Late Friday Afternoon Assistant County Attorney Steve West forwarded to me two new title abstracts for two existing parcels in Perdido Key (Sundown and Grand Caribbean). Neither of these two parcels, from my initial scan and review of them, provide for any dedicated public beach access nor do they contain easements or reservations for the public's use of the beach. And this is not surprising.
Because the Sundown parcel is on the extreme west end of Perdido Key and looks as if it is firmly within the giant tract of land that was deeded to three families directly from the Federal Government in 1926 via an action by then president Calvin Coolidge. So, no new news there.
Part of the public access mystery appears to be solved in looking at the original deed for Grand Caribbean which apparently extended all the way down to the beach.
Which means at some point Sandy Key was subdivided and sold off from the original Grand Caribbean deeded property--so far as I can tell.
The Grand Caribbean parcel, while in and of itself providing no dedicated easement or reservation for perpetual beach access for/by the general public nevertheless is interesting because in it's current configuration it is "land-locked" to the north of the Gulf of Mexico bordered by the Sandy Key condominium on its south--with Sandy Key directly on the Gulf of Mexico. It appears that the original large parcel had gulf front property included. So the interesting thing that I discussed in a previous blog post was "why" Sandy Key would acquiesce to Grand Caribbean's want for a beach walkover to access the Gulf of Mexico? The Grand Caribbean HOA document contained within the abstract only contains one page and in the one page (of many I would assume) there is no mention of public beach access to the south--so I would need to see the rest of the 1996 HOA Grand Caribbean covenants to know for sure if deeded public beach access was negotiated for the northern part (Grand Caribbean) when the parcel(s) were divided up in 1996 and two separate condo complexes were made from the one larg lot? But with the information I have at hand right now--it appears somewhere there is a reservation for Grand Caribbean from Sandy Key for access. That's my assumption for now, but I'll find out for sure in the weeks and months to come.
So no, these two parcels' abstracts and what they describe (no public beach access) do NOT come as surprise to me based upon the sum totality of what we know thus far about all of the parcels out on Perdido Key. The interesting information will come upon our thorough examination of the deeds and abstracts for La Playa, Sandy Key, Beach Colony, Parasol, Land's End, Vista Del Mar, Indigo, Indigo East, Palacio, and Perdido Sun.
Once we start to receive each of these complete abstracts, which we will obtain, we will have a much clearer picture of the state of public beach access at all of Perdido Key in District 1. In fact--once we get the final ten mentioned above----I think we will have the entire puzzle put together.
More to come.
5 comments:
Calling it like I see it here, this is incorrect information. Period. Why you didn’t come meet with the tax paying citizens that you represent and obtain the documents? Steve West has many of the documents pertaining to this in his email archives but Instead you instigate theories and incite alleged improprieties. Greg Smith’s office may have some and Sandy Key will definitely have them as well. Meet with your constituents, Jeff. Gather your facts from all parties - wouldn’t that be prudent? We would expect more, but we know what this is all about….it’s election time and you could care less about Perdido Key and the people that provide over 30% of the tax base to the county. Sundown is not the extreme west end of Perdido Key. There have been many geographical mistakes in your blogs about where parcels are located on the island. We invite you to come out and learn the area that you represent.
I go out there all the time, grew up fishing up and down those beaches with my late father. Sundown is not the far westernmost condo--but it IS on the west side of the state park, near the crab trap and the south portion of the sundown condo is where our beach access #4 is currently. What else, in your opinion have I got wrong geographically? Specifics please...
Commissioner Bergosh, I'm far less worried about you being gamed with documents by condo owners trying to keep the public off the beach--whatever percentage of whom actually live on the Key these days, or would travel from far-flung parts for such a meeting-- than I am about these (by definition) incomplete abstracts.
When I heard that the County Attorney's office was hiring an outside company to put together abstracts, I did not consider that a favorable development. If Steve West is too busy to do that work himself, then the Board needs to direct Ms. Rogers to hire another real estate attorney who can scrape together some time and give her the budget to do it. I would never trust *any* abstract as far as I could throw it.
I'll be willing to accept that there are portions of the shoreline of Perdido that are indeed closed to the public apart from the MHTL (which is, of course, not defined by the wet sand) or some other marker....only with FULL documentation of a chain of title and not pages and paragraphs here and there from various sources.
The abstracts were, in my opinion, a waste of money. Mr. West or someone else in the attorney's office should be compiling those documents and providing you with EVERYTHING. If they are too busy--and I truly understand that there is a lot going on legally right now--then hire somebody else to do it. Not to formulate abstracts, but to provide ALL the documentation on every parcel that should be easily accessible from County records, for cripe's sake.
Again, anybody called Fulton County yet? Since our local luminaries can't come up with anything... (SMDH.)
I have been out of town since May 1st of this year due to a death in the family. I just came across this blog (which somebody forwarded to me). I can assure you Grand Caribbean does in fact have deeded access to the3 beach at the terminus of Sandy Key Drive. There is a utilities easement running from along the East side of Sandy Key. Said easement became a point of contention when Sandy Key tore out the Boardwalk immediately following Hurricane Ivan. As a result of that action, the Homeowners' Association of Grand Caribbean filed a lawsuit against Sandy Key and Escambia County for access to the Beach. The lawsuit was settled before going to Court based on the existing utilities easement. A sign agreement exists between the owner of the property immediately to the east of the easement, Sandy Key, Escambia County and Grand Caribbean. The agreement grants beach access to all citizens with the stipulation that Grand Caribbean ere3ct and maintain a boardwalk, maintain a liability insurance policy, and put in access gates to both Sandy Key and the property owner to the east of the easement. I know of this because< I was on Grand Caribbeans Board of Directors during this period. I may have copies of the various lawsuits including the original agreement.
Daniel Walborn--Please send me that information if it exists, I do not have it. You can email it to me at District1@myescambia.com. I will publish it the moment I receive it. I have heard various claims of this, but thus far the only documentation I have discusses only the 10 foot easement for a walkway to access the beach--but does not also give an easement for use of the sandy portions of the beach. But if you have documentation that illustrates this--I would like to see it. Thank you.
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