Whether or not to market Panama City Beach as a spring break town has caused controversy for years.

The issue is once again causing some debate, but the majority of people at this meeting say the beach needs spring break.

A packed room of business owners, and concerned citizens voiced strong opinions about spring break.

One Resident said, "Panama City Beach is a place for spring break, we need to take control of the whole situation and do it properly."

"They're going to come regardless, why spend the money to market them, they're coming anyway," added another.

The issue has forced residents to draw a line in the sand. Standing on both sides are people who want spring break.

Holiday Inn Sunspree owner Charlie Hilton said "Spring break has put Panama City Beach on the map...it's not spring break it's just us screwing it up."

And some who want to see it go.

Mark Canfora with Family and Friends for a Safe Spring Break added, "The youth that did the shooting was not a college student. The one that did the stabbing last year was not a college student, but they followed the party."

But the resounding message coming out this meeting was Panama City Beach needs the revenue generated by spring break, but it has to be managed better.

TDC President Dan Rowe said "Spring Break will be with us, I don't think spring break was off the table. It is how do we better manage expectations, and how do we market the whole beach destination. The management word was used alot."

The meeting ended with suggestions of how to better manage spring break, including not spending money on MTV-U.

TDC Chairman Marty McDaniel added "In fact what we've said is that we're not going to do the MTV thing anymore and we need to see how we can better move the destination forward given what we have to work with."

The TDC will take the advice of the community and work on a plan of action for the upcoming year, because whether they market it or not spring break is only months away.

College spring break usually runs from the last week in February through the last week in March.