Cocoa Beach prohibits items on beach overnight

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Cocoa Beach passed an ordinance, Thursday, that would prohibit people to leave items like chairs, tents, and umbrellas on the beach overnight. 

Under the old law, the city was not able to clean up these items, as they are people private property; and if they did choose to move them, the items would have to be stored using city money. However, the ordinance now allows the city to throw unattended items away between sunset and sunrise. 

City manager James McKnight says abandoned tents and chairs on the beach has been a problem for years, and has posed a danger for beach workers.

"These things get left, and they get mangled when you have a wind storm," he said. "We actually had a KBB employee, who cleans our beaches, get cut pretty good with one of these things because they got so mangled."

McKnight also mentioned the unattended items have an impact on wildlife. "We've actually seen it happen where a turtle came, and turned around and did not lay its egg."

It's unclear what kind of penalty people will face if they are caught leaving things on the beach overnight. The ordinance will go into effect in the next 10 days.