Customary Use and Our 30A Legacy

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When you see a PCB or Destin bumper sticker, what thought immediately comes to mind? Probably same for all of us with any time spent here - nice, but it ain’t 30A! Do you remember why you started renting/visiting here? What was it? Remember when you bought your first 30A property? Why here?
Because it was DIFFERENT, right? Remember the words you used to describe it to family and friends as you invited them here? “Private” “Quiet” “Intimate” “Less crowded”. That wasn’t by accident. The entire genetic code of Sowal beaches is because of the private ownership and neighborhood beach personalities.
You could rent “private beach”. You could buy “private beach”. There wasn’t a free for all frat party atmosphere because of unlimited public beach access on the sands. That behavior was regulated by the privately owned property where such behavior was immediately squelched. And yet, by custom, no one was ever “Kicked off” of private beaches because owners don’t do that unless bad actors abuse the privilege.
Walton County has always had more than 50% PUBLIC beach. Still does. That hasn’t changed. There are now deliberately misleading fear tactics out there with scary words like “Quiet Title” and “Privatization”, neither of which have affected one single square inch of public beach, not one. Yet, the mob mentality, orchestrated by local carnival barkers eager for fame and notoriety, and dollars, have mislead the citizens and deliberately tried to divide the community in a shell game of Customary Use.
The fact is that the county outran the capabilities of local Commissioners to plan for growth 20 years ago, and we haven’t improved that talent to deal with it even yet. So the County, in failing to plan beach availability, tried to illegally claim private property as public, without following the laws requiring judicial oversight. The local Good Ol’ Boys overreached their authority and got caught by the adults in Tallahassee. So they then decides to sue 4,800 of Sowal citizens to take their property. That’s right, your tax money is being spent, and a lot of it, to SUE almost 5,000 of your neighbors, and steal what they agreed to purchase at a premium, and have a deed to prove it.
Don’t blame them please, they didn’t want or ask for this fight. They live here and care for these beaches just like you and me. Go meet them, they are truly the eclectic fabric of 30A. The signs they had to put up are just in defense of this new orchestrated public attack against them.
The bottom line is this: The minute you release the public to occupy all of Sowal beaches, you IMMEDIATELY get nasty Destin and PCB problems. How will you feel about that 30A sticker then? Nostalgic? Me too.

I said back in the 80s,when I saw those first listings that said "Private Beach" that it would come to this. The ones at fault here are those realtors that advertised that way just to get a couple hundred thousand more for that piece of beach front. I felt bad for those people duped into that pipe dream until I saw the type of people it was bringing into this area. They didnt care about anyone but themselves, had no desire to get to know the people that already were here "living the dream". All they wanted was to have that little blue 30A sticker and a "BEACH PERMIT" on their vehicle so they could flaunt it back in Birmingham,Atlanta,etc. Well now you have figured out that those friendly, welcoming people that where here first arent a bunch of doormats that are just here to serve your food/drinks,clean your houses, and fix your toilets. We arent going to stand by and let you ruin the dream we were living long before you found 30A.

Jodi, Help us understand. How are beach front owners treating locals like "doormats"? In my neighborhood, we find that the beach front owners we know are indeed part of the community. They get involved with local charities. They look after the beaches, visitors, and turtle nests. They're the first ones to help vacationers with local information. We never have conflicts with them as long as we're respectful of their property. Most of them are the first ones to step up in time of need. And they're always keeping a low profile about that local philanthropy. They are just as upset about this county and local activist action against them as the rest of us. Remember, they didn't pick this fight. They didn't behave badly. Until people started deliberately coming onto their property and demanding it for themselves. How would you feel if it were your yard?

Jodi, Help us understand. How are beach front owners treating locals like "doormats"? In my neighborhood, we find that the beach front owners we know are indeed part of the community. They get involved with local charities. They look after the beaches, visitors, and turtle nests. They're the first ones to help vacationers with local information. We never have conflicts with them as long as we're respectful of their property. Most of them are the first ones to step up in time of need. And they're always keeping a low profile about that local philanthropy. They are just as upset about this county and local activist action against them as the rest of us. Remember, they didn't pick this fight. They didn't behave badly. Until people started deliberately coming onto their property and demanding it for themselves. How would you feel if it were your yard?

Jodi, Help us understand. How are beach front owners treating locals like "doormats"? In my neighborhood, we find that the beach front owners we know are indeed part of the community. They get involved with local charities.
They look after the beaches, How? By forbidding trash collection?
Yes, forbidding trespassing by county trucks was a necessary legal defense against the lawsuit, otherwise resulting in forfeiting one’s property. The benefit? No more tire tracks and the wildlife and vegetation have thrived without them. They can pick up same trash from access points.
visitors ? By calling the sheriff on them to leave?
When belligerent trespassers abuse priveledge? YES!!!
and turtle nest. By constructing geotubes,seawalls and other obstructions to their nest areas?
You’re reaching here, those storm defense tactics are well north of turtle nesting.
They're the first ones to help vacationers with local information. ?By telling them to move and go somewhere else?
Again, only when someone abuses the guest privilege, and you would too
We never have conflicts with them as long as we're respectful of their property. Most of them are the first ones to step up in time of need. Most of them dont even live here. They just want to protect their investment property and keep those "Private beach" rates as high for as long as they can.
Um, isn’t that the very point of an investment?
And they're always keeping a low profile about that local philanthropy. Low profile to hide which county official they are buddies with to keep their agenda on the downlow?
You must mean those “buddies” that are suing them and costing them a fortune in legal defense from those buddies?
They are just as upset about this county and local activist action against them as the rest of us. Remember, they didn't pick this fight. They didn't behave badly. Until people started deliberately coming onto their property and demanding it for themselves. Those people that they flaunted 30A in front of who then had to come down here and show their true colors in order to get THEIR little blue sticker?
No clue where you went there?
How would you feel if it were your yard? If I lived next to a place that had been known forever as being somewhere that people came to recreate (i.e. beach, park, lake, racetrack or whatever) I wouldnt move there and expect everyone to just abandon it because I moved there. Thats kinda like all the people that moved in to Niceville/Valp then wanted to sue the airforce for plane noise
Nope, again, your facts are wrong. Private beaches aren’t new. Attacking private beaches is. There was no signage or removal of people prior to this emotional public onslaught attacking beach property. The Customary Use folks changed the game. They are to blame. You can’t expect someone to invest millions of dollars in private property, then tell them how they must use it. That goes against our Constitution. You keep ignoring private property rights, why?

What you see in these opposing remarks is the very emotional outbursts referenced in my original post.

......It is the locals, who work in the service industry or have responsibilities at home before they can head for the beach, who cannot find a place to park. ...

View attachment 76395
When you see a PCB or Destin bumper sticker, what thought immediately comes to mind? Probably same for all of us with any time spent here - nice, but it ain’t 30A! Do you remember why you started renting/visiting here? What was it? Remember when you bought your first 30A property? Why here?
Because it was DIFFERENT, right? Remember the words you used to describe it to family and friends as you invited them here? “Private” “Quiet” “Intimate” “Less crowded”. That wasn’t by accident. The entire genetic code of Sowal beaches is because of the private ownership and neighborhood beach personalities.
You could rent “private beach”. You could buy “private beach”. There wasn’t a free for all frat party atmosphere because of unlimited public beach access on the sands. That behavior was regulated by the privately owned property where such behavior was immediately squelched. And yet, by custom, no one was ever “Kicked off” of private beaches because owners don’t do that unless bad actors abuse the privilege.
Walton County has always had more than 50% PUBLIC beach. Still does. That hasn’t changed. There are now deliberately misleading fear tactics out there with scary words like “Quiet Title” and “Privatization”, neither of which have affected one single square inch of public beach, not one. Yet, the mob mentality, orchestrated by local carnival barkers eager for fame and notoriety, and dollars, have mislead the citizens and deliberately tried to divide the community in a shell game of Customary Use.
The fact is that the county outran the capabilities of local Commissioners to plan for growth 20 years ago, and we haven’t improved that talent to deal with it even yet. So the County, in failing to plan beach availability, tried to illegally claim private property as public, without following the laws requiring judicial oversight. The local Good Ol’ Boys overreached their authority and got caught by the adults in Tallahassee. So they then decides to sue 4,800 of Sowal citizens to take their property. That’s right, your tax money is being spent, and a lot of it, to SUE almost 5,000 of your neighbors, and steal what they agreed to purchase at a premium, and have a deed to prove it.
Don’t blame them please, they didn’t want or ask for this fight. They live here and care for these beaches just like you and me. Go meet them, they are truly the eclectic fabric of 30A. The signs they had to put up are just in defense of this new orchestrated public attack against them.
The bottom line is this: The minute you release the public to occupy all of Sowal beaches, you IMMEDIATELY get nasty Destin and PCB problems. How will you feel about that 30A sticker then? Nostalgic? Me too.

This is the most ridiculous comment. No one ever spoke of our beaches being private until a few years ago when this nonsense started. Growth will always come to any popular, special area. The beaches have always been shared and should be regardless of growth; anywhere, any beach and any community.

Sharing the beach is what we've always done in South Walton Florida. We are a beach community with the most beautiful beaches anywhere. Beaches belong to everyone.

‘A beach is unlike any other landscape. It is a dynamic, interconnected environment that invites long walks and long views. Its boundaries are constantly in flux, thanks to the tide, storms and sea level rise.’

GUEST COLUMN: Sharing ‘your’ beach shouldn’t be too much to ask

By Keith Spera | Guest Columnist
Apr 21, 2019 at 8:28 AM

For 20 years, my wife and I have snuck away to the Emerald Coast at every opportunity. We returned even after I was rescued from a rip current. We mourned when the Red Bar burned down in Grayton Beach.

In October, we realized a dream by buying a vacation/rental cottage in Inlet Beach.

And last weekend, we learned that “our” beach is not really ours.

One of the selling points for our neighborhood on the north side of Highway 30A was its deeded beach access. The sand is a 10-minute walk from our door.

But at the bottom of the staircase that descends down the dune, a sign designates the beach to the right as private property. It belongs to a two-story condo development that sits 30 yards back from the water line, high up on the dune.

On the last day of our recent visit, my wife and kids were ordered off this sparsely populated private swath of sand by a condo employee.

So essentially, our “deeded beach access” allows us to get to the beach, but not necessarily use it.

We had just read about the ongoing Walton County controversy pitting “customary use” public beach access against claims of private property. Talk about the news hitting home.

The previous afternoon, thanks to heavy surf and high winds, we had this same stretch of private beach to ourselves. My 11-year-old daughter and I picked up plastic bottle caps and other trash. We’ve always felt a sense of shared responsibility for the beach. A beach is a natural resource; everyone who uses it should also be a caretaker.

At least until you’re kicked off.

Gulf-front homeowners not wanting strangers partying on their patios or in their pools is totally understandable. So is expecting beach-goers to not be obnoxious, loud, littering jerks.

And if a condo complex wants to set up rows of chairs and umbrellas that are reserved for their guests, go for it.

But to claim an entire beach smacks of self-serving, and ultimately self-defeating, overreach.

Some Gulf-front homeowners have taken advantage of a legal loophole that allows them to pay a modest fee to annex the beach behind their houses. Because that beach, some of the most beautiful and desirable real estate in North America, can’t be built on, it technically has no assessed value -- and therefore no property tax obligation.

If a beach is off-limits to the public, it shouldn’t be tax-free. You can’t have it both ways. Invoking the sanctity of private property doesn’t make this arrangement any less unfair.

Blue Mountain Beach resident and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s “Beach Share” proposal suggests property owners who grant public access to “private” beaches should receive a break on property taxes. That sounds like a starting point for a negotiation, provided the beach annexes are properly taxed.

But the ultimate resolution needs to be that the beaches of South Walton are open to all.

Chopping them up into parcels would ruin them. A beach is unlike any other landscape. It is a dynamic, interconnected environment that invites long walks and long views. Its boundaries are constantly in flux, thanks to the tide, storms and sea level rise.

If sea level rise accelerates and the shoreline eventually ends up somewhere north of Interstate 10, this whole debate over customary use may be moot.

Meanwhile, will most Florida residents and visitors be forced to scamper like sandpipers along the waterline, seeking patches of dry sand that aren’t privatized?

Whether from rules or red tide, the detrimental effect of South Walton beaches being largely off-limits is the same. It’s very, very bad for business. We’re already having second thoughts about our investment.

Gulf-front homeowners gearing up for this summer’s Battle of the Beach should ask themselves this: Why did you buy a beach house in the first place?

Was it intended as a place to relax and unwind, or as a source of anger and frustration?

Does it make you happy to constantly be on guard against interlopers? To confront families and ruin their day? To have the sheriff’s department on speed-dial?

Ultimately, do you want your lovely home to be a source of joy, or of long-term litigation?

Think about how fortunate you are just to own a beachfront home, to enjoy the stunning panorama, feel the Gulf breezes and listen to the surf.

Already, you’re way ahead of 99.99 percent of your fellow citizens.

Sharing “your” beach with them shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Keith Spera is a staff writer at the New Orleans Advocate newspaper and a Walton County property owner.

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20190421/guest-column-sharing-your-beach-shouldnt-be-too-much-to-ask

I'll say it again: Any way you look at it, this ugly negativity that is now pervasive in our community is what is ruining 30A. It isn't any one group, it is individuals who are stirring up hate against whole groups. The posts on various social media sites and the majority of the media continue to disparage a whole group of beachfront owner/entities claiming all sorts of half truths, calling them names, and making disparaging remarks about their character. Someone please explain how this is going to improve the place we all live or the situation on the beach. I don't see it.