With Orange Crush weekend days away, the City of Tybee Island has begun implementing traffic and parking changes that have been planned and organized for months. The city announced the changes recently, and they will begin being enforced as early as Tuesday, April 16. The Tybee Island Police Department (TIPD) also has announced its plans to set up a vehicle safety checkpoint on the evening of Friday, April 19.

Orange Crush is the annual unofficial spring break beach party attended mostly by Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students. Its relationship with Tybee goes back to the first Orange Crush, organized by Kenneth Flowe and others in Savannah State University (SSU) student leadership, and permitted by the City of Tybee in 1988. Tybee has not issued a permit for the event since 1992, when SSU also severed ties with the event.

Last year, 111,100 people went to Tybee for the weekend of Orange Crush (April 21-23, 2023), according to Placer.ai data used by the city. It is expected to return to Tybee again this year on April 19-21, and Tybee officials say they will be more prepared this time around. The 2023 Orange Crush weekend cost the island $187,520, according to interim City Manager Michelle Owens. Most of that, according to Owens, was spent on law enforcement (payroll, lodging, meals, etc.).

At an April 11 meeting of city council, Tybee Island Mayor Brian West addressed upcoming plans for the island.

“The City of Tybee has been diligently planning for additional measures necessary for spring break travel and unpermitted events on the island that will keep our residents and visitors safe,” said West. “We are an island that is only three-square-miles with limited resources, and it is necessary to bring in extra resources related to public safety and sanitation to deal with large crowds during busy peak weekends.”

“The City of Tybee has been in coordinated meetings now, for several months, with neighboring jurisdictions and administrations – including Chatham County and the City of Savannah – to prepare for this event.”

Connect Savannah first reported in a three-part series in March, on the island’s plans to adjust traffic and parking regulations for this weekend, as well as new legislation at the state level (Senate Bill 443) to help municipalities like Tybee recoup some of the monetary costs stemming from unpermitted events.

“In April of 2023, an unpermitted event on Tybee Island led to multiple arrests, scenes of chaos and mayhem, drug overdoses, damage to police vehicles, and bodily harm to city staff,” West said at the city council meeting. “Our staff talked to and assisted many scared college students last April that were afraid and trying to get away from an event that turned out to be more wild and more dangerous than they were led to believe by the event advertising. We gave them water, medical attention, and a safe place to stay within city facilities to call their families, charge phones, and reunite them with lost friend groups.”

Parking and traffic changes beginning this week are posted on Tybee’s website. The map of the traffic patterns can be seen below.

The primary changes are listed as follows:

• The city will begin placing barricades on Butler Avenue to prohibit on-street parking as early as April 16.
• No on-street parking on Butler Ave. from Second Street to Tybrisa Street.
• The 14th and 15th Street parking lots will be closed.
• The 16th Street parking lot will be for City of Tybee Island parking decals only.
• All illegally parked vehicles on public property will be towed to the 15th Street parking lot. The City of Tybee cannot tow from private property.

“Tybee Island is not the only city to fall victim to unpermitted events in their communities,” said West. “Cities all along the East Coast have experienced many of the same situations that we have encountered, with shootings, hundreds of arrests, and seizures of illegal narcotics and firearms. They, too, are taking additional measures to protect their communities, just as Tybee will do.”

“Although we are unable to declare a local state of emergency, we do now have the ability to recoup some of the costs incurred from unpermitted events through new legislation recently signed by Governor Kemp. Out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our residents and visitors, the City of Tybee will continue to do what is necessary to handle these unfortunate events. We have received great support from our community and hope to continue to receive the same support from our neighboring municipalities.”

Also at the April 11 council meeting, the mayor noted Tybee’s extended effort to make clear its message through the “Know Before You Go” social media campaign. It is primarily aimed at visitors, and tells them what to expect when planning trips to Tybee for this spring and summer.

“In response to unpermitted events last year, the City of Tybee is committed to the safety of locals and visitors alike and has cautiously prepared for anticipated, unpermitted events this year,” said West. “Some of the additional measures you can expect to see is an enhanced presence of first responders and law enforcement, along with controlled traffic plans, additional restrooms, barricades, and limited access to residential areas.”

The ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign is active on the city website and on social media.”

Island officials are asking residents and visitors to sign up for ‘Notify Me’ alerts on the city’s website so they can receive text and email alerts throughout “peak weekends”, including this weekend for Orange Crush. You can sign up for those alerts by clicking here.

Keep up with the latest Orange Crush developments all week long, on ConnectSavannah.com.

This article appears in Connect Savannah I April 2024.