Carmel approves plan to limit beach bonfires

After nearly four hours of discussion and public comment at a packed house Tuesday at the Carmel City Council meeting, city leaders unanimously passed a pilot program to limit bonfires on Carmel Beach.

“I feel this is just basically the loosening of the jar to eventually ban the bonfires,” Carmel business owner Brian Andrews said.

Andrews, who has been running a business in Carmel for more than seven years, said limiting beach bonfires is messing with a long-standing tradition.

In May, the city will put 26 fire pits along the beach with no fees or permits necessary.

The purpose of the program is to prevent bonfire debris like charcoal and burned driftwood from contaminating the city’s famed white beach.

“I have seen how the barbeque pits are just dumped on the sand,” a woman said at the meeting.

“That white pristine beach is gone,” another person said.

But Andrews said the discussion about bonfires has been going on for too long. He said Carmel should be focusing on other priorities.

“One of the air commission guys said there’s possibly 15 to 20 complaints a year and we don’t actually have any studies that this is hurting anyone around here, but this is about public health,” Andrews said.

Besides Carmel, Del Monte Beach in Monterey is the only other beach on the Central Coast that allows beach bonfires.