State announces plans for Rollover Pass

GILCHRIST — The state is asking for public comments on a plan to replace Rollover Pass with two fishing piers, a bait shop and other amenities.

A year after Hurricane Ike slammed the peninsula, the Texas Legislature approved $5.85 million to fill in the pass, a popular fishing spot on Bolivar Peninsula. In place of the pass, the state proposed building a pair of fishing piers.

Studies of the area found the pass boosts salinity levels in the Galveston Bay and causes erosion on peninsula beaches.

According to the state’s figures, before construction of the pass, the shoreline at Rollover eroded at about 5 feet a year. After the pass was built, the shoreline has eroded at an average of 7 to 8 feet a year.

The state is planning two 1,000-foot fishing pairs that will extend into the Gulf of Mexico or the Intracoastal Waterway. The plan also calls for lighting on-deck and below the deck to attract redfish, trout and other fish to the area.

Other amenities include a bait and food store, fish cleaning stations, restrooms and parking to accommodate about 80 vehicles.

“Rollover Pass will soon close, and it’s important now that folks tell us what they think about our plan for what could follow,” Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said. “Replacing Rollover Pass with a 1,000-foot pier could not only be great for fishermen, but for surfers and area business, too — just without all the erosion and annual costs to taxpayers.”

This week, Patterson posted a declaration in the Texas Register stating the pass causes erosion and must be closed.

The posting is a step required by the Texas Legislature to shut down the pass.

Patterson urged those “interested in Rollover Pass to take a few moments to review the facts about why the pass must be closed and tell us whether the proposed Recreational Amenities Plan is what they want to see next.”

Members of the Gilchrist Community Association, which has opposed the state’s plan to close the pass, said the piers are not “equal substitutes.”

As the pass is now, “one of the awesome unique things is it’s totally accessible,” the association’s spokeswoman Amanda Reynolds said. “You park and you can fish right there. With the piers, you’ll have to park by the highway and walk out to get to the fishing.”

The association has set up a legal fund to fight plans to fill in the pass.

The state is working out some issues with a property owner near the pass and is getting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineering permit for construction, a spokesman with the Texas General Land Office said.

Reynolds said the association is working on a statement to send to the state in opposition of the plan.

“We’ve always been a proponent of finding an alternate way to keep the pass open and also solve whatever erosion problems,” Reynolds said.