Holden Beach may be too sandy

Holden Beach town officials have an interesting conundrum. Some parts of the beach have too much sand. In order to comply with town and state regulations, homes on the beach front are supposed to have walkways that extend completely over vegetation on the sand dunes and onto the beach, to keep people from walking on the dunes. Sand was dumped on the beach in a renourishment project a few years back. Now some of the walkways are too short to cover the dunes. "We have hauled in sand, we have dredged in sand, we planted beach grass to build the dunes up and now we're going to have to extend our steps and our walkways to get over this additional sand that we've enjoyed,” said Mayor Alan Holden. “We're going to have to change our regulations to accommodate our homeowners." Mayor Alan Holden said it is not fair to make homeowners pay thousands of dollars to extend their walkways in a tight economy. Elected officials are now trying to figure out what to do next.