PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Their motorhomes are a stone's throw away from the beach in Port Aransas, but a construction site next door to the Gulf Waters Beach Front RV Resort is bringing the beach to the people who live there.
And some of them aren't happy about it.
“We are being inundated by sand from our neighbors — from Cinnamon Shores South and their development," RV site owner Jeff Voigt said.
The expansion of that condominium complex just inside the city limits from Corpus Christi along Highway 361 began early this year.
But Voigt says high wind over the past several weeks has blown tons of sand from the construction site into his community.
"The sand is coming over covering our tables, our cooktops, our cookers, our motorhomes, our rigs, furniture, pet beds — everything," he said. "We cannot enjoy a quality of life out here because of the amount of sand that is coming on.”
Voigt says sand has clogged air conditioning units, making them unusable.
Some people have even left the RV park because of the sand, Voigt says.
And others who've stayed, have a bad — and gritty — taste in their mouth.
"Each lot is individually owned, and if they give us negative reviews on the internet, that could affect us for years to come," Voigt said. "So they’re not only affecting us in the short term, but they can be affecting us in the long term."
Cinnamon Shores leaders say they have short and long-term solutions to the sand issue.
They've already put up a silt fence between the properties in hopes of blocking anything from blowing into the RV park.
In the coming days and weeks, they plan to do a better job wetting down the sand in hopes of keeping it on the ground.
Then, once infrastructure work is done in several months, they say they'll plant groundcover to also secure the sand.
Those improvements can't come quick enough for Voigt, who's already voiced his frustration to the Port Aransas City Council and filed a report with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
He doesn't want to stop Cinnamon Shores from expanding, but he would like them to do it more carefully.
“The message to them is, please be a good neighbor," Voigt said. "Please try to do as much as possible to mitigate the amount of sand that is coming over the fence due to the construction project."
