue, head out of the water after spending part of the afternoon of Feb. 17 surfing at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. Garvey, who said he comes to the beach every day, is glad the Town Council reversed course last week and re-established more off-season parking. “Banning parking,” he said, “is one step closer to the privatization of the beach.” (Staff photo by Michael Kelley)