Tuesday afternoon I wrote what would prove to be a bombshell post on this blog--- smashing the "myth" that most of Perdido Key Beaches were/are private--and totally off limits to the public. And I posted the proof of it. That post blew up like an exploding nuclear bomb detonation--with thousands and thosands of hits, tons of comments, and every major news outlet area-wide doing pieces on the news I broke. News that is profound and game-changing. I'm glad they all picked it up.
As I said yesterday--this is probably the biggest story that has come up in my 15 years of public service. Bigger than the School Superintendent getting a DUI, and even bigger than the Newpoint Charter School Scandal where people went to jail and multiple charter shcools statewide were closed. This one is truly huge.
So now I am digging into the HOW all of this happened--because what a travesty it was that for years and years folks tried to sheild the public from the rightful and lawful use of their public beach easement--codified in the deeds of transfer from the Federal Government! How could they get away with this?
The first thing to remember is that these beaches were not littered with ugly no-trespassing and private property signs for decades and decades after the initial US Government sales of these lots in 1957--most likely because the owners then knew and were cognizant of the 75' of public beach easement from the water north.
Thats why in the 1960s and 1970s surfers, beachgoers, fishermen and families used these beaches with no hassels.
That's why in the 1980s I used these beaches and walked up and down them fishing with my dad----again, with no hassels.
But around the year 1999, things started to change. Condo complexes were being planned and built, and a few years later after Hurricane Ivan in 2004--it all really started to change.
Then the "keep out" signs started going up, and this phenomenon gained steam after 2010 such that by 2015--- nearly every condo complex out in Perdido had multiple signs all up and down the beach, some all the way down to the water! No-Trespassing, Private Property, Keep Out. Some were even connected by ropes and chains. Keeping you out, these condos even hired off duty law enforcement to "protect" what they thought was their "private property."
It was never theirs to protect though. At least the southerly 75 feet of it wasn't.
WHAT DID COUNTY STAFF KNOW ABOUT THE PUBLIC BEACH EASEMENT(S) IN 2001?
In 1999 a plan was put through the county's Development Review process for a condominium in Perdido Key that would ultimately be known as Windemere. It was a complex plan, that required the developer to transfer dwelling unit capacity from a number of adjacent parcels in order to build a 19 story Gulf-Front condo with nearly 145 units and two levels of parking. It went back and forth and it was challenged. It went to the County attorney's office. Back and forth, between the DRC, planning, County Attorney's office and ultimately and finally the Board of Adjustment--where the development was ultimately approved and constructed after a settlement was reached between the county and the developer.
Interestingly: the fiercest objections to the Windemere in 2000 came from the then members and leaders of the Perdido Key Association and a fellow Perdido Key resident and owner named Dick Domurat. And their argument was nuanced. This group argued that the density calculation used by the DRC and County to approve the Windemere development along with the associated number of dwelling units was computed utilizing a property footprint that was "too big" ---because it included the "southerly 75' easement on the parcel that was for perpetual public beach access by the public." According to the argument put forward by Dick Domurat -- the total number of units permitted should have been no more than 13 per acre, and the overall parcel size should have been 1.9 acres once the 75' easement was backed out.
Eventually, Mr. Domurat and the PKA lost that fight, as apparently the county acknowledged the existance of the 75' easement (after Mr. Domurat provided the original deed to the county as a part of his argument) but nevertherless calculated the eventual number of approved dwelling units based on the full size of the parcel anyway--likely rationalizing that the size of the total parcel was not diminished by the presence of the 75' southerly easement. Which is interesting.
More interesting, though, is the fact that the county knew about the public easement piece, after the final appeal of the Windemere case in 2001. They did not deny the existance of the 75' easement on this parcel. They were provided a copy of it in the challenge to the BOA.
So why did they (county staff) not look to see if the other parcels had this same language? Wasn't anybody curious about that?
Why just three short years later-- after Hurrican Ivan wrecked the beaches out there-- did county employees scramble to get "easements" from what apparently they thought were private property owners at Perdido Key on the Gulf so that repairs to the berms could be conducted? Had they already forgotten what they learned in the Windemere fight about the existing public easement of 75'?
And a few years after that--why was environmental staff made to work to get individual easements from more than a dozen individual parcel owners for beach renourishing post Hurricane---if these parcels all contained the 75' public beach access easements? Why did nobody say "Hey--there was this 75' easement on one of the original deeds from the federal government in the Gulf Beach Subdivision at Windemere--let's look and see if that was a one off or if all of these parcels had the same language when they were all transferred from the Federal Government in 1957?"
Heck, another one was filed with the Clerk of Courts in 2004 with the 75' Easement Language clearly indicated.
So the clerks office had this, and the BOA knew it as did, apparently, some in the county attorney's office. The county attorney's office signed off on the eventual Windemere Settlement Agreement and Development Order--where the public beach access easement was noted within the document, prominently, on page two.
So why did everyone suddenly, collectively get selective amnesia when people started putting signs up, hiring bouncers, and kicking people off of the beach in the subsequent years that would follow?
This is an important question of many more I will be asking in the weeks and months ahead as we seek, acquire, and analyze reams of title documents in an attempt to unpack how this was perpetrated on you and me and the public, this withholding of our access to this public beach---and more importantly--how it was accelerated and perpetuated for so long.
Lots more documents requested, many more coming and many more to go through.
Stay tuned.
