Headland Ave Beach Access Workshop 7/12/16

Anyone interested in this issue, the workshop is next week. Beachfront owners are trying to block use of county owned SWTDC endorsed public beach access and their efforts were successful until a re-vote occurred. It was originally voted down (2-3) but at a later bcc meeting a re-vote (4-1) occurred for a workshop with one BCC still voting "No".

 

The meeting will be held at the South Walton Courthouse Annex located at 31 Coastal Centre Blvd., Santa Rosa Beach July 12 at 3 p.m.

Proposed Walton County Public Beach Management Plan (With Images)

1. Inlet Beach
2. Santa Clara
3. Van Ness Butler Jr.
4. Blue Mountain Beach
5. Gulfview Heights
6. Ed Walline 7. Ft. Panic

http://media.graytvinc.com/documents/2016+Proposed+Beach+Ordinance+revisions+1.6.16.pdf

 

The pdf outlines county-sanctioned vendor takeover of our beaches - it doesn't say what improvements are planned for Headland Ave.

 

The majority of people who use the beach are locals and tourists and are the lifeblood of Walton County. Giving 50% of our beaches over to mostly empty chairs is just freaking absurd!!

 

They applied the 50% rule in Grayton. It's better than giving the vendors 100%, but it still sucks. At 7:00 in the morning, the vendor zones have 3 rows of unoccupied chairs. And the vendors think they own those zones. They don't like it if you or me set up in them ourselves.

Get rid of vending at the public accesses or require that the renter be there at the time of set up and cut the vendor zone down to 25% of the beach.

 

This proposal flies in the face of customary use and everything the current BCC and those running have said in regard to customary use. In effect it privatizes 50% of public beaches to private enterprise (vendors).

 

Clearly, most of the posters on this forum have real issues with the vendor situation. The residents of this County have managed to get the attention of the BCC on several issues (Hampton Inn and customary use being two major ones) so I don't quite understand why the citizens of Walton County are not banding together on the vendor issue. Even with at least one Commissioner connection to vendors, the united public seems to have a lot of sway here. Anybody want to shed some light on this?

 

Latest in my inbox from Ms Meadows:

There has to be three commissioners who vote to direct staff to revise the ordinance. One commissioner son is a vendor. We don't have the votes to do this at this point.

Sent from my iPhone

Cindy Meadows
Walton County Commissioner
District 5
850-231-2978 office

 

I just posted this to my own Facebook page. If all of us would use our Facebook page and inundate our Commissioners we might be able to turn this around! Please do what your conscious dictates!

"I don't often post about politics on my page because I'm a Democrat and Walton County is a Republican stronghold in in the Florida Panhandle. I accept peoples opinions (even though I don't agree with the majority of them) because people have the inherent right to believe what they will and vote their own conscious.

However, on a local level there are several issue coming up during this Campaign Season and some of them are critical to our way of life here. Customary use is a hot button topic and will make or break this election. The "Vendor" issue is another.

Please Please Please folks if you don't do anything else this campaign cycle pay attention to these very important issues. Locally and economically (Tourism) is the life blood of this county and these issues will effect our way of life.

There is a key workshop (I can't stress enough that it is a key workshop!) coming up in about a week (The meeting will be held at the South Walton Courthouse Annex located at 31 Coastal Centre Blvd., Santa Rosa Beach July 12 at 3 p.m.) regarding the vendor issue and what the workshop has proposed is handing over 50% of OUR PUBLIC BEACH ACCESS to private enterprise in effect PRIVATIZING PUBLIC BEACHES with mostly empty chairs!! This is totally unacceptable!! There is a link to this ABSURD PROPOSAL replete with images so that you have a better grasp of what YOU are going to lose in regard to PUBLIC BEACH ACESS and Customary use here... http://media.graytvinc.com/…/2016+Proposed+Beach+Ordinance+…

I'm begging YOU to please SHARE SHARE SHARE THIS POST and get involved to PROTECT YOUR BEACHES from being PRIVATIZED by beach vendors!! Write YOUR County Commissioners and let them know that losing 50% of your beach to private enterprise is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! If you need Commissioner addresses let me know, I'll gladly share them with you!

I'm going to tag several of you so please share! PLEASE Copy and Paste this to your status and tag your friends if you want to keep our beaches PUBLIC! PLEASE!"

 

If citizens are having this much trouble getting a simple NPA access passed through the BCC and proposed by TDC long term planning, I could not fathom the leadership and money required to solve vendor issues, especially vendor relationship with current and candidate bcc. The county owns the Headland Ave land, the TDC money will pay for the walkover, access to "public beaches", etc... I have become dismayed by all the money in local politics and the power/influence campaign contributions provide. Headland ave blocking by beachfront owners is a small example....see local campaign financial reports.

 

I hate to say "I told ya so" but I did. I knew Sara Comander and Cindy Meadows were the only 2 Commissioners who would abide by the wishes of their Constituents. I also said that C. Jones does not want the current make-up of the BCC to change because she knows she currently has the votes!! If she loses Imfield or Chapman she is desperate to get T. Anderson elected!

Maybe she is behind those fliers afterall...not to get either Nipper or Fletcher elected but to make them look bad because they are supported by some mysterious PAC.

 

Misty, is this workshop on July 12th about the Beach Management plan/vendor plans or just the Headland AV beach access?

 

I copy pasted all I know about it. I think its about Headland beach but there are maps showing the 50% at each access point...there are several.

 

It is my understanding this is solely a workshop for Headland Ave NPA

 

My understanding is that the workshop is specific to Headland Ave access; however, if you read the Beach Management Plan that Misty posted and scroll down to the map of the Headland NBA, you will find that a 50% beach vendor area is proposed if the proposed vendor rules go into affect in the future. This vendor proposal is just plain scary, at least to me!

 

The link I posted of the proposal (with maps) includes
1. Inlet Beach
2. Santa Clara
3. Van Ness Butler Jr.
4. Blue Mountain Beach
5. Gulfview Heights
6. Ed Walliwith maps.

I'm confused

 

Maybe I should be petrified but the proposal looks to me like that are including the other access points in the proposal for Headland Beach.

 

On 6/14 BCC meeting, a workshop for Headland access was voted on (4-1) item #16-0844. There was no mention of vendor issues for the workshop.

 

Which means they voted to hold the workshop. What I posted was the proposal for that workshop.