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Yep, I noticed the second appearance down the beach!

I found this to be an interesting development: Mr. Uhlfelder has posted pics of new ropes up on the east and west boundaries of Seaside on the Walton County Visioning FB page this morning, but now the post is gone.

So the 65’ of public beach in Watersound dedicated to the public goes 65’ from east to west? I was under the impression that it was 65’ depth north to south but running the entire width of Watersound Beach and Watersound West Beach. 65’ of beach frontage among over a mile of beach frontage...

Where is beach renourishment needed in 30A? The beaches I’ve used seem to recover from tropical storms and hurricanes pretty well on their own. The coastal dune lakes and “bluff” dunes probably help with that. Miramar Beach, however, has no lakes and fewer, smaller dunes, but the “real” problem...

Thank you for the thorough response, @Dave Rauschkolb. I appreciate you taking the time to address the angles and questions I brought up. I hope I didn’t come across as pigeon-holing you as an official representative of Seaside or Watersound in addition to being a leader among the Customary Use...

What is the sand quality like there? I don’t think I’ve been on the beach in that area since 1994!

As a non-property owner but frequent visitor to SoWal and occasional visitor to other beaches from Cape San Blas, FL to Orange Beach, FL, I’m against beach renourishment based on what I’ve seen at Orange Beach, Alabama, the (Orange Beach) Alabama and Florida portions of Perdido Key (including...

I asked Dave Rauschkolb (and the SoWal readership as a whole) a similar question back in late June or early July, and I think I included all of the larger “residential/resort communities” such as Alys Beach, Rosemary Beach, SanDestin, Seaside, Watercolor and Watersound, and what the “public...

What beach/community?

I’ve been visiting the area frequently since around 1986, but I don’t live there, nor do I own property there, but my wife and kids and other family members and I feel like we are a part of the community when we are there because generally speaking, the locals and longtime visitors are kind and...

Invest it in acquiring additional public beachfront width and parking instead of expanding into additional geographic TV ad markets. Quit trying to make the Beaches of South Walton “a destination;” they already are a destination!

I run through that area as there are some trails and sandy timber roads that connect Pt Washington State Forest and Deer Lake State Park including the powerline sandy road and it’s immediate vicinity. There are several osprey nests and a wetlands patch right in the middle of it, and I’ve seen...

Board of County Commissioners

Something tells me the study will advise them to expand the geographic reach of their TV ad campaigns into more “departure to ECP” market$! Cause tourism and local businesses are “struggling” in the area! (Despite the traffic and 2-hour restaurant waits)

I was thinking the same thing! I think my daughter has a toy shovel bigger than that!

I’m thinking this Tahoe isn’t one of Gulf Shores PD’s 4x4 beach patrol units. Nearby Orange Beach PD uses Jeep Wranglers for beach patrol.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much what the BCC allows the chair vendors to do on 50% of the beach access sand.

Nothing at all, but if someone wants to take a chair and sit in it, and an umbrella, that’s fine too, as long as they take it all when they leave and leave the area as it was before they arrived.

No, and I didn’t meant to imply that y’all are part of the problem, because if you’re renting them and sitting in them, then you're putting the chairs and the space they’re on to good use. It’s more of the ghost chair setups that some of the vendors place to claim unneeded space with some type...

Fortunately one of the culprits of that relationship just got voted out!

You can be respectful visitors and be respected as tourists. I completely understand your needs for renting chairs that a vendor sets up for you. I am not calling for beach chair vendors to be shut down, just asking that they not take up so much of the beachfront with unoccupied “ghost” rentals...

I understand, and to each their own, but for our family of 4, we’re able to haul our backpack chairs, a cooler and umbrella, and whatever boards or floats the kids want, and we actually like the adjustable functions of the Tommy Bahama chairs more than the rental chairs, plus we like the freedom...

The customary use/beach issue IS the umbrella issue that is the subject of Beachma’s experience in this post because the beach chair vendors are crowding out the beachfront both in front of private property (with or without the permission of the adjacent property owners) AND on 50%+ of the...

So Mike Huckabee, the klan, and Russia are all involved in the customary use battle; what about MS-13, or #BLM?

That’s what I thought: they basically just pass the torch and keep a slight majority, with Anderson being in their camp too, and that coalition often looking out for the so-called “small business” little guy special interests: beach chair vendors, developers, etc.

Wow, so the klan is involved too? What about Russia?

Why would anyone have voted for Scott Brannon? To ease development restrictions even more? Wasn’t that part of his platform, or at least the platform of his supporters?

Surviving for the time being...

It seems that current BCC legislation enables chair vendor control of much of the limited resource of the public beach accesses, but it also seems that we turn a blind eye to some of the “resort” communities and all of their rules and signs and instead focus on the smaller communities and “mom...

Who do you believe to be Mr. Huckabee among us?

Is he behind the editorial?

But I think the issue is starting to surface as being “paying customers” or GHOST “paying customers.” THAT is what is cutting into the scarce resource of waterfront beach sand, and the underlying problem is the OVERMARKETING of this area at the expense of people who live here, people who have...

I’m sure the founding fathers of our republic never fathomed cabana boys in polo shirts being the constitutional arbiters of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

So, can people also or alternately bring their own chairs/umbrellas to set up and sit on the beaches at Sandestin, Tops’l, Watercolor, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Carillon Beach [and Alys Beach and Watersound]? If all of the beaches are public beaches, then it seems that it wouldn’t be legal for...

The problem is that some of the #BuildBuildBuild and #TourismTourismTourism people keep overmarketing the area and annually expanding the geographical market reach of media/advertisement. We went to Seaside, ate some gelato, bought some mercantile goods, and ate some burgers, fries and fried...

Speaking of mass transit on 30A, PLEASE don’t bring these to 30A; tourism WILL survive even if the area lacks this cheesy trash...

And I now understand that Seaside opens up its “central” beach area as “public,” but if “public beach” is the claim of customary use advocates along the rest of Walton County’s 30A coastline, then why isn’t it also the claim along Seaside’s other 70%, or in Rosemary, Alys, the various Watersound...

Heck, I think the Customary Use advocates AND the beachfront property owners have a common grievance against the beach chair rental mafia! I know they’re probably considered part of the “tourist economy,” but they are not there in the interest of the locals nor many of the tourists and frequent...

But isn’t the beach in front of the “private accesses” actually PUBLIC property according to the customary use concept? Isn’t that what the customary use debate is all about? I’m not taking about “private access” pavilions, I’m talking about the sandy beach in front of them. Can I “sit on a...

Ok, that’s great to know that we can all now use what equates to a large regional public beach access at your restaurant. So that I’m clear, I can access the beach via the area at your restaurant, but then set up my chairs and belongings in front of one of the developer’s private beach accesses...

So perhaps I should ask Dave: Could my family and I come and park our vehicle in a public parking space near the beachfront restaurant and then go set up our chairs and umbrellas in front of the beachfront restaurant and spend the day there? Would the beachfront restaurant and its surrounding...

Is it possible that the area is being over-marketed and over-developed? When county commissioners, tourism officials and local business owners start talking about the need for another north-south access road cutting through a pristine state forest alongside wetlands and several osprey nests...

The trails have always been accessible from the roadside right there if you know where to look, so they’re not really “giving” the public anything new there. Also accessible from Cassine Garden (where the Cassine Trail has always been a public connector to Eastern Lake Trail) and Seagrove...

I hate to hear this. I'll miss their wood-fire grilled steaks and my wife will miss the prime rib. I'd rather places like AJ's stay in places like Destin.

You can access those trails (the Eastern Lake Trail from 395 and to the East) from the Cassine Trail in Seagrove and an unmarked trailhead across the street from Clay Nursery & Landscaping. I ran those trails in March, April, June and July and didn't see any closure signs on that end.

My experience over 2 trips this summer June 10-21 and then June 29-July 7 was that most days, my Weather and AccuWeather iPhone apps showed the same forecast you're describing for "current location" of Santa Rosa Beach, FL (we were in Seagrove near Eastern Lake) but only on about 2-3 of all...

Yep; looking at the aerial map, I see that the water tank is between the 2 industrial buildings with settlement ponds, and Mack Bayou isn't far away; that looks like a young gator due to the stripes, so it may have relatives in the neighborhood!

Is that next to a water tank? If there's a reservoir or retention pond nearby, that's where the gator's hanging out!

Yes, they're all over Mobile Bay and the brackish estuaries off of it.