Corpus Christi voters will decide on beach driving

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- Corpus Christi residents on Nov. 4 will decide whether a stretch of hurricane eroded Padre Island beachfront should be closed to vehicles.

Proposition 8 would ban vehicles from the beach in front of the city's seawall when the distance between the wall and the water -- at high tide -- is less than 150 feet.

That would close about 2,000 feet of the beach in front of the 4,200-foot seawall.

Corpus Christi City Councilman Michael McCutchon worked out the compromise after opposition to an earlier plan to keep vehicles off the beach in front of the entire seawall.

He says the beach at the south end of the seawall is just too narrow to handle vehicles and beachgoers.

Several recent hurricanes, including Gustav and Ike, have eroded the beach.

A beach restoration project is in the early stages.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)