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Teresa

SoWal Guide
Staff member
Nov 15, 2004
30,240
9,277
South Walton, FL
sowal.com
What: Restore Customary Use Town Hall Meeting
When: Thursday, January 30, 2020
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: A Simple Faith Church

Local Public Beach Use advocates will come together to share information about proposed HB6063 and SB1068 that repeal the 2018 HB631. Learn about why this is important, and how you can help show your support for this legislation and love for our beaches! Restore Customary Use - #RestoreCU - is a project that many organizations and people are supporting by getting involved locally in South Walton, Florida.

Walton County clearly was directly impacted in this legislation as their Customary Use Ordinance did not get grandfathered in like other Florida counties. Walton County commissioners have passed a resolution supporting this legislation and we need to continue to inform beach lovers and customary use advocates about this important repeal and get them involved to help!

Restore Customary Use Meeting
Thursday January 30 | 6:00 p.m.
A Simple Faith Church: 360 WRM Circle in Blue Mountain Beach (north of Hwy 98/81 in the warehouse neighborhood)

Come out and learn about Walton County's fight to restore Customary Use of our beaches in South Walton, Florida.

MORE INFO: DeFuniak Herald January 15, 2020

A bill was recently filed in the Florida House of Representatives that, if becoming law, would repeal the customary use portion of House Bill (HB) 631.

HB 631’s customary use provisions took effect on July 1, 2018, as Section 163.035, Florida Statutes, negating Walton County’s customary use beach ordinance and setting forth a court process for the use of local governments in order to affirm a public right of customary recreational use of the beach on privately-owned property.

Entitled “Real Property,” the repeal bill, HB 6063, was filed on Jan. 6 by State Representative Evan Jenne (D-Dania Beach). Jenne represents part of Broward County. The bill simply states, “Section 163.035, Florida Statutes is repealed.” If becoming law, the measure would go into effect on July 1, 2020.

While after passage of HB 631 the bill’s customary use provisions had become its most-discussed portion, HB 631 had dealt mainly with other matters, including real property ownership and property owners’ ability to recover property from a person who had gained possession by means such as forcible or unlawful entry. In its originally-filed version, HB 631’s 14+ pages had included only the following few lines (Section 10) related to customary use: “Judicial determination; customary use.–A common law claim of customary use for the public use of private property shall only be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, on a parcel-by-parcel basis, and by clear and convincing evidence.”

Section 10 had been expanded to several pages by the time HB 631 got final approval by the Florida House of Representatives in early March 2018.

HB 6063, the repeal bill, was joined on Jan. 10 by companion Senate Bill, (SB) 1680.

Identical to HB 6063, SB 1680 was filed by Senator Lori Berman (D-Delray Beach), who represents part of Palm Beach County.

The filing of companion repeal bills puts the HB 631 repeal effort for the 2020 session a step ahead of that of the 2019 session, which had consisted of SB 54, a similar repeal bill filed by Senator Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg). After being referred to several Senate committees, HB 54 had failed to come up for committee or floor votes. There had been no companion House bill. The measure was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration, finally dying in the Judiciary Committee in May 2019.

Meanwhile, Walton County’s Complaint for Declaration of Recreational Customary Use, a court filing in line with Section 163.035’s requirements for affirmation of recreational customary use, remains in Walton County Circuit Court following its filing over a year ago. Motions to dismiss the case are yet to be heard as a result of delays related to required notification of beachfront property owners.

A case management conference has been scheduled on the county complaint for 1:30 p.m. on March 2 at the Walton County Courthouse.
Dotty Nist | The DeFuniak Herald, Jan 15, 2020

HELP RECLAIM OUR BEACHES
Florida Beaches for All is a non-profit 501(c)4 founded August 13th, 2018, by a group of concerned citizens regarding the use of the dry sandy beaches in Walton County, Florida. Please visit www.floridabeachesforall.org to donate, read udpates and get involved.

Floria%20Beaches%20for%20All%20meeting.jpg
 

Stone Cold J

Beach Lover
Jun 6, 2019
150
171
SRB
get all the information and ask all your questions at this town hall meeting.


Here are some important questions FBFA should answer at the meeting:

1. What public property became private property as a result of HB631?

2. What year did the first BCC beach ordinance not recognize private property rights?

3. What year did forced occupation of private property with unlimited people and unlimited equipment against the will of the private property owner become legal in Walton County?

4. Does the FBFA, who is a Plaintiff in the lawsuit against every beach front property owner in Walton County, authorize and approve of the Attorney representing the FBFA attacking the Defendants of the lawsuit on Social Media?

5. Should a local government entity be permitted to remove State of Florida Private Property Rights (as posted on the Walton County Web Site) without judicial approval?
 

bob1

Beach Fanatic
Jun 26, 2010
530
523
Here are some important questions FBFA should answer at the meeting:

1. What public property became private property as a result of HB631?

2. What year did the first BCC beach ordinance not recognize private property rights?

3. What year did forced occupation of private property with unlimited people and unlimited equipment against the will of the private property owner become legal in Walton County?

4. Does the FBFA, who is a Plaintiff in the lawsuit against every beach front property owner in Walton County, authorize and approve of the Attorney representing the FBFA attacking the Defendants of the lawsuit on Social Media?

5. Should a local government entity be permitted to remove State of Florida Private Property Rights (as posted on the Walton County Web Site) without judicial approval?
Bring your list I'll hand you the mic.
 

Stone Cold J

Beach Lover
Jun 6, 2019
150
171
SRB
4. Does the FBFA, who is a Plaintiff in the lawsuit against every beach front property owner in Walton County, authorize and approve of the Attorney representing the FBFA attacking the Defendants of the lawsuit on Social Media?

I guess question #4 just got answered. According to Court Document 1218 in Case 2018-CA-547 on the County Web Site Attorney Dan was fired by FBFA (or at least no longer represents FBFA interests).

Also looks like Dave in Court Document 1217 in Case 2018-CA-547 no longer requires the services of Attorney Dan.

Bob, the list is above, they can still address the other 4 questions.
 

Dave Rauschkolb

Beach Fanatic
Jul 13, 2005
1,006
790
Santa Rosa Beach
For the past few years, Daniel Uhlfelder has worked tirelessly on the behalf of the public and Florida Beaches for All as our Counsel. We at FBFA want to express our gratitude to Mr. Uhlfelder for his passion and unwavering dedication to the essential efforts towards ensuring our beaches are public. At this juncture, however, we have reached an understanding that we will seek new Legal Counsel as intervener in the County’s lawsuit to affirm the existence of Customary Use in Walton County. We are building a legal team to meet the challenge in this lawsuit that could take many years.

As we move forward, we are excited and energized to be working with so many organizations, groups and Florida beach lovers in the non-partisan effort to support both HB 6063 and SB 1680 to free our beaches. The passing of this Legislation is critical to repeal Florida Statute 163.035 that effectively now restricts our families and visitors from using the sandy areas behind private beachfront homes on countless Walton County beaches.

Dave Rauschkolb
Chairman, Florida Beaches for All

C18E1A2A-CDE8-4F38-A469-4E50311CBFBF.jpeg A3A80E26-A218-4BD7-A943-46E530A644B3.jpeg
 

Stone Cold J

Beach Lover
Jun 6, 2019
150
171
SRB
REPEAL THE BAD BEACH BILL!

Dave, here are some answers to the questions asked:

1. What public property became private property as a result of HB631? (none)

2. What year did the first BCC beach ordinance not recognize private property rights? (2016)

3. What year did forced occupation of private property with unlimited people and unlimited equipment against the will of the private property owner become legal in Walton County? (Never)

4. Should a local government entity be permitted to remove State of Florida Private Property Rights (as posted on the Walton County Web Site) without judicial approval? (this is a personal question - vast majority most answered it should require judicial approval but appears some of the extreme far left believe Private Property ownership should not exist - what is your answer?)

5. Does Florida private property become public without HB 631? (no)
 

BlueMtnBeachVagrant

Beach Fanatic
Jun 20, 2005
1,305
386
Limited supply of Tees for our friends who will come to Tallahassee to REPEAL THE BAD BEACH BILL!
Well I guess there’s no Tshirt for me. Noticed you’ve got your graphics designer working overtime with all the heartsy-fartsy CU propaganda.

Glad you seemed to take my advice to fire Uhlfelder. Or did he step down on his own?...find that hard to believe with all his emotional and legal involvement. Or did his latest video shot directly in front of Mike Huckabee’s house (backdrop) stating this was public beach posted on about January 25th cross the FBFA line?
 

FactorFiction

Beach Fanatic
Feb 18, 2016
494
409
Are people who are undecided or not in favor of CU welcomed at this "town hall"? Not sure that is really an appropriate designation for this meeting unless it is truly geared for the whole citizenry.
 
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