Public vs Private Beach [threads merged]

[Misty]

Dropbox - Walton County Sheriff's Dept. Standard Operating Procdures for Trespassing on Gulf Front Property

 

[BlueMtnBeachVagrant]

........See, we are drilling down to the real issue. The Private Property Homes with the beaches are much closer to Public Accesses. Some homes are flanked on either side by public access both an easy walk. When tourists find the small strip in front of the access occupied, they feel entitled to move East or West and "set up camp" on Private Property.

Bingo! And that is EXACTLY why I personally feel so strongly about this. Then add in the Redfish Village factor at the BMB access and we are very concerned that we won't be able to guarantee beach access to our guests and ourselves as we have done for so very long if all this continues to head in the direction the county obviously wants it to.

.....BMB Vag: As for the Realtors, they are just as bad as lawyers. Talk out of both sides of mouth. One side will sell you a $2 million home with a Private Beach, but later that same day, over cocktails, the same agent will buddy up with friends and family and support Customary Use. Talk about an Ethical delemia...

Ethical dilemma is a very kind way of putting it. I'm still biting my tongue and it's starting to bleed.

Added:
Definition of dilemma - a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives....
Who's kidding who when it comes to money?

 

[steel1man]

Now throw in the fact of a breeched sandbar ( I assume) at BMB access and you have beach erosion leaving only about 50' of dry sand from stairs to water.
So the public has 50'+/-( vendors have the other half) from life guard stand to private beach to the west and 50'+/- from stairs to wet sand total of 2500 sq.ft. for 100's to squeeze into.. Hope the erosion is not permanent.

 

[jkmason]

You know I hate to say it, but I think we need to thank the beach vendors. They have single handedly pushed this issue to the cliff's edge. What is at stake is the tradition of customary use by generations of vacationers, millions of dollars of real estate value and millions of dollars of tourist dollars. Let the games begin....

 

[BlueMtnBeachVagrant]

You know I hate to say it, but I think we need to thank the beach vendors. They have single handedly pushed this issue to the cliff's edge. What is at stake is the tradition of customary use by generations of vacationers, millions of dollars of real estate value and millions of dollars of tourist dollars. Let the games begin....

I wish you did not mix the two situations when one of the problems could very easily be fixed by a simple vote of the BCC...banish beach businesses from our beautiful beaches, beriod. Can we at least find common ground in this regard? Maybe you already have stated a position - don't remember.

Customary use is what will have to "play" out in court - that much I agree with as in "Let the games begin...". We'll just have to wait a few years before the first significant outcome. A local victory / loss by itself won't directly affect other areas until they are tried.

And you mention, "....millions of dollars of real estate value and millions of dollars of tourist dollars." You should add, "off the backs of private beach front owners" whose private property rights are under assault by the government.

jkmason, let me be REAL CLEAR. My immediate neighbors and I have had absolutely no issue with the privacy of our part the beach until the past few years. I once said I never ran any public visitor from our beach because there was no need to. There, I said it again. There has been no customary use on our part of the beach.

Now, the no trespassing signs are up everywhere because of comments from customary use wishabees and the obvious uncontrolled growth relative to public beach access and the FACT that one's property has to be posted in order to be able to enforce no trespassing. Celia Jones is going to have a tough time with that one. She's the one that yelled the loudest about all the ugly signs but is in effect responsible for the private property owners' backlash, Allow enforcement without all the signs, and maybe (just maybe) many would go away.

The BCC mottos -
"Don't worry about it. Just go ahead and approve it. We'll worry about public beach access later."
"Vote for me! I'll tell you what you want to hear even if it costs the public taxpayers money."

Seriously (yes seriously),
The State of Florida, in my opinion, will have to be the one to do what Oregon did, if the entire beach is to be converted to public via customary use. That doesn't seem to be in the cards from everything I've read.

Now, "Let the games begin...."

 

[jkmason]

Vagrant, you make some excellent points and I have to say I have learned a lot from your posts.

 

[Danny Glidewell]

Fair and equal enforcement is going to need to be part of any solution and we need to find a better solution for the vending on the beach. I think a franchise setup with kiosks at the regional accesses that rent beach equipment to beachgoers would be far better than hundreds of unused chairs trashing up the beach. Then let the private property owners make their own arrangements with the vendors and ban vendors from neighborhood accesses.

 

[Mike Smith]

Danny - We don't need any more unnecessary buildings on or along our beaches. The beach vending problem is 4-5 months long and a kiosk is permanent. The hundreds of unused "equipment" you mentioned is a result of poor policy of allowing set-up without requiring occupancy prior to set-up. Occupancy. Given the vast number of empty set-ups and speaking with owners who rent their place, I suspect some of these set-ups could have been paid for but are not used because it is included with the rental. This has to end.

These beach chair vendors are just the beginning....soon we'll see food and drink vendors and then we'll see a ton more trash. Time to ban vending on public beaches now since it is already a big problem and it will only get worse.

Private property owners should be able to do as they please. It's their property after all, but there should be some responsibility of these owners who allow vending to ensure trash is properly disposed of.

 

[Jimmy T]

Private property owners should be able to do as they please. It's their property after all, but there should be some responsibility of these owners who allow vending to ensure trash is properly disposed of.

I agree that we should ban vending from public beaches. Get rid of it now.

Regarding vending on private beaches, the way the vending code is written, vendors are supposed to be responsible for cleaning up around their set ups when they take them down. But we all know that nobody actually enforces anything around here. The only folks I have seen the sheriff or code enforcement bother are the folks who are following the rules. It's totally bizarre...

 

[Danny Glidewell]

Mike Smith, we could make the kiosks a temporary or moveable structure. I would think the goal is to get the endless lines of unused chairs and such off the beach. To do that you must have some sort of compromise and while dispensing from Kiosks next to the parking lot might not be a perfect solution, it is a step in the right direction. The franchise fees could be used to pay for additional beach cleanup or improving beach access.