If you plan to enjoy some time in the sun and sand on the beaches of Gulf Shores over spring break, the party might not be as turnt up as you'd like it to be.

On Monday, the Gulf Shores City Council unanimously voted to ban alcohol on the beach over the spring break holidays.

This isn't anything new though. This is the sixth year in a row that the council has successfully put this ban in place with no opposition from the public.

The now-annual ban started after law enforcement had to deal with multiple incidents with spring breakers in 2016. According to Gulf Shores Police Chief Edward Delmore, the ban was initially put into place in an attempt to curb the "dangerous atmosphere" like the one that was happening then.

“During the first several days of spring break ’16, GSPD encountered numerous issues with large groups of breakers binge drinking, using illegal narcotics and creating a dangerous atmosphere for themselves and other visitors,” Delmore said in a memo to the council. “The potential for large-scale confrontations with police officers existed in a very real way.”

The ban will run from March 3 to April 24, 2023, and it prohibits the consumption of alcohol on the sand of any portion of the beach project area.

2017 Hangout Music Festival - Day 2
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The areas where consumption will be prohibited include east of the eastern boundary of the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge, west of the western boundary of Gulf State Park and seaward of the line of sand stabilization fencing on the Gulf-front beaches.

Authorities say that the ban has been effective every year since being implemented.

Delmore reiterated those points in his memo, stressing that the ban needs to continue:

We saw a significant increase in bad behavior on our beach in the early days of spring break in 2016. As a result, we thought it was important and we asked for an emergency provision at that time to ban alcohol on our beaches during spring break. We saw immediate and positive results from that and you have agreed to do that every year since, and because of its continued success, we are asking that you do that again this year for the period of spring break and the weekend that precedes it.

LOOK: See America's 50 Best Beach Towns

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

 

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