It truly is a sad state of affairs when the "majority" feel entitled to be able to deprive private property owners from their property for ANY justification (other than true imminent domain situations). The beach is not a road or a school ground or a powerline path or a sewage treatment plant location.
The problem is not the occasional trespassing skirmish hyperbolized by the local news. The real problems are the "promises" of "beach access" made by developers of huge projects when there is none.
Who REALLY stands to lose out here? Follow the money, as they say, and you'll have your answer.
It's NOT the vacationing family who is building a sand castle along with memories. It is the ($100,000,000+) Redfish Village developments. It is the County and commisioners who "think" they will benefit from the increased tax base at the expense of overcrowding on the beach. These people are the ones fighting for de-privatization of private property. They have solicited your help without your really knowing the true sides of the issue.
If Walton County is allowed to continue to approve non-appropriate developments, we're only a step away from becoming a Destin or Panama City. "I love your area because it is not crowded like Destin and Panama City" is something I've heard over and over. I and many others feel the same.
With undeveloped beachfront property practically extinct, how else will developers command the prices they seek in our area? The developer's solution?...simply build off the beach where the land is cheaper and "truck-em" in. Ooops, they can't do that just anywhere since there are stretches of private beach (unless they get the county and state to throw away private property rights).
60 years or so ago, you would be hard pressed to find a soul on the beach in our area. Yet private property lines extended to the water even back then. The true beach pioneers were the ones who came when everyone else thought this area was a wasteland. They PURCHASED beachfront property, built their block homes and enjoyed the area for what it WAS: quiet and private. Others of us who felt the same purchased the property from them...and so on.
Today everybody wants to be on the beach. We have grocery stores, air conditioning, running water, sewage, roads and more than enough restaurants.
And of course we have a beautiful beach which is why people bought private property in this "wasteland" long ago in the first place. Now EVERYBODY wants to be in this area...most of all, the developers. Somehow, many people have translated this into a personal entitlement.
As a kid, I remember playing at the creek in our neighborhood. I was never run off the many years that I did play there. Yet I can not imagine ever going to the owner of the adjacent private property today and saying the public is entitled to their private property simply because I and many other kids before me and after me played at that creek and we were never run off.
Not much of a real difference here except for the following: money.
Counter-intuitively speaking, the de-privatization of the beach will benefit the developers more than the "public". The charm and serenity of our area will be greatly compromised (even more so) if this is allowed to happen.
The problem is not the occasional trespassing skirmish hyperbolized by the local news. The real problems are the "promises" of "beach access" made by developers of huge projects when there is none.
Who REALLY stands to lose out here? Follow the money, as they say, and you'll have your answer.
It's NOT the vacationing family who is building a sand castle along with memories. It is the ($100,000,000+) Redfish Village developments. It is the County and commisioners who "think" they will benefit from the increased tax base at the expense of overcrowding on the beach. These people are the ones fighting for de-privatization of private property. They have solicited your help without your really knowing the true sides of the issue.
If Walton County is allowed to continue to approve non-appropriate developments, we're only a step away from becoming a Destin or Panama City. "I love your area because it is not crowded like Destin and Panama City" is something I've heard over and over. I and many others feel the same.
With undeveloped beachfront property practically extinct, how else will developers command the prices they seek in our area? The developer's solution?...simply build off the beach where the land is cheaper and "truck-em" in. Ooops, they can't do that just anywhere since there are stretches of private beach (unless they get the county and state to throw away private property rights).
60 years or so ago, you would be hard pressed to find a soul on the beach in our area. Yet private property lines extended to the water even back then. The true beach pioneers were the ones who came when everyone else thought this area was a wasteland. They PURCHASED beachfront property, built their block homes and enjoyed the area for what it WAS: quiet and private. Others of us who felt the same purchased the property from them...and so on.
Today everybody wants to be on the beach. We have grocery stores, air conditioning, running water, sewage, roads and more than enough restaurants.
And of course we have a beautiful beach which is why people bought private property in this "wasteland" long ago in the first place. Now EVERYBODY wants to be in this area...most of all, the developers. Somehow, many people have translated this into a personal entitlement.
As a kid, I remember playing at the creek in our neighborhood. I was never run off the many years that I did play there. Yet I can not imagine ever going to the owner of the adjacent private property today and saying the public is entitled to their private property simply because I and many other kids before me and after me played at that creek and we were never run off.
Not much of a real difference here except for the following: money.
Counter-intuitively speaking, the de-privatization of the beach will benefit the developers more than the "public". The charm and serenity of our area will be greatly compromised (even more so) if this is allowed to happen.