Tents Size Allowed On the Beach in South Walton

[Kaydence]

Tourist Upset About New Walton Beach Ordinance

"We are extremely upset about this. It is a hugely stupid idea. We can't afford $100-plus in fines for protecting ourselves."

www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20170618/tourists-upset-about-new-walton-beach-ordinance

Ironically of the 2 tents shown in the image only 2 people are "standing" under one.

P.S. From the article...“We don’t have to come here. There are other beaches we can go to. We have been to beaches all over Florida and we have never encountered this. People are going to stop coming here because of this.”

BUH BYE!

 

[Kaydence]

View attachment 66230
In front of Emerald Hill in Seagrove just now. 9 tents altogether. Notice the six all strung together in left hand side of picture Two rows of three tents. Hard to say for sure from my vantage point but looks like all exceed size limit. And it's not even 7:30 am yet.

And no one is under any of them from the view shown.

 

[steel1man]

And no one is under any of them from the view shown.

It's before 7:00am. YOU must arrive shortly after 6:00am to find your Squat Spot. Vendors are usually finished their Squatting by 5:50am.
Don't like the rules. Go someplace else next summer. There are thousands in life me waiting.

 

[Kaydence]

It's before 7:00am. YOU must arrive shortly after 6:00am to find your Squat Spot. Vendors are usually finished their Squatting by 5:50am.
Don't like the rules. Go someplace else next summer. There are thousands in life me waiting.

Photo said it was 7:30 but regardless, this is what those ordinances were designed to prevent.

 

[JBBeached]

I had three tents in front of my house by 7 AM this morning. The tents will be there until sunset. The group will go up for lunch and/or dinner and the tents will sit empty for parts of the day. No one else can sit there though because they've set up camp. Drives me nuts. In the event that I get to go to the beach I sit on the beach with my chair and my cooler and stay a few hours and then pack my stuff up and leave, then there is a spot for anyone coming down after I leave. If I want to go sit today, I'll have to walk a good ways to find a spot to sit. As I look out, two more tents have popped up in front of the house.

 

[gailforce]

Tents take up more space than their dimensions too. There is the size of the tent plus an extra few feet around for the ropes and stakes.

 

[NotDeadYet]

View attachment 66230
In front of Emerald Hill in Seagrove just now. 9 tents altogether. Notice the six all strung together in left hand side of picture Two rows of three tents. Hard to say for sure from my vantage point but looks like all exceed size limit. And it's not even 7:30 am yet.

The beach at Emerald Hill is privately owned. If I am reading the ordinance posted above correctly then the tents are allowed. I guess tourists need to figure out how to identify the owner of a beach, county or private??

 

[John G]

Ah, the karma of the Customary Use coming to roost. What will it be? The will of the touron or that of the chair-slinger (beach vendor)?

Now we have to deal with Tourons that violate rules (why? because they are not enforced) and now that "allegedly" a TDC Code Officer attempted to enforce, we have a touron uprising over it.

It proves things already spouted here and other sites. Walton County has a Code Enforcement PROBLEM. Rules have been on the books but the highly paid officers did nothing (at the direction of someone) and now that that they try, the push back comes and an article comes out in a local fish wrapper (news paper).

It also proves that tourons think they run this place. I can give my opine that the CURRENT tourists visiting are more than welcome to leave. I'd like to have the people that were here pre-Katriana and the TDC mass spending on advertising....

 

[Kaydence]

The beach at Emerald Hill is privately owned. If I am reading the ordinance posted above correctly then the tents are allowed. I guess tourists need to figure out how to identify the owner of a beach, county or private??

Hasn't the County established that the beaches are public to the mean high tide? Tents to the water line is not (I suspect) what they had in mind.

 

[John G]

Hasn't the County established that the beaches are public to the mean high tide? Tents to the water line is not (I suspect) what they had in mind.

"What they had in mind" is such a great statement. It summarizes everything wrong.

Exactly the point. Its a mess regardless what side anyone is on and it will not get better, only worse. Tourons use some network of communication to advise others of how to "get away" with things. This nut needs to be cracked.