Danny, I'm just going to "pick at" some of your comments. Again, I just hope we can have an honest, intelligent dialogue.
.... However, the truth is the public has always used the white sand part of the beaches and our economy is based in large part on this fact. That is the definition of customary use and the county must fight for these rights to protect the livelihood of a majority of its citizens.
The definition of customary use is MUCH MUCH more complex. But of course your argument appeals to those who agree with you already.
There may be
some beach locations where the public has used much more than others in the historical past. I can't imagine the public historically and "customarily" treking down 30 to 50 foot dunes in Blue Mountain Beach with chairs, umbrellas and such in tow where there are no stairs or parking. This is in DIRECT CONTRAST in Daytona where the public was/is allowed to drive on the beach with everything nicely packed up in one's car looking for a place to stop and spread out. Heck, I was one of those when I 16 years old (That was just a couple of years ago
).
This problem has been coming for years and everyone knew it but did not want to deal with it. Because dealing with it will make no one happy and could be political suicide.
I totally agree with part of of what you said - "political suicide". That's why the BCC does what they do for the most part - appease the masses, even when it runs against existing rules, regulations and private property rights. Their motto - "So sue us!" Why not, it's not their personal money. And no commissioner is ever held liable. Hopefully you can agree with that,
But we are now to the tipping point where a failure to deal with it will seriously harm the county and its citizens. It would be in everyone's long-term interest to compromise.
This is where I disagree. More beach, more people, more businesses, more employees, more tourists, more beach, more people ..... It's a vicious circle. Slow the growth down and things will reach equilibrium. No one is hurting now. Restaurants, as an example, have been going in and out of business LONG BEFORE the beach access became a real issue down here.
To this day, I haven't heard anyone say that they could not find a place on the beach....only that they were run off private beach. And probably they were upset because they were inconvenienced by having their views blocked by umbrellas in front of them....tragic.
Allow people to use and traverse the entire beach without harassment
I have no problem with traversing as long as the people don't harass those authorized to be on the private beach and just follow simple courtesy.
Code Enforcement should rigorously enforce all the rules of the beach on public and private property, more money should be spent on cleanup and law enforcement should assist property owners in maintaining their property.
Again, I agree and disagree with this sentence. Yes they should enforce the regulations on PUBLIC BEACH, not on private. They don't have the authorization to enforce most of these laws on private beach.
TDC should aggressively acquire more beachfront to take the pressure off the private owners and those properties should have sufficient amenities to attract the bulk of tourists and locals who do not own beachfront.
Now this is where you and I find GREAT COMMON GROUND!!! And isn't the TDC purchasing a $700,000 lot around Inlet Beach? There are millions of dollars sitting in the beach nourishment fund. I think we should be able to find a way to divert these funds for this purpose even thought the current rules state otherwise. Isn't that what governments are really good at doing?
On the other hand, doing nothing will continue to inflame the situation and is political suicide and taking a hard line for the property owners will seriously harm the economy and is political suicide as well. There are far more voters north of 30-A and old 98 than there are south. But taking a hard line against the property owners will result in dozens of lawsuits and years of costly litigation. Nobody wins and the bitter feelings will linger for a long time. We need to work together to find an effective compromise.
Again, individual citizens are protected in this great country from the idea that anything can simply occur by just a majority vote. The day this changes is the day we're all in very deep, deep trouble.
