Who Owns the Beach

Chuck Sinclair — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:12:42 +0000

Here is an interesting evelopment that could impact beachfront property owners in zip code 32963. On December 2, the United States Supreme Court will heart oral arguments in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida, a national property rights petition. The Orlando firm of GrayRobinson is representing the Coalition for Property Rights ( CPR).
The case involves property owners along 6.9 miles of beaches in Walton County and Destin in Okaloosa County. Beacause their properties border the ocean, CPR claims they have “littoral” rights which includes the right to benefit from the slow natural process of the beach widing over time. As part of the beach renourishment project, which is authorized under Florida’s “Beach and Shore Preservation Act,” the state added sand to the beach beacuse it was “critically eroded.”
Florida then declared that it owned the new stretch of beach, which changes the boundaries of the properties. If the state ownes the new stretch of beach, the homeowners’ property boundaries don’t go to the ocean as they once did – they now end on a public beach. So instead of having oceanfront property, they now have what is considered ocean view property.
This case has gained national attention because of the implications it could have on future property rights cases. It will also be the nation’s first glimpse of property rights decisions made by new Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

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Who Owns the Beach