After years of discussion, months of loud public outcry and a battle of dueling t-shirts, the Panama City Beach City Council unanimously approved a motion Tuesday night to ban alcohol consumption on the beaches during March 2016, the peak of the college spring break season.

The council voted 5-0 in favor of the ban in the closing minutes of a three-hour council meeting that took place at the Arnold High School auditorium rather than the usual city council chambers to accommodate the hundreds of residents who wanted to weigh in on the proposals.

Members of the group Citizens for a New Panama City Beach erupted into applause after the vote was taken. Many of them were wearing matching blue custom t-shirts with the words "Please save our beach" emblazoned over an image of a young boy playing on the beach with an American flag planted next to him in the sand.

Across the metaphorical (and sometimes literal) aisle, were members of Citizens United for Panama City Beach, which included dozens of hospitality workers and others who fear the ban will hurt the city's economy. They wore white t-shirts that read "Please save our jobs."

During the lengthy meeting preceding the vote (which was live-streamed via YouTube), Mayor Gayle Oberst reminded the audience multiple times that cheering or booing the speakers would only prolong the agony if the meeting had to end before the council could vote.

"If we don't vote on them, we're just dragging them out over months and months," Oberst said to one speaker who was in favor of the alcohol ban. "Let's pass them and get it over with."

More than an hour later, that's exactly what happened.

Back and forth

The meeting began with a few non-spring break issues before the council heard from Arthur Cullen, a representative of the hospitality workers' group. Cullen laid out in detail a proposal his group felt would help curtail wild spring break behavior without completely banning alcohol on the beach.

The plan Cullen presented, which he said had the support of many of the businesses involved, included measures such as fencing off the beach areas behind popular clubs, forcing patrons to enter from the street side and not the beach, and banning coolers, funnels, and the "beer pong" tables dug into the sand. The group offered to install elevated watch towers along their properties on the beach for law enforcement or security personnel to better observe the crowds.

Supporting the ban, Hector Solis argued that the economic impact of spring break is overblown and that spring breakers spend relatively little per person, compared to families, snowbirds or other visitors. He said the impact to the city was further diminished by the added expenses of additional policing and other city services.

"March is not what it's made out to be," Solis said. "We're told that (spring break) means all this economic stimulus to the area, and it's going to the few, it's not going to the many."

Finally, local attorney Wes Pittman delivered a philosophical closing argument on behalf of the "blue shirts," those advocating the more drastic measures recommended by Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, including the alcohol ban.

"Where do you stand in the universe?" Pittman asked. "Do you want to be remembered by open sex on the beach? Still in our minds are shootings, rapes, stabbings, rampant drunkenness and chaos."

Pittman said blaming all the city's spring break problems on the 100-milers -- drug dealers and other non-students who flock to the city during spring break to profit off or exploit the drunken masses -- was "a convenient way to skirt the real issue."

"The truth is, we are in a crisis," he said. "You have got to act like it's a crisis, you have got to recognize it's a crisis. For once, for God's sake, recognize it's a crisis. This has to be your call to some real action, not throwing some crumbs to the crowd as you did last year."

After the public comments, the council quickly and unanimously approved the motion to move forward with the ban for next year's spring break after the public discussion period.

The only point of contention among the council members was how long "spring break" lasts. The council voted 3-2 to define spring break as the month of March only. Council members Josie Strange and Keith Curry wanted to include the end of February and beginning of April as well.

According to the Panama City News Herald newspaper, an ordinance will have to be drafted and voted on twice before the beach alcohol ban is official.

In addition to endorsing the alcohol ban, the council approved on first reading two other spring break ordinances which will prohibit alcohol sales after 2 a.m. and ban drinking alcohol in commercial parking lots during spring break. Those ordinances will be read again and voted on for final approval.

City reaches the tipping point

The 2015 spring break season in Panama City Beach brought with it significant increases in the number of arrests and confiscated firearms over last year, in addition to a number of high-profile incidents that left the local community shocked and embarrassed.

Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott was involved in an altercation while leaving a concert at Club La Vela. Then there was the non-fatal shooting of seven people at a house party. And finally, after the spring break was over, video evidence surfaced of an incident that McKeithen called a gang rape on the beach in broad daylight.

The city passed a temporary ban on alcohol during an emergency meeting on April 1 -- called in response to the shooting -- and enforced it until April 18.