Private Beaches in South Walton - Customary Use Updates & SB1622

[BeachDad175]

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

 

[bob1]

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

 

[SUP View]

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.

 

[bob1]

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.

 

[Jim Tucker]

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.

 

[SUP View]

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.

 

[MarvinGardens]

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.

 

[mputnal]

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...

 

[James Bentwood]

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.

 

[mputnal]

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...