Surfrider Foundation News
DECEMBER 19 2018
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Customary Use in Walton County, Florida
by
Staley Prom
On December 11, 2018, Walton County, located in the Florida panhandle, filed a
lawsuit asking the Circuit Court for the First Judicial Circuit in Walton County to affirm the public’s right to recreationally use the county’s dry sandy beaches. Specifically, the County has asked the court to declare that the public’s use of the county’s sandy beaches has been ancient, reasonable, without interruption, and free from dispute, and therefore that the public has a right to continue to use the beaches based on the
doctrine of “customary use.”
Walton County previously adopted its own Customary Use Ordinance in 2016 (which it revised in 2017), recognizing and protecting the public’s historic use of the beach. In doing so, the County recognized that recreational use of its beaches is “a treasured asset of the County which is utilized by the public at large,” and that “the dry sand areas of all of the beaches in the County are a vital economic asset to the County.” Surfrider has been supportive of public beach access along Florida’s
Emerald Coast and advocated for adoption of the ordinance. After being challenged by a beachfront property owner, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Court of Florida (in Alford v. Walton County) upheld the ordinance, concluding that
the county had home rule authority to adopt it. Subsequently, however, in March 2018, the Florida legislature adopted H.B 631, a bill preempting local customary use ordinances passed after January 1, 2016, unless adopted pursuant to a new process. Therefore, Walton County’s ordinance was taken off the books and the Alford decision was ordered vacated.
However, Walton County has remained committed to protecting beach access for its residents and visitors, and is now the first local Florida jurisdiction to begin moving through the new legislatively mandated process. On November 3, it took the first required step, by holding a noticed public hearing and adopting a formal notice of intent to affirm the existence of customary use rights on certain portions of private beachfront property. With the filing of its complaint on December 11th, the County has taken the second step, and pursuant to H.B 631, the complaint names the over 1,000 specific parcels of property upon which the County seeks to affirm the existence of recreational customary use. Those affected property owners may now intervene and become parties in the action. Read more at surfrider.org:
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Customary Use in Walton County, Florida
