Below you will find a summary of outcomes from the BCC meeting held today at the South Walton High School auditorium.
Introductory Comments
Introductory Comments
- The auditorium was full with a minor number of empty seats and people standing around the edges of the room. Seating capacity of the auditorium is 750 people.
- County Attorney Sidney Noyes announced that 13 parcels did not receive notice of the hearing through certified mail. Most are condominium units. Noyes recommended they go forward today with just a “Special Meeting” and take public comments and that the Board take no formal action and that they reschedule the hearing for 60 days out, on November 3rd, for the Board to take action on Customary Use and notify all property owners again including the 13 parcels that were not notified for this meeting.
- Dana Matthews asked that they include in their motion that the attorneys representing beachfront property owners will have an opportunity to present at the November hearing once they’ve heard the county’s evidence.
- Daniel Uhfelder, representing Florida Beaches for All, stated that he feels the hearing should go on today and the people that were not noticed that may not be here today can watch the video and attend the next hearing.
- David Theriaque, the County's outside counsel on Customary Use, said he has concerns about a challenge down the line if they hold the hearing today.
- The Commissioners voted unanimously to take public comments today as a public meeting and reschedule the hearing in 60 days on or around November 3rd.
- This will extend the deadline for affidavits to be turned in.
- Colleen Castille, former Secretary of the DEP under Jeb Bush – DEP has been involved with protecting the public’s access to all of Florida’s beaches for many years. She lives in Gulf Trace and supports Customary Use (CU).
- Representative of Muscogee Nation tribe – The tribe has over 10,000 sheets of documentation in the Department of the Interior. The tribe supports access to all beaches by all citizens and visitors. She requested official notification be sent to the tribe so that they can speak at the next meeting in November.
- Mr. Montague – He is a local resident who is an attorney. He encouraged the Board to explore whether substantial compliance is adequate and to do everything they can to ensure that the recording of the results of today’s meeting are admissible at the hearing in November. He also spoke in favor of Customary Use and said property owners in his community who are selling their homes are losing prospective buyers because of this. This is having real economic impacts.
- Malcomb Patterson – his maternal grandparents were the original settlers of Grayton Beach. Spoke in favor of CU and told stories of him and his friends and family freely enjoying the beaches for years.
- 30 additional citizens spoke in favor of CU.
- 10 citizens spoke against CU.
- Multiple beach front property owners said that they don’t have issues with members of the public being on the beach in front of their property and haven’t had problems with that over the years, but there are many issues with commercial beach chair vendors setting up on their property, so they don’t support Customary Use.
