Allow public access to public beaches
Can we all agree that Florida’s famous beaches are our calling card — the reason national and international visitors flock to our state? Yet now, in addition to toxic algae blooms and red tide-caused coughing fits, we have a new state law making public beach access less accessible.
Last March, Gov. Rick Scott signed a law that allows private property owners in some areas to restrict public beach access to the “wet” sand. So you can plop a beach chair down in wet sand, but good luck trying to keep your towel, book or electronic gear dry.
This new law — sponsored by Broward County’s very own Rep. Katie EdwardsWalpole of Plantation — is kicking sand in the face of tourists and locals. It prevents local governments from passing ordinances that let people keep using beaches in front of private beach homes, beaches they may have been using for years. To continue visiting such beaches, residents and tourists would have to hire an attorney, sue the landowners and get a judge to agree the public has customarily used the beach for years.
Fortunately, many counties already have common-use public access laws on the books and don’t plan to mess with them. But tourist-friendly Walton County in the Panhandle didn’t get a public-access provision approved before this “line in the sand” travesty took effect July 1.
Since signing this mean law, Gov. Scott, who’s running for the U.S. Senate against Bill Nelson, has had a change of heart. Two weeks ago, he signed an executive order blocking state agencies from enforcing it.
“Unfortunately, the legislation has now created considerable confusion and some have even interpreted it as restricting beach access,” Scott said in a news release. “I’m committed to keeping our beaches open to the public and this executive order makes this commitment clear.”
On Friday, standing before a “no trespassing” sign on a Walton County beach, Nelson urged the governor to hold a special legislative session to repeal the law. “The governor’s executive … only added to the confusion,” he said. “This law is establishing a terrible precedent for the selfish interests of a few property owners.”
Florida’s beaches have long been largely open to all, thanks to the Florida Constitution, even if sometimes finding a public path onto a beach can be a challenge.
Yet some resorts, condos and McMansion owners would just as soon you didn’t plant a towel on their vista. They would prefer a beach reserved solely for their family or paying clientele. For most of Florida, that’s not possible.
Edwards-Walpole, who chose not to run for re-election this year, introduced this terrible legislation in the House, and by the end of the session, most lawmakers went along with her. State Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, sponsored the Senate version.
The unwarranted bill states that someone’s property line can extend all the way to the mean high tide line — the point the water reaches at high tide or the sea side of the line of seaweed that washes ashore. With beach erosion, the line is a moving target.
Edwards-Walpole continues to maintain her bill is misunderstood, that she’s only trying to clarify how property-rights disputes should be resolved, not favor oceanfront landowners.
Right. Like no one now knows they can take property disputes to court.
Sadly, the law became an Internet poison dart as a video shared on YouTube and Facebook shows Walton County sheriff deputies trying to explain to a beachgoer — an attorney who videotaped the exchange — how to find where he could sit. It involves an instructional “line in the sand” that separates wet from dry sand, a line that changes with the tides.
As the polite deputies say, hey, they aren’t attorneys. But the representative of a homeowner’s association complained and they had to respond.
Edwards-Walpole this week issued the following statement: “I urge coastal counties to pass customary use ordinances using the streamlined process set forth in HB 631 that balances protection of public access and private property rights and ensures that such ordinances won’t face costly and lengthy court challenges.”
Except without her bill, the onus wouldn’t be on counties to act.
As we said in January, we don’t buy that Edwards-Walpole’s confusing bill was meant to streamline anything. It was meant to protect the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us beach lovers. And now it’s sending the world a bad message about those who can visit our beaches.
Here’s more from the representative: “It is a shame that the customary use doctrine, something so simple and straightforward, has been needlessly sensationalized to scare and confuse beachgoers and private property owners alike. HB 631 did not privatize our public beaches. The bill provided a way for local governments to pass ordinances that give the public access to private lands.”
No, again. Local governments had that right well before this law. The catch hits those counties that hadn’t passed any customary use laws before 2016. See Walton County for example A.
Even the governor notes the mess this law has created.
How about a repeal, lawmakers? The governor’s executive order is insufficient. Sure, he can suspend prosecutions, but the law still stands.
Rather than gum up the courts with new challenges, why not revert to local rules? Let’s protect our economy by protecting beach access for all.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.