Legalizing seawalls

[NotDeadYet]

Thanks, Dave. Lot of good info here. But regardless of how you feel about seawalls, seems like anyone interested in good government ought to be really upset about Coley trying an end run against an established procedure. The DEP has been putting the seawalls through an application procedure based on Florida statute and making decisions on which ones stay on a case by case basis. For a legislator to come in now with a bill that essentially guts the process just stinks, imho. If you agree, let Coley know.

 

[John R]

As Robert indicates, having the bill number is going to make all the difference to whoever answers the phone or reads an email.

 

[BeachSiO2]

There is currently no bill. The following link has the list of bills Coley is involved with..

Marti?*Coley?*

However, I have also heard (not from the CCC) that "language is being worked" so a bill could possibly be introduced.

 

[NotDeadYet]

Last year "there was no bill" in Gaetz's office either. And one never materialized, possibly due to all the objections he received. My guess is whoever is shopping this turkey around decided to try again via Coley. If enough objections are raised, even though "there is no bill" it's just possible it won't get past the "language is being worked" stage. If you oppose this, write or call anyway. Coley needs to hear from voting citizens and not just special interests.

 

[Busta Hustle]

Is there currently any $$$ set aside from fed, state or county for Walco dredge projects?

 

[Andy A]

It is time all heard the other side of the story.
In 2005, hurrican Dennis wiped out our cliff and those of surrounding complexes to the point that we would lose our homes if something was not done. I am not going into the details of all that transpired as it would take pages to reiterate the happenings. After forming a group of homeowners and pursuing all alternatives we could think of, it was decided to look into the construction of a seawall to hopefully prevent damage in the future. An engineer was hired, meetings held involving ALL concerned and a company with expertise in construction of such walls hired. The wall is now buried under many tons of sand and has been in place for 5 years this hurricane season. It is my fervent hope we will never find out whether it was worth the high monetary cost it caused.
A word about the "taking" of the environment and turtle habitat. If we had not done what we did, some of the nests that were created in the past five years would not have been able to be built. We have had at least three I can think of during the period.
Finally, we had a right to protect and preserve our private property in any manner we deem necessary as long as it is done properly. We did that to the best of our ability. Our sea barrier was engineered and built professionally. It is not made out of wood and will not deteriorate. I have always been for public beaches instead of private but reading some of the posts in this thread is about to change my mind. And one final thing. Yes, I have called Representative Marti Coley's office and expressed my strong support of a bill to finally legalize what was done to save citizen's property with the concurrence, at the time, of the county, FDEP and Fish and Wildlife as well as the Walton County turtle Association.

 

[BeachSiO2]

Last year "there was no bill" in Gaetz's office either. And one never materialized, possibly due to all the objections he received. My guess is whoever is shopping this turkey around decided to try again via Coley. If enough objections are raised, even though "there is no bill" it's just possible it won't get past the "language is being worked" stage. If you oppose this, write or call anyway. Coley needs to hear from voting citizens and not just special interests.

I don't disagree. There was just a lot of requests for a bill number to reference and I wanted everyone to know that there isn't one.

On the other hand, if you are for or against it, I am pretty sure her office would know what you are talking about if you call, write or email.

 

[30ashopper]

It is time all heard the other side of the story.
In 2005, hurrican Dennis wiped out our cliff and those of surrounding complexes to the point that we would lose our homes if something was not done. I am not going into the details of all that transpired as it would take pages to reiterate the happenings. After forming a group of homeowners and pursuing all alternatives we could think of, it was decided to look into the construction of a seawall to hopefully prevent damage in the future. An engineer was hired, meetings held involving ALL concerned and a company with expertise in construction of such walls hired. The wall is now buried under many tons of sand and has been in place for 5 years this hurricane season. It is my fervent hope we will never find out whether it was worth the high monetary cost it caused.
A word about the "taking" of the environment and turtle habitat. If we had not done what we did, some of the nests that were created in the past five years would not have been able to be built. We have had at least three I can think of during the period.
Finally, we had a right to protect and preserve our private property in any manner we deem necessary as long as it is done properly. We did that to the best of our ability. Our sea barrier was engineered and built professionally. It is not made out of wood and will not deteriorate. I have always been for public beaches instead of private but reading some of the posts in this thread is about to change my mind. And one final thing. Yes, I have called Representative Marti Coley's office and expressed my strong support of a bill to finally legalize what was done to save citizen's property with the concurrence, at the time, of the county, FDEP and Fish and Wildlife as well as the Walton County turtle Association.

While 'mom' suggests otherwise -

"introduce a bill in this session that would legalize all of the illegally-built seawalls and other armoring in Walton County."

AFAICT - every sea wall built has gone through the process of being approved. I wonder where all these illegal walls were built and how they got around approval by DEP?

 

[BeachSiO2]

While 'mom' suggests otherwise -

"introduce a bill in this session that would legalize all of the illegally-built seawalls and other armoring in Walton County."

AFAICT - every sea wall built has gone through the process of being approved. I wonder where all these illegal walls were built and how they got around approval by DEP?

Not to get too deep in this, but here's a little background. Initially, there was a decision by the County to request authority from the state authorizing temporary emergency structures. There is a provision in law that gives local governments that authority. The specifics of that law have since been rewritten, but that's another story. This allowed people to construct structures to shore up their property with the caveat from the state being that once the wall is built the owner still had to go through an after-the-fact permitting process.

Generally speaking, for a wall to be permitted a property must be "eligible" and that is a determination made by FDEP. Once it is ruled an eligible property, then the wall must be designed, engineered and constructed in an appropriate (word choice?) manner. Third, the wall must be built on property in which the owner is giving permission. Fourth, the wall must be built in a way to limit environmental impacts and thus not create a taking of habitat.

It is my understanding that many of the walls that were built under the emergency order met these requirements (and more) and thus have been permitted in an after the fact manner. I am also aware of two properties that have had structures been ordered removed (there may be more). In those two cases, one was an eligible property that did not meet other requirements and thus was ordered removed. The second was an ineligible property. Both of these structures have been removed.

 

[Em]

While 'mom' suggests otherwise -

"introduce a bill in this session that would legalize all of the illegally-built seawalls and other armoring in Walton County."

AFAICT - every sea wall built has gone through the process of being approved. I wonder where all these illegal walls were built and how they got around approval by DEP?

When those "temporary armoring" walls were built, they were permitted as only temporary, only to prevent further damage to existing improvements, eg- a home. Many people went beyond that, and extended their yards, and some onto property which is deeded to the county. Many people state that no survey was done prior to erecting the seawalls.

County Commissioner Ro Cuchens was reported to have sent requests for permits on official County letterhead, when he was requesting the permits for his seawall company, which installed a strong number of "temporary" seawalls. I believe the word, "temporary," was defined as one year, by the DEP. Many people claimed ignorance and were hopeful that spending $300,000+ on their seawall and sand would carry enough weight that the structures would become permanently approved. The temporary seawalls were also required to have a 2:1 slope in front of them, and the walls were required to be capped with white sand meeting the county requirements. Some people complied, while many others did not.

I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot make the call of whether or not the seawalls were/are illegal, but I do know that many did not meet the requirements of being temporary as was being defined by the DEP, many of them were built on public property, many did not meet the county requirements of being topped with white sand, and many people counted on a County Commissioner/Seawall builder to try and get the right permits, even though as I understand it, he did not.