By DOTTY NIST
At its Nov. 12 meeting at the South Walton Annex, the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had been scheduled to take action on language for construction easements for the beach nourishment project envisioned for Walton County. However, action was put off until after the first of the year.
Upon being finalized, the easements would be sent out to beachfront property owners to be signed and returned. A signed easement would be required in order for beach nourishment project contractors to go onto a property owner’s lot to construct the project, which is billed as the Walton County Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) has completed the engineering and design for the project and has submitted a permit application for the project to the state.
Property owners are not required to sign an easement, but they will not be likely to receive any beach nourishment sand if they do not sign the easement.
At the outset of the Nov. 12 meeting, District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows suggested continuing the easement language. “I still have a lot of questions on that,” she said.
Both Meadows and District 4 Commissioner Sara Comander said they had received a lot of questions and comments from the public on the easements. Meadows suggested putting off action for 30 days or more in order to gather information and get answers to questions for which they had received conflicting answers.
In response to those remarks, Walton County Administrator Larry Jones recommended either tabling the item or continuing it to the Jan. 13 BCC meeting.
District 3 Commissioner Bill Imfeld said he had also gotten conflicting information on the project and suggested that the BCC get together with the ACOE either as a group or individually to get answers.
Comander said she would prefer a group meeting. Meadows said she would like the state to be involved also.
The commissioners approved the removal of the easements from the Nov. 12 meeting agenda.
Beachfront property owner Gary Drake asked if the meeting with the ACOE and state representatives would be open to public attendance. He was assured that it would be.
Will Dunaway, a local attorney representing beachfront property owners Ed and Delanie Goodwin, expressed appreciation to Meadows for pointing out the existence of the conflicting information. He suggested that citizens provide their questions, possibly via the Walton County Tourist Development Council’s (TDC) web site for the project, so that the questions could be posed to ACOE and the state representatives. The key is getting out information to the public, Dunaway emphasized.
Kent Safriet, an attorney representing some beachfront property owners opposing the project, spoke to the need for unbiased information. He pointed out that the TDC is a sponsor for the project.
Safriet called for all emails concerning the project to be made available to the public. He said he had asked for this information and had been told it would cost over $1,000 for his request to be fulfilled. Safriet said not making the emails public just raises more questions on behalf of the public.
The commissioners recognized that the topic of the Erosion Control Line (ECL) had generated the most comments and concern from beachfront owners. This is a line that is set as part of large-scale beach nourishment projects in Florida in the approximate area of the Mean High Water Line (MHWL). The ECL becomes the line separating upland property deeded to the MHWL from formerly-submerged state sovereignty property that is reclaimed through the addition of beach nourishment sand. Beachfront owners have been critical about the impacts of these state requirements on their property rights.
Suzanne Harris of Edgewater Beach Condominium raised the question of whether an application had been made to set the ECL on the portion of the beach where it has not yet been set. An ECL was previously set for the area from west of Topsail Hill Preserve State Park to the county line in connection with a beach nourishment project that was completed in 2007.
“You all are a great board,” Harris told the commissioners, adding that, if an application to set the ECL has been made, the public should be told so.
Meadows responded that the answer was no, this had not been applied for at this point.
Blue Mountain beachfront property owner Emmett Hildreth commented that when the county commissioners had taken their oath of office, they had pledged to protect private property rights. This puts the commissioners in a different position than the average county citizen, who may be a “liberal socialist,” Hildreth added.
Echoing earlier public comments, beachfront property owner/community leader Don Riley emphasized that the legitimacy of government depends on consent of the governed. Consensus on the beach is that the project is not a good idea, he told the commissioners. Riley argued that private property rights are more important than protection from a potential hurricane.
County Commission Chairman Bill Chapman told the citizens that they were speaking on the same issues that would be addressed at the meeting between the commissioners and the state and federal representatives, at which citizens would have the opportunity to comment.
Fort Panic Road property owner Willie Morris urged the BCC not to apply to set the ECL. He maintained that this would not be in the best interest of beachfront property owners.
Public comment was discontinued at that point.
Comander noted that the commissioners had received hundreds of emails on the topics brought up by the citizens. She requested that they not duplicate emails or resend emails that they had already sent to the commissioners.
Later in the meeting, TDC Executive Director Jim Bagby addressed the commissioners. In response to the questions about the ECL, Bagby said the process had been started to set the ECL but that the line would not be established until a resolution was approved by the BCC to do so. “We are way far away,” he commented.
Regarding the meeting with ACOE and the state that the commissioners had requested, Bagby agreed to set this up. He said the state officials would be the appropriate parties to answer most of the citizens’ questions, since the ACOE has “nothing to do” with the ECL, which is a state requirement.
Bagby said the TDC already had a public workshop scheduled for the Walton County Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Project at 6 p.m. on Dec. 2.
It was determined that the meeting with the state and federal representatives would be set up in advance of the workshop, at 4 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the South Walton Annex.
Information on the Walton County Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Project is available on the project web site www.protectwaltoncountybeaches.com.
Also removed from the Nov. 12 BCC agenda and postponed were proposed revisions to the “Leave No Trace” portion of the Walton County Waterways and Beach Activities Ordinance. The revisions are aimed at clarifying what articles are prohibited from being left on the beach at night. The revisions as proposed would clarify that the removal from the beach of not only chairs, umbrellas and similar items but also signs, posts, and chains would be required in evening hours. These are revisions recommended by county legal staff.
In addition, attorney Dunaway has proposed a revision stating that nothing in the ordinance would interfere with beachfront owners marking their property lines.
The item tabled was until further notice in order to allow staff time for more preparation for the presentation of the proposed revisions.
