Environmental Assessment to Reconfigure Visitor Parking and Beach Access at Perdido Key Area

Year: 2015 Total cost: $84,546.10

The park’s Perdido Key Area is one of the most beautiful places along the Gulf Coast and is quickly becoming more and more popular. The park offers a large parking lot at the designated swim beach, known as Johnson Beach, at the western end of this area. Beyond this beach, Johnson Beach Road continues for just over a mile, along this stretch 15 beach access boardwalks provide access to the beach.

Visitors currently park along the roadway, presenting several safety and environmental issues which the park is hoping to address. Due to moving sand, the road shoulders are narrow and made up of soft sand, so many visitors leave two tires on the roadway. This causes the roadway to become clogged and prevents emergency services from accessing areas of the beach when necessary.

Beyond safety issues, the number of beach access points has a negative impact on the dune communities that rely on this ecosystem as a habitat. Dunes and associated vegetation such as sea oats are critical to many species including shorebirds and the endemic Perdido Key Beach Mouse.

The park proposes to redesign parking, visitor entrance, and boardwalks to allow for a better visitor experience, more natural landscaping and habitat between boardwalks and less congestion on the road. In order to accomplish these goals and redesign the experience, the park first had to initiate an environmental assessment to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. Thanks to funding provided through entrance fees, the park was able to complete this critical step allowing for a scope of work to be developed so the park can obtain additional funding to implement the planned redesign.