They have approached me about the issue--which I agree needs a solution.
The problem: tacky, offensive signage up and down the beach (often connected by rope or chain) carving out portions of the beach there on Perdido Key that are privately owned. These are "no-trespassing" signs. I've heard, anecdotally, that children have run into the ropes and also that these tacky, connected signs potentially increase the danger to nesting turtles trying to get up the beach to lay their eggs.
It looks terrible, and tacky. It's dangerous to kids, and potentially harmful to sea turtles--those that are roped off from the dunes all the way down to the surf. According to many with whom I have spoken (and indeed from my own personal experiences at Perdido Key as a kid fishing with my dad)--this is a "newer" phenomenon that came about not too long ago.
Look--we all get it. portions of much of the beach at Perdido Key from the dunes to the mean-high tide line are private property and the owner(s) of such properties have the right to enforce no trespassing on such parcels and also to post signage notifying visitors of this.
But there is a less tacky, less obtrusive, and less onerous way to properly notice beachgoers that such parcels are "private property." They do it other places without such tacky eyesores. So we're going to be looking at best practices from around the state with respect to this issue with an eye toward a better, more aesthetically pleasing sign ordinance that doesn't litter the beaches of Perdido Key with these eyesores.
December 8th this will be discussed during public forum.
20 comments:
Fantastic...but. I wish the surfers understood that their timing of bringing this is not at all productive. Hopefully they be aware that December is the Christmas doldrums politically and typically not a time to get anything serious accomplished.
With a commissioner who actually cares about public beach use rather than pandering to the condo owners every desire in charge, though, hopefully a sign ordinance isn't too big a lift to at least get going on. We'll certainly be there in support and are grateful to them for raising it.
Public Access vs Private Ownership. Government vs Private Property Owners.
Take down the signs. I actually don't think the beach to the high tide line is private as FEMA money was used for emergency berms and the critally eroded Beach was supposed to be renourished after that to protect that stop gap restoration post Ivan 2004.
I'm glad you are addressing this.
You are the man.
Do/would you support a change to the current law to allow for Customary Use to the dune line?
Pino - complaints aren't seasonal.
No time like the present to pass an ordinance to get those signs down. Perfect time.
Yeah, even better! Formalize customary use to the dune line!!!!
Merry Christmas. 🎄
Take the Beach back from the Grinches. ⛱️
Smoke um if ya got em.
🔥
Parasol does it right. They have one sign at each end of their property stating "Private". They are neither intrusive or offensive. Sandy Key and most of the other condos are ridiculous with their signage, rope, chains, chairs, and guards.
ABSOLUTELY. Please get staff to do the research. FEMA declared disaster DR -1551- FL.
Declared Sept 16, 2004
Escambia received federal dollars spent on Perdido for disaster recovery.
Sand was placed on the critically eroded beach.
The property is NOT private.
They trucked in sand from a borrow pit and were supposed to go into the waters and complete the renoushiment from the water.
Making it renourished and public.
Plans were in place to protect this federal investment and were thwarted by locals.
Guess they thought we would forget.
Think Again.
I guess the BCC went along with it.2004 and onward.
Make it right now please.
Take down ALL the signs.
The only reason FEMA GRANTED THE FUNDS WAS BECAUSE OF THE ACCESS POINTS... ALL FOUR. Check the grant applications.
It is in the documents.
It was proven there was a public purpose to build the emergency berms.
It was not a gift to private individuals and I would call it FRAUD that the subsequent failure to continue the renourishment via FDEP was wrong.wrong.wrong.
At least formalize an ordinance for customaryq use to the dune line and remove all the signs.
Open the Beach!
Don't worry about rejection from a few special interest greedy sona beaches.
Thank you for serving the public via your oath of office and hard work.
Those sign were more Underhill abuse of power!!!! Did they just show up one day?
Why hasn't DeSantis acted on the Ethics committee recommendation.
Randy Cudd, Michael McCormick, Sean Bullington, Leslie Cole, Kevin Wade and I spent an afternoon in the County Attorney's office sifting through dozens of boxes of documents on the transport of sand from parts including all around Innerarity down to the shoreline after Ivan.
After hours of combing through docs, we said "clearly we see what happened here, but where are the financials?"
The answer: "Oh, you wanted to see financials? Gee, sorry, those are locked in admin's office."
True story.
Make no mistake, sand was dredged, scooped, shoved, and picked up every way possible and transported over to the Gulf shoreline ON TAXPAYER DOLLARS. Local historian and photographer John Hill got the photos of it while happening when the island was still under evacuation. The County covered it up with semantic games calling the sand dump "dune restoration" rather than "renourishment."
What is was the a whole hog taxpayer funded renourishment, which--Commissioner Bergosh--will be readily apparent from the financial records that you might have more success at obtaining than citizens blowing their time on a wish of government transparency in a Sunshine state.
It's all there Commissioner Bergosh, unless Underhill pressured staff to shred docs that hit the time-out on the state table of how long you have to keep them. That's just the Sunshine tables. Court is a different thing. And then there is a well-meaning commissioner being aware what Doug was bullying staff to hide. Please go get it.
One can find those docs on the internet in a few hours or minutes. Maybe not the pic of the sand piles but reports on the FDEP site are there also. Uderwho was messaging on a publication that it was no longer critically eroded when a report on DEP clearly had segments marked as critically eroded at the time. I know we have a brand new board now. Now is exactly the time to do it.
I guess someone with deep pockets could force a lawsuit and cause a huge stink or, the ones in charge now can look up the applications for the federal grants post Ivan and know the county got the federal dollars.
And sand was put down.
No more gaslighting.
When sand is pumped from the waters, it makes the beach public, and that was supposed to be done. All this dredge channel and accrete and drift was smoke and mirrors. Also that is why the road swap seemed so idiotic. I do know at the time you all voted to do it. So that is done.
But it is absolutely the time to remove all those sign and pass a customer use ordinance to the dune lines at least.
Unfortunately, in the future our beaches could well look just like the footage from Ian and this latest one in Daytona or Mexico Beach.
Because building on a coastal barrier island is folly.
You didn't hear as much about the barrier islands post Michael because Crooked Island and Shell Island have not been subject to the folly. Michael cut them apart in several places.
But for now, do the right thing.
Take down all those signs.
The accesses weren't meant to be a narrow entrance flanked by signs and people relegated to the water.
Check the FEMA application and grant.Perdido was in the process of renourishmet post Ivan with federal money.
Put it on the agenda, not just talk at public forum before you hand over the gavel.
Get staff to attach the back up.
This one should be easy.
Who hoo!!
What an easy gift you all can give the taxpayers!
So much excitement with a new board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8NcQzMQN_U
Feliz Navidad 🎶 🎵
I typed in the search engine:
"Critically Eroded Beach FDEP". And boom ..boom one doc comes up. They do an annual report.
Scroll down to Escambia and it clearly shows there are segments critically eroded and documemts there are plans to renourish it. So maybe they came up with some non sense to not pump it directly on the shore but put it in the water for wave action to deposit it there.
What a bunch of bull.I could find the other article where he was lieing, as usual but let's move on.
Sand is still dredged from the waters to be deposited on the beach which makes it ... public.
It's a PDF file. Plain as Day.
Also I just typed "FEMA grant Perdido key 2004" in the search image and 💥
There is a pdf on the FDEP site.
Extra! Extra!
Read all about it.
Dated Nov 30, 2004
Entitled "Hurricane Recovery Plan for Florida's Beaches"
Floridadep.gov
And more after that.. It's pretty clear.
The decline in the amount of accessible beach on Perdido Key has been very frustrating. We can’t continue to depend on the State Parks or the National Seashore to have adequate funding to keep up with Storm Damage. It’s been over two years since Hurricane Sally and still we wait for repairs.
Yes, Beach Access #4 is a nice addition. However, relative to the miles of beach that Fisherman, surfers and beach-goers used to have to spread out, we are at a net negative to where we were a decade ago.
I understand frustration with the occasional nuisance beach-goers adjacent to high value properties. But let’s not shut out access to those of us who respect and depend on accessible beaches. Better, let’s invest in our coast line, just like they have in Alabama. Simple things like adding garbage cans and adding beach patrols to enforce rules/codes during the busy season could make a huge difference.
After FEMA granted the funds, and then the county failed to renourish the beach further, it sure makes one wonder how anybody out there would expect more federal funds after the next hurricane hits. Those policies have put the entire county in jeopardy.
There was a plan in place when Valentino was in office for beach renourishment. It went by the way side like the State 4 lane.
You can also simply type in a search engine and find all that.
You have to wonder if the PKA who backed dd was behind all that. I would go as far as some of them aren't even full time residents nor taxpayers that pushed some of those policies.
Take down the signs and take a good look, as it is your district now please.
You are going go have your hands full if and when the next one comes in.
So what is the plan when the next Cat 4 or 5 comes knocking on the now county road that abuts a critically eroded beach that has been at that status for almost 2 decades.
A few folks walking up and down a beach won't hurt a thing.
The greed of the others does extensive damage.
Why are the public access points on Perdido Key closed at sunset?
Why are the citizens restricted from their beaches 50% of the time?
Now one is trying to state its a "fact" the beach is private because of dredging the inlet and letting nature accrete sand. Hardly.
Tax payer funds were used to dredge sand and place it for renourishment of the beach after partial restoration using federal dollars for sand on Perdido.
Call their bluff.
Remove all the signs.
It's a public beach.
Codify it in a customery use ordinance. Simple enough.
Note "Retired" *** in your face *** Commissioner Underhill is still going to sow chaos, trying to undermine the board, saying you caused development, and that Barry and May are corrupt and dim bulbs will still fawn over him, so ... So What.
He tried to shut down public accesses, stop ECAT from running, he was there when these signs went up. There is video that he wanted to close access 3.
Undo his misuse of public funds for private purpose. Simple vote. 3 will do it.
Some of those people may not support you anyway who are bitter about the redistricting.
This is your chance to make a difference and do the right thing.
#Openthebeach. It should never have been closed off to begin with.
Consult that original FEMA grant that states in black and white that Escambia County demonstrated a public purpose to receive the federal dollars by showing the 4 public Accesses on the stretch of beach.
The Pensacola Inlet Plan is designed to be a deception. It is what it is.
It is dredged sand from state waters to be placed on a critically eroded beach. That by statute makes it PUBLIC.
Merry Christmas Escambia County.
Better get this done before the push to incorporate.
Post a Comment