PERDIDO--GATE! Most of Perdido Key Beaches are PUBLIC BEACHES After All! Part I

 

The Southern-most 75 feet (from the Gulf of Mexico Northward) of every lot indicated above (all of which were declared surplus and subsequently sold by the Federal Government in 1957 to various purchasers) contain a perpetual easement for a beach for public use.   So why have we been kicked off of OUR public beaches?  I am going to find out, and I am going to liberate this beach for all of us to use!

.....And huge thanks go out to citizen Michael McCormack for sending over a clue earlier this morning alluding to just this and ultimately requesting the documents from me (which I in turn requested from staff) which tipped over the first domino in this cascade of a truth bomb that evolved over the course the afternoon...

His email and subsequent public records request of me led to the entire legal staff and multiple staffers from Environmental going on a title/deed search today.

All day long.  And we got the document he requested and a whole lot more.

What staff found and what I am now going to post on this blog shows what many of us have suspected and obviously some have known for a long time:  The first 75 feet of Perdido Key Beaches (from the water going north) are Public Beaches After all! (the southerly 75' of each Gulf-side parcel from the state park all the way to the Perdido Sky Condominium and potentially the rest of the lots east of Perdido Skye as well as all the western lots too--we are still checking).  [Correction 4-14-23 to indicate the the extent of the parcels indicated in the initial 64 deeds received Tuesday--which do not include lots East of Perdido Skye]

Yes, that's right.  Although the Federal Government surplused these lots and sold them off in 1957-----each of the original deeds (Each One!) contains the following ALL IMPORTANT stipulation directly after the plot's legal description:

"The Southerly 75 feet of above described lot "XX" being subject to a perpetual easement for a beach for public use generally"

Every one of deeds has this language.  From County Property Attorney Stephen West:

"Commissioner Bergosh:

 Attached is the first of several emails transmitting the original 1957 deeds to the properties along the Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Beach Subdivision.  The deeds are in order (Lots 1 through 64), and each has the same language that the southerly 75 feet is subject to a perpetual easement for beach and public use generally.

 Please let me know if you need anything further.

 Steve"

So I am not a lawyer but I can read, and what I see shows me that a HUGE part of Perdido Key beaches were always supposed to be accessible/usable by the public---just as they were in 1983-86 when my dad and I used to fish out there and walk up and down that beach every weekend and never once were told we were on "Private Property".  And folks I have spoken with that grew up here going out to those beaches in the 1960s ad 1970s were never kicked out either.  Nope--this is a recent phenomenon, one which I am going to make a special area of focus for the time I have remaining on this board.

I am going to work, within the law, to liberate all those miles of beaches that have been apparently illegally blocked from use by the very people the U.S. Government intended to always (perpetually) have access--you and me and the citizens.  We've been blocked for many, many years.

That is going to change.  Quickly.

Read the original 1957 deeds for yourself, all of them,  Here  Here and Here