County staff from the attorney's office have been busily working to research the deeds for the properties out at Perdido Key for the last three and a half weeks since the bombshell discovery was made that many of these properties had perpetual easments embedded within their deeds guaranteeing public access in perpetuity.
It's a big story that has simmered down a bit as we dig into the minutae of historic records and ancient "land patents"
A number of news outlets have asked where we are on this research, and I am asking staff for a thorough update this morning.
But as of right now--my understanding of the issue is that the following is what we know currently.
-Thus far it appears that the 64 parcels from the state park
to Perdido Skye have the 75’ for public beach language contained within the
deeds.
-A large swath of the parcels west of the state park were
part of a 1926 land patent signed by Calvin Coolidge that did not/does not have
any language contained within it that guarantees public access in perpetuity
-Grand Caribbean does not have deeded access to sandy beach
portions of the Sandy Key property directly to their south—although there is a
public easement and a walkway from Grand Caribbean to this beach?
-The parcel that was to become Sandy Key had all public
access extinguished by a late 1970’s court ruling. (but could that action have
been void ab initio if the original grant from the Pensacola Chamber of
Commerce earlier had expressly granted public access in perpetuity?)
--The status of whether or not the county has obtained the original land transfer deeds made to the Pensacola Chamber of
Commerce sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s is not known—neither is it known whether or not these deeds contain language guaranteeing perpetual public beach access easements
--The status of public beach access easements contained on
the deeds for the balance of the parcels between Perdido Key and Johnson’s
Beach (less Sandy Key and Grand Caribbean) remains unknown
-I do not know when we expect the abstracts for the
balance of those parcels between Perdido Skye and Johnson’s Beach which
hopefully we (county) have already requested.
Finally—I have asked county staff to have this information on what is/isn't known about the public access of these parcels to be graphically represented on
one map of that strip of properties (i.e. with the parcels that have 75’ of
access one color, our existing public access points identified with another
color, parcels for which we’ve “ruled-out” the existence of public access
language in red, and unknown parcels indicated with another color.)
I'm waiting on staff's response to this status request and map request--and I'll publish their responses here when I get them...
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15 comments:
Will you also have staff map out and collect documents in which federal money was obtained and sand placed on the shore at Perdido? It was post Hurricane Ivan.
Do you have that document in hand? I know it was sent to you. It can be found on the internet. Look it up and read it if you will.
If not can you have staff explain how the county gets money from the federal government and places it on private property?
Why would the federal government grant money to private land owners to put sand in their yard?
And why would the state of Florida have all those documents preparing to grant funds to protect that federal investment that was a stop gap measure?
The original sand was trucked in from a borrow pit but the follow up was to be dredged from the water and placed between the emergency berms and the shore.
The Pensacola Inlet Management Plan is smoke and mirrors -- dredging said sand from the waters but placing it shy of the shore but in the water hoping wave action completes the job and is an attempt to circumvent the law.
This hold the key to public access.
Put the pieces of the puzzle together and #openthebeach.
Even more, why would building permits have even been issued on a critically eroded beach even now.
Will you check with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as to the status of the beach in this area?
I found it still is designated as critically eroded yet Underhill would pass on propaganda that it was not. I knew he was a liar long ago.
Thanks for doing the deep dive on the deeds.
It seems the law is if sand is/has been added with public money it would render the wording of the deeds moot.
Again to me the most simple thing would be for staff to contact the FDEP with documents in hand the county already has and finish the job of dredging sand from the water and removing the status of critically eroded beach and prepare for the next big hurrican.
It should have been completed years ago with vegetation well established going on 20 years.
Even now the road is a county road in from of a critically eroded beach. How dumb is that?
These greedy self serving people blocking public access, thwarting proper procedures for selfish designs have not only put their own property in peril but the rest of us as well in more ways than one.
I'm trying to stick issues, facts and the law:
Yet when I see that rat fink face and voice of the PKA on ECTV it makes my blood boil.
Did he respond to your email inquiry Commissioner Bergosh? Perhaps an attorney recommended he remain silent.
Smells like Fraud.
I know I am repeating myself but hope it breaks through.
I haven't seen any sand put on Perdido beaches except at Johnson Beach, public land. Money was obtained in the BP settlement to renourish these beaches and it hasn't happened.
7:22--I've been asked about that specifically multiple times by multiple people. According to staff, the dunes were replenished after Ivan and that does not count as beach renourishment per se becuase no sand was placed into the water creating "new beach" areas. That is what I have been told. Ironically, I'm told that when this occurred in the 2004-2005 timeframe--the county had to get permission to put the sand on some of these areas because the areas where the workers would be working, in some instances, was thought to be private. So nobody looked at any of the deeds at that time to see if there was deeded access--which to me is astonishing given just 3-4 years prior to that the existance of the "75 feet of easement for public beach for the public to use" clase was known and acknowledged by the PKA, the county, and the owners of what would become the Windemere condo. But nobody remembered that 2001 decision just a few short years later during Ivan.......
Can I some sand delivered to my property? Perhaps some crushed asphalt in my driveway?
Thank you in advance./s
But yes my understanding is if sand is dredged from the water and placed on the shore, it definitely then is technically state lands and is public.
Finish the job please.
It's in your hands, your call and responsibility as you know.
Thank you for your response and info.
The federal money was obtained with the full expectation that THAT investment in what was represented as public land clearly represented as a public purpose was shown in the document -- that there was a PUBlIC purpose because of the 4 public beach accesses. In Black and White.
The Florida State Statute, I'm sure you can find, clearly delineates once sand is dredged from the water and placed on the shore it belongs to the public.
How do you think Uncle Sam feels about the money he sent here? IDK. Maybe someone will ask him one day and you all will have the answer well in hand.
Thank you.
So grateful for the anonymous comments here, which raise excellent points.
10:00 AM, I'm not being coy--can you please specify which documents you're talking about? Because we did not have access to particular docs that were "locked in an office" when a half dozen of us went down to review dozens of boxes of records on that sand removal from the Innerarity Intercoastal (and other places?), and weren't able to look at financials and other documents. My understanding, if memory serves, is that Roads Inc moved that sand from at least that location to the beach--all along the beach. And staff has also told me that it didn't count as nourishment, because it didn't go into the water. Which makes absolutely no sense to me; Doug claimed he had to get special dispensation to place dredged sand from Pensacola Pass into the water, rather than placing it on a location like Sand Island.
I've never bought the story that the mile/s of "dune restoration" didn't constitute nourishment. Please share what documentation you're referring to so Commissioner Bergosh or citizens can obtain it. Our best efforts that day were headed off at the pass.
I found all of the different documents simply by a search on the internet. I'm not being cryptic really. It is my thinking if someone also simply sees how easy it is to find them and read them for themselves perhaps collectively We can reach that "Ah Ha" moment.
Google with terms like FEMA, Perdido, Escambia, Ivan, Critically Eroded Beach, Public Access, FDEP.
They are not locked in a room in a box, nor does staff need to provide them.
One can go straight to the source.
The internet.
Ivan was in 2004 so the application for funds and documentation of the public purpose was during that time period.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection does assessments and produces readily available reports and publishes them.
Happy hunting.
The FDEP permit for the subsequent restoration was approved and was #02733 40 001 JS
Why would the state issue a permit for sand on private land? I don't think they would.
6.5 miles.
A public request for the application for FEMA funds by Escambia County Melissa could probably be filled.
I suspect they know what happened and may be weighing their own liability.
In my opinion fighting the way out of this on their own is best.
No doubt, the county applied for Federal assistance and got it. About 2004 2005.
US ARMY CORPS ENGINEER says that: Beach nourishment is the adding of sediment onto or directly adjacent to an eroding beach. This "soft structural" response allows sand to shift and move with waves and currents. Dune restoration is commonly carried out during a beach nourishment project as well.
Sand Does NOT have to be placed solely on the waters edge to be classified as beach nourishment.
Beach nourishment is exactly what happened and is going on today via dumping sand on the east end of Perdido Key.
Maybe the county didn’t want to now after Hurricane Ivan. And that could be why the paper trail is hidden or purposely missing.
US ARMY CORPS ENGINEER says that:
Beach nourishment is the adding of sediment onto or directly adjacent to an eroding beach. This "soft structural" response allows sand to shift and move with waves and currents. Dune restoration is commonly carried out during a beach nourishment project as well.
If any sand was placed on the dunes and beach, wouldn’t the US ARMY CORPS ENGINEERs be involved? If so, shouldn’t they have the documents for after IVAN, oil spill, pumping sand on the east end of Perdido Key?
One more the FDEP has on file a pdf recovery dated Nov 2004.I just looked over it.
The plan was to quickly get the emergency berm via Fema, in addition quickly used dredged material from the pass and placed on the most urgent places, later identify the offshore borrow bit to finish the repairs.
Most of that was done yet twisted and thwarted by conniving minds.
We know who they are.
Instead material from the pass was dumped in the water, the permits continually ammended, then allowed to expire.
So a few greedy basturds can try to steal federal, state, county funds and also the shoreline.
Maybe they burn in hell.
Thank you so much 6:34/6:59 for what you've provided. I know, it gets so frustrating when people be like "find this for me and hand it to me on a silver platter." TRUST ME I get that (pretty much everything day). One big issue is that although there was an actual team of people working to hold off the worst of what Doug was trying to get done, and researching daily to expose all his lies and cover-ups, there was just too much of it to handle most things with the depth and attention they required.
It was like a fricking game of whack a mole...we (literally) ran around constantly just trying to keep up with the well-stocked West Side playbook that Jonathan handed to him. Just to illustrate, at one point we were trying to expose the plan for Isabella and even worse the condo with floating bridge adjacent to the National Seashore, fight him in partnership with Dan Brown on killing parking and fake termite damage (for every battle we won, we lost at least two others), expose his corrupt mouse house games, bust his money moving on the multi-use path and the wasted Mil for beach access he was trying to horde for other purposes, Beach Access 4, Beach Access 1, Pensacola Inlet Management Plan, his crooked nighttime beach access cards for cronies, the roundabout we knew was coming, his wetland games with things disappearing and appearing on the maps, all the shit he was up to with his own property on River Road (and his illegal shoreline management and dock), his jet ski school and the non profit attached, his (virtually) stolen construction equipment that landed him on no credit lists across the country, his corrupt connection with Morgan to target people who fell afoul of him (including neighbors and family members), his tax games, his non profit games, his FEMA games, all of the crap that he was up in front of the Ethics Committee for--and then, lo and behold, we found out his FIRST crooked tour through here was heavily tied to various forms of contracting fraud, including his contracting license being fraudulent to begin with (which might have created the template for some bad actors who came behind him), and him being in cahoots with the developer who ruined the drainage in Perdido Estates--who Doug then ran duck and cover for as a commissioner, not surprising, considering his bullshit company Coastal Homebuilders shared a mailing address with the defunct HOA. There was everything that happened to a homeowner on Pale Moon Drive whose husband was a housebound paraplegic (Doug forced staff to run administrative games on her, and eventually helped get her arrested), and every other debacle he had going on Innerarity--Bob O Link, Cruzat, the horrible debacle at Galvez, the shit he pulled on the park next to Hub's (pulling out sea grass, among other things), and the code that Jonathan Owens called in to harass property owners who tried to fight back.
It just went on and on; every day something new would pop up, and we'd have to set aside the emergency we thought we had to focus on for the worse emergency that they would spring up for the purpose to keep us off what they *really* didn't want us on.
(con.)
And that's not even everything--*just* on Perdido Key. In addition all the horrendous stuff that happened in Navy Point, the Lake Charlene disaster, his lies about what was going to happen with Bayou Chico, his RESTORE games and trying to get the White Island project shut down, him nearly destroying the Estuary Program...it just went on and on. And every single one of these things, and more, required *countless* hours of research, meetings, phone calls, tracking, PRRs--you name it. Why didn't we think to look at original deeds, or dig this stuff you mention from federal documents? Hell, when I was still fresh I was on the phone with the head of Mobile Secret Service on area environmental projects and wire fraud. Then just as we were getting somewhere, the whole EMS thing hit the bricks and suddenly the fight was against him teaming up with a clown Fire Chief and a corrupt Medical Director to destroy our Public Safety. All while fighting to expose ECW as the toxic disinformation site it is.
So while it might not be a great answer, for me, anyway, it's the true one: at a certain point, the machine wears you down and you start toggling "no masse" in your brain on stuff that isn't about the immediate health, and welfare of actual human life. We knew those beaches out there weren't public. But Doug led us down so many rabbit trails on so many things, at some point I know I got sick of chasing down what people holding all these secrets could have provided with a flick of the wrist. That's why the drib-drab, slow walk stalling game is continually run at the County--it works. You have to be supremely stubborn and invested to not let them shake you off, sometimes over years. I failed in that when it came to being thorough enough about beach access down in Perdido; thank goodness, Michael McCormack didn't.
Which is why I don't want the people to let go of a SINGLE legal remedy on a SINGLE parcel down there. I really hope the County Attorney's office is willing to fight for us with every possible remedy. Because it's not fair to let the monied shysters who knew how to work the system just win out on their legal manipulation without even being tested on any of it. Said it before and I'll say it again: throw it all open and let the ones who are going to so sue. Quickest way to rip off the scab.
Melissa, I deleted all of them and cleared my inbox and files. Poof.
Haven't watched a meeting since new D2.
Basically done but when I saw this. Once again I chimed in.
So I don't have them in my hand.
There are pdfs of 100s of pages, hard to link a pdf.
I did provide a link to an agenda item here this morning but maybe it went to this spam folder.
I just Googled and came up an agenda item from 2011 when Keith Wilkins was trying to get easements. This morning took 1 second.
And it did state the the FEMA berms were built. Sand from the Inlet was to be deposited in crucial places and they had a permit for the additional sand and I believe an off shore borrow pit was identified. The original sand for berms were trucked in from borrow pit, I believe the permit from FDEP was allowed to lapse and expire.
Keep It simple
K.I.S.S it. 💋
My favorite teachers were ones that set me on an exploration. Provided clues and bread crumbs.
Melissa
Thank you for your efforts.
I don't know of anyone else who could have matched them.
Step by Step.
Herculean effort.
I have a lot of trust in Commission Bergosh getting to the bottom of these particular issues going forward.
It's a great feeling.
Think I'll turn this off and go to the beach. 😃
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