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jimmyp5

Beach Lover
Mar 1, 2006
104
0
Seagrove
the pictures do look super ... they give me a lot of hope for our continued beach life! my intuition is that they will indeed help to decrease (not totally prevent) storm damage to dunes and structures, and certainly adding 100' of beach must help our appeal to tourists.

with all the permitting, cost and delays involved in dredging & renourishing -- and with apparently clear benefits from it -- what about getting walton and okaloosa counties to go in together and buy the dredging and distribution equipment, and make this a continual process? sort oof like the way they're always painting the golden gate bridge .... paint it from one end to the other and then start over at the first end again. maybe include bay and/or santa rosa counties if the cost was prohibitive, or the renourishing only needed to be done half as often as a 2-county stretch of beach would produce?
 

Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
jimmyp5 said:
the pictures do look super ... they give me a lot of hope for our continued beach life! my intuition is that they will indeed help to decrease (not totally prevent) storm damage to dunes and structures, and certainly adding 100' of beach must help our appeal to tourists.

with all the permitting, cost and delays involved in dredging & renourishing -- and with apparently clear benefits from it -- what about getting walton and okaloosa counties to go in together and buy the dredging and distribution equipment, and make this a continual process? sort oof like the way they're always painting the golden gate bridge .... paint it from one end to the other and then start over at the first end again. maybe include bay and/or santa rosa counties if the cost was prohibitive, or the renourishing only needed to be done half as often as a 2-county stretch of beach would produce?
I may move back to the mountains. :bang: What is wrong with nature?:dunno:
 

John R

needs to get out more
Dec 31, 2005
6,777
819
Conflictinator
from the Asbury Park Press via Surfrider Foundaton, New Jersey Chapter. make your own conclusion.

MAYOR: HOMEOWNERS MAY GET BEACH BILL

SURF CITY -- The latest salvo in the confrontation over restoring sand to Long Beach Island's erosion-prone beaches was launched by Mayor Leonard T. Connors Jr. when he said some oceanfront homeowners could be forced to pay for beach upkeep whether they like it or not.

Connors said he is convinced Surf City will not get the signed easements needed from property owners so a $5 million beach replenishment and storm protection project can begin this summer as scheduled.

Connors also declared Wednesday that the borough will not use eminent domain -- the authority to appropriate needed private land for a public use -- to acquire the private property. Eminent domain would require the town to pay an estimated $1 million minimum to buy beachfront land at fair market value.

Noting borough beaches between 18th and 24th streets are particularly weatherbeaten, and facing the prospect that the federally funded dredging and pumping of sand onto the eroded shoreline may be delayed, Connors said Surf City could draft an ordinance forcing oceanfront property owners to foot the bill.

"They can take care of the dunes themselves, or we will take care of it for them and send them the bill. I cannot stand for public money being used to fix private property," Connors said. "An established dune system is the most important thing in the front line of protection, and that has been established by both the federal and state governments. In the absence of homeowners taking care of the dunes themselves, we will do it for them."

Idea could catch on

The mayors of two other island towns, frustrated by the unwillingness of property owners to sign easements to allow the federal replenishment, said they also would consider similar measures in their municipalities.

DiAnne C. Gove, mayor of Long Beach Township, said the governing body has "toyed" with the idea of billing residents for beach work and would be very interested in the Surf City ordinance.

"Much of the sand being pushed around the beaches in Long Beach Township and Beach Haven is on private property," said Beach Haven Mayor Deborah C. Whitcraft. "If the oceanfront homeowners don't want to sign easements, we will make them responsible for the repairs."

Doris Spiegel, 78, of North Beach Avenue in Beach Haven said a municipality has no business moving sand onto private property.

A town "should not push sand under a home," said Spiegel, who has owned oceanfront property on Long Beach Island for 40 years. "If the homeowner asks for the sand, that's one thing. If not, they are trespassing. I think any town would have a lot of nerve sending a homeowner a bill."

If the ordinance is adopted, Surf City would make property owners responsible for the cost of the sand, labor and engineering, Connors said.

"We will notify the property owner, give them the opportunity to fix it themselves, or we will fix it and give them a bill," he said. "The fee will be added to the assessment on the property tax if it is not paid. We will not allow an area of vulnerability to exist because some homeowner is being cantankerous. If people don't want to sign the easements, that's fine."

In Long Beach Township, officials already have trucked in sand twice to repair dunes that were washed away.

"The money will run out at some point," Gove said. "There is going to come a point where someone has to be accountable for the money."

Property owners' argument

June Logan, a Long Beach Township resident who is organizing a meeting Sunday of oceanfront property owners to fight the replenishment project, said Connors should be working to make the easement more acceptable.

"The easement is so vague, with no limits on this or future projects, that no one in their right mind would sign it," Logan said. "The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how we can change this program so it is acceptable.... Long Beach Island will be destroyed by the plan as it stands now."

William Knarre, president of the Brant Beach Homeowners Association, questioned whether municipal officials would respond to a cave-in behind a bulkhead at a bayfront home as quickly as they do when sand erodes on the oceanfront.

"If the stones in my front yard get washed away, the town isn't going to help me," he said. "If a sinkhole opens in my back yard, is the town going to fill it? I don't think so."

Whitcraft called the growing divide on the island the tip of the iceberg.

"It can never be proven, but I believe there are oceanfront homeowners who don't want people in their back yard," she said. "If the beach gets replenished, there will be more people coming to the island... There is a sense of entitlement among some people that defies all logic, and their arrogance is unjustified. They don't want the common folk on what they think is their sand."

===
Copyright 2006 Asbury Park Press
 

Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
Below are pics from April 28th(calm seas) and the 29th (rougher seas) from one of the properties skipped by the Beach Nourishment project due to threats from the home owners. From the deck, you hardly notice a difference in elevation, but from the beach, there is a WoW! factor.

P4280004.JPG

Arp 28 2006


P4280006.JPG



P4280014.JPG



P4290006.JPG

Arpil 29th
 

Jim Tucker

Beach Fanatic
Jul 12, 2005
1,189
497
Interesting thread from back in the day when people welcomed beach nourishment - by the way the majority of people have always known it was necessary but it was blocked by beachfront owners who are worried that their "private" beaches would be stolen from them.
 

Matt J

SWGB
May 9, 2007
24,646
9,496
Interesting thread from back in the day when people welcomed beach nourishment - by the way the majority of people have always known it was necessary but it was blocked by beachfront owners who are worried that their "private" beaches would be stolen from them.

There are also customary use proponents that feel nourishment is a waste of time.
 

sunspotbaby

SoWal Insider
Mar 31, 2006
5,010
739
Santa Rosa Beach
This thread is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. It's 2021, beachfront homeowners are having surveys done per procedure of WCSO to enforce their private property claims to the wet sand. They're also hiring security guards to guard their beach. What a cluster this county is becoming.
 
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Jim Tucker

Beach Fanatic
Jul 12, 2005
1,189
497
This thread is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. It's 2021, beachfront homeowners are having surveys done per procedure of WCSO to enforce their private property claims to the wet sand. They're also hiring security guards to guard their beach. What a cluster this county is becoming.
welcome back 14 years you been gone? This county has issues and beach erosion is one of them. The BCC is resurrecting the issue now.
 
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