Private Beaches in South Walton - Customary Use Updates & SB1622

So we are going to need a huge amount of money to fight future lawsuits if this is repealed? If only we could use the TDC bank account instead of advertising to get more people to visit. Seems like it would be a good use of bed tax money. I know it's not allowed but who else will pay? The county backs down because they can't afford the fight. It seems like there should be a statewide (or national) ORG that would want to make beaches public. Hello Visit Florida and other tourism ORGS - find the money!!!

Actually there are a lot of people that would want that for retribution against the greedy.

Look, people flock to Florida so they're part of the problem but lots of fingers to point and private beach front owners are an easy target.

But property values are stratified....so if true oceanfront on 30a goes down, then premium properties 1-3 back are always going to slot in at a greatly reduced number below that. And if that slot is therefore lower and those values go down, same for the next slot....and the pattern continues.

I just don't think property values going down is good for the area in general.

So we are going to need a huge amount of money to fight future lawsuits if this is repealed? If only we could use the TDC bank account instead of advertising to get more people to visit. Seems like it would be a good use of bed tax money. I know it's not allowed but who else will pay? The county backs down because they can't afford the fight. It seems like there should be a statewide (or national) ORG that would want to make beaches public. Hello Visit Florida and other tourism ORGS - find the money!!!

I believe they would have to sue the state since it will be a state law.

I believe they would have to sue the state since it will be a state law.

lol good luck with that.

Passed in the Florida Senate today, 35-2

One step closer

Passed in the Florida Senate today, 35-2

One step closer

What's next?

The bill proposed by Senator Jay Trumbull regarding customary use has passed in the Senate.

As of Thursday morning, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1622 in a 35-2 vote. The bill aims to repeal a 2018 statute that ruled on customary use, impacting Walton County.

Currently, out of Walton County’s 26 miles of beach, about 17 miles are privately owned, leaving just 9 miles open to the public.

The bill effectively gives Walton County’s local government the ability to create its own ordinances regarding customary beach use.

I believe they would have to sue the state since it will be a state law.

But if the bill gives Walton County the ability to create (or recreate) it's own ordinance, won't we be back to zero?

But if the bill gives Walton County the ability to create (or recreate) it's own ordinance, won't we be back to zero?

The way I see it, yes. If Repeal becomes law, County would declare CU, then lawsuits will begin, except it will be BFO’s suing County rather than County suing BFO’s, but I have been know to be wrong before.

The way I see it, yes. If Repeal becomes law, County would declare CU, then lawsuits will begin, except it will be BFO’s suing County rather than County suing BFO’s, but I have been know to be wrong before.

Thank you!

Wouldn't it be grand if local, regional, national groups and local rental companies, realtors, and HOAs joined the county and got a lot of money behind them?

What's next?

The Florida Senate voted 35-2 Thursday to repeal a controversial 2018 law that restricted public access to beaches in Walton County.

SB 1622, sponsored by Sen. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, would eliminate the law that nullified Walton County’s customary use ordinance. Senators Don Gaetz and Kathleen Passidomo cast the only dissenting votes.

The bill has evolved since its committee hearing. The updated legislation includes provisions that establish the erosion control line for certain Gulf Coast counties as the mean high-water line, to be determined by a survey conducted by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund. It also addresses beach restoration projects for areas designated as critically eroded.

The companion bill in the House (HB 6043), sponsored by Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, passed favorably through the Judiciary Committee on April 8 and has been added to the Second Reading Calendar, moving it closer to a full House vote.

“This bill is about more than beaches—it’s about protecting a way of life that’s been part of Walton County for generations,” Trumbull said in a statement after the vote. “For decades, families have walked these shores, cast lines at sunset, watched their kids chase waves, and made memories that define what it means to live—and visit—here.”

The 2018 law specifically affected Walton County because it exempted beach access ordinances established before January 2016, while Walton County’s ordinance was adopted in October 2016. This created a unique situation where Walton County beaches became increasingly privatized.

“Somewhere along the way, a line was drawn—one that said Walton County didn’t deserve the same protections every other Florida community received. SB 1622 fixes that,” Trumbull said.

If passed by the House and signed by the governor, the law would take effect immediately upon signature, as specified in the bill text.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Walton County Gets Good News On the Customary Use of Beaches

Walton County - April 25, 2025 - The Walton County Board of County Commissioners received welcome news Thursday, thanks to the efforts of Sen. Jay Trumbull.

The Florida Senate met in regular session in Tallahassee and Senate Bill SB-1622, dealing with Customary Use of the Beaches and future Beach Renourishment, passed by a vote of 38-2.

Commissioner Danny Glidewell, who was in Tallahassee, expressed his sincere thanks for Sen. Trumbell's efforts on behalf of Walton County.

"This was a bill that Sen. Trumbull sponsored and advocated for to his fellow senators. He got this passed for us today and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. We could not have done this without him," said Commissioner Glidewell. "This will be a great benefit to our county and will especially aid our tourism industry, which is the number one driver of our local economy," he added.

Sen. Trumbull filed SB-1622 in February, and it is an act relating to recreational customary use of beaches; repealing s. 163.035, F.S.

According to the executive summary: With respect to those counties adjacent to the Gulf of America having at least three municipalities and an estimated population of less than 275,000, the committee substitute revises the underlying bill to:

Bypass certain existing statutory procedures for establishing the erosion control line (ECL) on critically eroded beaches and declare the mean high water line to be the ECL.

Direct the Board of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to prepare and record, in the official and platting records of the counties subject to the bill, certain documents confirming the ECL's location on critically eroded shorelines, but only if an ECL has not already been established.

Authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to proceed with beach restoration projects for areas it has designated as critically eroded, and provide that notwithstanding existing law, such projects do not require public easements.

Include legislative declarations that the state does not intend to extend its ownership claims beyond what it already owns, and that beach restoration projects for critically eroded beaches are in the public interest.

Co-sponsors of the bill were Senators Darryl Rouson and Lori Berman. The bill has one more hurdle. It will now go to the Florida House of Representatives for a final vote next week.

Just like the "ancient and uninterrupted" customary use of our beaches, our local guvment and TDC should always and forever use "Gulf Of Mexico"!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Walton County Gets Good News On the Customary Use of Beaches

Walton County - April 25, 2025 - The Walton County Board of County Commissioners received welcome news Thursday, thanks to the efforts of Sen. Jay Trumbull.

The Florida Senate met in regular session in Tallahassee and Senate Bill SB-1622, dealing with Customary Use of the Beaches and future Beach Renourishment, passed by a vote of 38-2.

Commissioner Danny Glidewell, who was in Tallahassee, expressed his sincere thanks for Sen. Trumbell's efforts on behalf of Walton County.

"This was a bill that Sen. Trumbull sponsored and advocated for to his fellow senators. He got this passed for us today and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. We could not have done this without him," said Commissioner Glidewell. "This will be a great benefit to our county and will especially aid our tourism industry, which is the number one driver of our local economy," he added.

Sen. Trumbull filed SB-1622 in February, and it is an act relating to recreational customary use of beaches; repealing s. 163.035, F.S.

According to the executive summary: With respect to those counties adjacent to the Gulf of America having at least three municipalities and an estimated population of less than 275,000, the committee substitute revises the underlying bill to:

Bypass certain existing statutory procedures for establishing the erosion control line (ECL) on critically eroded beaches and declare the mean high water line to be the ECL.

Direct the Board of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to prepare and record, in the official and platting records of the counties subject to the bill, certain documents confirming the ECL's location on critically eroded shorelines, but only if an ECL has not already been established.

Authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to proceed with beach restoration projects for areas it has designated as critically eroded, and provide that notwithstanding existing law, such projects do not require public easements.

Include legislative declarations that the state does not intend to extend its ownership claims beyond what it already owns, and that beach restoration projects for critically eroded beaches are in the public interest.

Co-sponsors of the bill were Senators Darryl Rouson and Lori Berman. The bill has one more hurdle. It will now go to the Florida House of Representatives for a final vote next week.

Thanks for answering the question of when the house will vote. I assume we'll get a day soon.

Isn't there 2 hurdles? - house passage AND signature from the Governor?

Passed on the House Floor today 108-0. Off to DeSantis.

So if this is signed what difference will it actually make? The county already surrendered to beachfront owners as I recall.

So if this is signed what difference will it actually make? The county already surrendered to beachfront owners as I recall.

Good point.

Before Walton County spends another $12M+ in legal fees (at the cost to ALL Walton County taxpayers) more should be known.

And anyone with more than a room temp IQ understands this is about growing greed for business owners and not beach access.

Sure sounds good to the entitlement mentality, but is is straightforward taking property from US citizens that Walton County sold to them. I've never heard ONE supporter of the CU movement point out what beachfront owners have actually done wrong in buying beachfront property. One would assume that possessing a legal property deed, paying taxes on the property, keeping liability insurance, and maintaining the property would provide some measure of security in ownership.

At least in America it should.

Good point.

Before Walton County spends another $12M+ in legal fees (at the cost to ALL Walton County taxpayers) more should be known.

And anyone with more than a room temp IQ understands this is about growing greed for business owners and not beach access.

Sure sounds good to the entitlement mentality, but is is straightforward taking property from US citizens that Walton County sold to them. I've never heard ONE supporter of the CU movement point out what beachfront owners have actually done wrong in buying beachfront property. One would assume that possessing a legal property deed, paying taxes on the property, keeping liability insurance, and maintaining the property would provide some measure of security in ownership.

At least in America it should.

There's greed all around. I think most people agree there should have never been property lines drawn on the beach. (or dunes but that's another story). So the government should fix that by making it public. Perhaps money or tax breaks to owners. A compromise means no one is thrilled.

Today, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill (SB 1622) that would repeal a 2018 law limiting public access and barring local governments from passing ordinances regarding customary use.

The Florida Senate passed the Customary Use bill last week. With today’s House vote, the measure now goes to Gov.
Ron DeSantis for his signature.

Walton County Commissioner
Tony Anderson praised House Rep.
Shane Abbott, who spearheaded
this legislation. “We owe Rep.
Abbott our deepest thanks. He
worked tirelessly on this bill and
encouraged his House colleagues to
support it. The unanimous vote
illustrates his resolve and
perseverance in getting this done.”


Rep. Abbott noted that this was the top issue for his constituents and this bill goes a long way to helping correct what the Legislature did in 2018.

There's greed all around. I think most people agree there should have never been property lines drawn on the beach. (or dunes but that's another story). So the government should fix that by making it public. Perhaps money or tax breaks to owners. A compromise means no one is thrilled.

Yours is the first reply I have seen (and I have not seen them all for sure) that is kind enough to note that some compromise would be a good step. But I am not sure how any beachfront owner could be considered "greedy" for simply wanting to control their own property. I spoke to Sara Comander twice about the liability of the beachfront owners if the general public had complete access to their property. She confirmed to me that the beachfront owners would be responsible for the general public being on their property. But she also said the county was looking into that and they knew it was an issue.

Never heard a word from any on the WCC about this.

No doubt that will be a benchmark on this issue.

After all these years, I've always wondered why the county didn't declare immanent domain below the dunes. I'm not a lawyer so please educate me.

Someone mentioned a war between BFO's and the general public. Greed is usually a component of war. There are many to blame but I do not think it is the general public who just want what everyone wants...freedom to enjoy mother nature's beauty. So that leaves BFO's holding the greed basket. However, it is not really that simple is it. More people are coming to our beaches from just about everywhere and to be honest we want them here spending their money. So back to the blame game. Does anyone recall Reggie Gaskins aka Mike Huckabee on this forum? If not go back and look at his posts. My take on Mike's posts was all about greed, power and privilege. He really believed in his "prophet" status. This forum provided an awakening on my part regarding how greed, power and privilege can affect a person's belief's. Mike believed that he earned the privilege to control his beach and that he was on a higher plane of existence to make that call. That is offensive greed not just your basic greed that we all have. In my opinion that is where this war began. Well Mike stirred up the war and then left. Does this ring any bells? He left this community with so many more problems and he probably even brought out more greed in all of us as we took such strong positions and circled our wagons to fight. Okay enough about war and blame. Now we have problems to solve. I would imagine it will take all of us to come together and solve these problems. Decent human beings all on the same level just trying to live our lives and be happy. In the future we just need to be better able to recognize false prophets and prevent the chaos that always follows and hurts everyone...

Someone mentioned a war between BFO's and the general public. Greed is usually a component of war. There are many to blame but I do not think it is the general public who just want what everyone wants...freedom to enjoy mother nature's beauty. So that leaves BFO's holding the greed basket. However, it is not really that simple is it. More people are coming to our beaches from just about everywhere and to be honest we want them here spending their money. So back to the blame game. Does anyone recall Reggie Gaskins aka Mike Huckabee on this forum? If not go back and look at his posts. My take on Mike's posts was all about greed, power and privilege. He really believed in his "prophet" status. This forum provided an awakening on my part regarding how greed, power and privilege can affect a person's belief's. Mike believed that he earned the privilege to control his beach and that he was on a higher plane of existence to make that call. That is offensive greed not just your basic greed that we all have. In my opinion that is where this war began. Well Mike stirred up the war and then left. Does this ring any bells? He left this community with so many more problems and he probably even brought out more greed in all of us as we took such strong positions and circled our wagons to fight. Okay enough about war and blame. Now we have problems to solve. I would imagine it will take all of us to come together and solve these problems. Decent human beings all on the same level just trying to live our lives and be happy. In the future we just need to be better able to recognize false prophets and prevent the chaos that always follows and hurts everyone...

Indeed - Huckabee was on the extreme end "one bad apple" and all that.

There are some beachfron owners on the other end who think the issue is a bummer and are happy to ignore it all and share their beach.

The greed label come with the territory. 99.9% of people on the beach see a "keep off the beach it's mine" sign as shocking and in disbelief.

But if I was a beachfront owner I would definitely not want people leaving trash, holes, loud music, in the dunes, etc. We need a way to stop that entitled nonsense. As I am on the beach lately we seem to have a lot of "workers" every where - ambassadors, rental employees, lifeguards, beach compliance, deputies ... but in reality the county doesn't want to offend paying customers.

The reality is that controls and limits make it better for everyone and is good for tourism. The county also lets developers dictate, which limits would make our community better there too.

Indeed - Huckabee was on the extreme end "one bad apple" and all that.

There are some beachfron owners on the other end who think the issue is a bummer and are happy to ignore it all and share their beach.

The greed label come with the territory. 99.9% of people on the beach see a "keep off the beach it's mine" sign as shocking and in disbelief.

But if I was a beachfront owner I would definitely not want people leaving trash, holes, loud music, in the dunes, etc. We need a way to stop that entitled nonsense. As I am on the beach lately we seem to have a lot of "workers" every where - ambassadors, rental employees, lifeguards, beach compliance, deputies ... but in reality the county doesn't want to offend paying customers.

The reality is that controls and limits make it better for everyone and is good for tourism. The county also lets developers dictate, which limits would make our community better there too.

Agreed. All we need to do is use common sense. The reason we do not use our common sense is because we also want validation that our opinions and beliefs are correct. It is hard to listen and learn when we get so entitled that we damage the very thing we want. If we are not able to listen, learn and stop being so entitled that we can not feel the common sense of things then maybe we need to reevaluate ourselves in terms of motivation. We should never ever stop listening and learning and using common sense. Leaving trash on the beach makes no sense. Restricted areas on the beach make no sense. When you boil things down to common sense I am sure we would all be on the same page. If we could stop letting people like Huckabee divide us our community will benefit. Seems reasonable...

Agreed. All we need to do is use common sense. The reason we do not use our common sense is because we also want validation that our opinions and beliefs are correct. It is hard to listen and learn when we get so entitled that we damage the very thing we want. If we are not able to listen, learn and stop being so entitled that we can not feel the common sense of things then maybe we need to reevaluate ourselves in terms of motivation. We should never ever stop listening and learning and using common sense. Leaving trash on the beach makes no sense. Restricted areas on the beach make no sense. When you boil things down to common sense I am sure we would all be on the same page. If we could stop letting people like Huckabee divide us our community will benefit. Seems reasonable...

I believe some owners have been getting bad advice from their lawyers . . . like "put up chains, ropes and signs or the people will take your beach away and such. Also not allowing beach renourishment is dumb.