Customary Use & Eminent Domain!

[Jim Tucker]

Eminent Domain! Pay a fair price for our 26 miles of beach that are deeded as private. I think a fair price is 50$ per linear foot. Considering that entire lots 50 years ago sold for $50 and it was very hard to find buyers at that price it seems fair. That is about the time that people started coming here to build, albeit slowly.

Also the point was made that the sandy beach is worthless, not taxed and is not build-able. No value is taken from owners and one could argue that property values would be preserved long term. Eminent domain / public beach wouldn't prevent beachfront owners from using the beach or enjoying the view so seems fair ... what say you?

 

[Kaydence]

Eminent Domain! Pay a fair price for our 26 miles of beach that are deeded as private. I think a fair price is 50$ per linear foot. Considering that entire lots 50 years ago sold for $50 and it was very hard to find buyers at that price it seems fair. That is about the time that people started coming here to build, albeit slowly.

Also the point was made that the sandy beach is worthless, not taxed and is not build-able. No value is taken from owners and one could argue that property values would be preserved long term. Eminent domain / public beach wouldn't prevent beachfront owners from using the beach or enjoying the view so seems fair ... what say you?

I understand the concept of eminent domain wherein the government or its agent has a right to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. (sorta) Can't say I agree with it but it is what it is.

Someone made the point last night before she was escorted out of the building that the sands are ever changing, which they are. What may be your private property today could be blown down the beach tomorrow or a good hurricane might even put your private property in my back yard 30 miles from where it originated. Seems to me that under the concept of eminent domain, your property isn't yours anymore for the government to make that claim. New sands wash ashore everyday and its a hard concept for me to to swallow that drift sand automatically becomes the exclusive property of a landowner.

Hell just traversing the beach, sand is moved daily on peoples feet. I even brought some home when I was there in Feb. God forbid I took someones sand. In fact, Uhlfelder may have taken some home with him the 2 days he sat the beach in Vizcaya, which I'd bet the owners aren't quibbling about him taking.

In some cases the county allowed quitclaim deeds because they knew the land was worthless and could not be developed. Why should they then be allowed to claim eminent domain and seize property they didn't want to start with and literally gave away?

 

[BlueMtnBeachVagrant]

....Someone made the point last night before she was escorted out of the building that the sands are ever changing, which they are.....

You mean that nut job that started making sounds in the back of the room like a pig in heat after she hogged too much time at the podium? No exaggeration.

For those of you who didn’t see it, it was downright uncomfortable knowing we listened to her crazy rhetoric for far too many minutes. Drake had to cut her off. I guess there’s “one” in every crowd but probably many more.

 

[Kaydence]

You mean that nut job that started making sounds in the back of the room like a pig in heat after she hogged too much time at the podium? No exaggeration.

For those of you who didn’t see it, it was downright uncomfortable knowing we listened to her crazy rhetoric for far too many minutes. Drake had to cut her off. I guess there’s “one” in every crowd but probably many more.

Mmm hmm. There are times when she has lucid moments and makes much more sense then she did last night.

Some folks walking out of the building last night said the same thing you did "one in every crowd" to which I replied "there's more than one around here". We all laughed.

This is not to make light of her lucid contributions either. She has had a few.

 

[bob bob]

I get it about shifting Sands. Next major storm will take our beach and most of the dunes. Seawall and geotubes will be everywhere. We desperately needed Beach nourishment but greed killed that.

 

[lazin&drinkin]

I get it about shifting Sands. Next major storm will take our beach and most of the dunes. Seawall and geotubes will be everywhere. We desperately needed Beach nourishment but greed killed that.

Greed caused the county to try to put a fast one over on beachfront owners in the form of the deceptively misnamed Hurricane Storm Damage Reduction proposal. HSDR was about creating 50-150 ft. wide public beach between private beaches and the Gulf. Any storm damage reduction would have been incidental, and in the case of a major storm, ephemeral.

Business owners, developers and their handmaiden attorneys, in concert with some non-beachfront owners wanted the property of others, but did not want to pay for it. They continue to try to take it by force of arms, because that in the end is the means of forcing compliance with government mandates.

Beach owners saw right through that lame attempt. It might be instructive to recall that the BCC and the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged private ownership of the beach parcels by painstakingly verifying titles and mailing addresses of the owners of each and every parcel before mailing out easements to the owners of record of each parcel, asking the owners to grant permission for the county and the Corps to come on and work on these private beaches. Like it or not, the beachfront owners do own the dry sandy beach parcels.

The BCC had Customary Use ready to go while the HSDR charade was going on. They may have been deceitful (and the sky may be blue) but they weren't so stupid they couldn't see HSDR was a failure from the outset.

It is not the private beach owners who are guilty of the deadly sins of greed or envy.

 

[bob bob]

That's a lot of words to describe cutting off your nose to spite your face. I've seen the damage. Our beaches have been existing by a prayer for 13 years. Mother nature will show you who's boss and laugh at your seawall and deeds.

Taxpayers and ordinary Beach lovers will pay your cleanup bill. The same ones that are getting spat on.

 

[lazin&drinkin]

I don't own beach property, so, No, taxpayers and ordinary Beach lovers won't pay a cleanup bill I won't have.

I have respect for the right and property of others, and I have respect for the law. I have a Constitution and Bill of Rights, and in speaking for those, in this instance I speak for those whose rights you disregard.

The path you advocate is fraught with hazard for all of us, not just beach owners.

 

[Low Brow]

I don't own beach property, so, No, taxpayers and ordinary Beach lovers won't pay a cleanup bill I won't have.

I have respect for the right and property of others, and I have respect for the law. I have a Constitution and Bill of Rights, and in speaking for those, in this instance I speak for those whose rights you disregard.

The path you advocate is fraught with hazard for all of us, not just beach owners.

Well said.

 

[FloridaBeachBum]

Eminent Domain! Pay a fair price for our 26 miles of beach that are deeded as private. I think a fair price is 50$ per linear foot. Considering that entire lots 50 years ago sold for $50 and it was very hard to find buyers at that price it seems fair. That is about the time that people started coming here to build, albeit slowly.

Also the point was made that the sandy beach is worthless, not taxed and is not build-able. No value is taken from owners and one could argue that property values would be preserved long term. Eminent domain / public beach wouldn't prevent beachfront owners from using the beach or enjoying the view so seems fair ... what say you?

Really? Value government pays is fair market value. Given 900 parcels, or about 21 miles (110,880 feet) have legal title to the MHWL. Beachfront market value is what? Walton paid $7,427,000 for 186 feet of beachfront in 2016 - about $40,000 per linear foot.... times 110,800 feet.