Beach erosion meeting tonight-Thursday7pm

[ecopal]

Aquatic..: I essentially agree-- all of us 'sowallers" should show up at the up coming county commision meeting and demonstrate solidarity on this issue and stop this seawall/geotube maddness.

SJ says>>>>>" I wonder if you have ever tried to pull a leftover tent out of the sand? If this stuff washes onto the beach, we will never get it removed."<<<<
That is a great argument IN FAVOR of the effectiveness on the Seaside Layering/wrapping proposal: "never be removed " is something you could not say about any of the other options. And it is doubtful that the remnants of the Seaside intervention would wash up on someone elses beach.

I really don't want you to think I am an adament proponent of the Seaside proposal, but if beach restoration is not going to be left up to nature then I am just looking for better options than seawalls and geotubes.

I admire your idealism, but in our current politcal-economic climate I don't feel it is realistic--but I do share and support your concerns.

Where did you hear the Seaside covering was going to be one inch thick? Please elaborate.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Aquatic..: I essentially agree-- all of us 'sowallers" should show up at the up coming county commision meeting and demonstrate solidarity on this issue and stop this seawall/geotube maddness.

SJ says>>>>>" I wonder if you have ever tried to pull a leftover tent out of the sand? If this stuff washes onto the beach, we will never get it removed."<<<<
That is a great argument IN FAVOR of the effectiveness on the Seaside Layering/wrapping proposal: "never be removed " is something you could not say about any of the other options. And it is doubtful that the remnants of the Seaside intervention would wash up on someone elses beach.

I really don't want you to think I am an adament proponent of the Seaside proposal, but if beach restoration is not going to be left up to nature then I am just looking for better options than seawalls and geotubes.

I admire your idealism, but in our current politcal-economic climate I don't feel it is realistic--but I do share and support your concerns.

Where did you hear the Seaside covering was going to be one inch thick? Please elaborate.

Yes, I know my thoughts are more idealistic rather than possible giving personal ownership of expensive property along the Gulf. I, too, am trying to think of reasonable solutions for all parties, but I keep coming back to zero. I am not an engineer, but I keep my scientific wheels turning all the time.

Regarding the approx. 1" Seaside covering, it was not stated with words, but at the meeting held at the Library, Celeste Cobena asked the engineer how thick the material would be and the engineer held up his fingers and showed a distance of space of about 1" between his index finger and his thumb. He never mentioned the thickness verbally. He did say it would be done in layers, so I don't know if he was refering to total thickness of all the layers or the thickness of each layer. The meeting was way too short for me.

I think Kurt once mentioned on this board that since the gov't allowed the property owners to build directly on top of the dunes, the gov't now has responsibility to try and help those people. There is much truth in that, but I am p.o.'d that they were allowed to build there in the first place. I will keep trying to think of new ways to help both the dune and beach systems as well as the property owners. This board is about the only forum of which I know to discuss ideas of the such. Keep the ideas coming. I know there is something better than geotubes and seawalls, we just have not thought of it yet.

 

[Miss Kitty]

SJ...so exactly what responsibility lies with the beach front homeowner? Ignorance is not an excuse, is it?

 

[Smiling JOe]

SJ...so exactly what responsibility lies with the beach front homeowner? Ignorance is not an excuse, is it?

Full responsibility of the property and the surrounding property lies with the homeowners. For example, even if I don't give a crap about my property and decide to go to the edge of my yard, away from my house, and pour out a gallon or two of battery acid, I have the ability to affect the property surrounding that which I own. Also, I could be contaminating the water table which lies beneath the soil. As a property owner, I should be nurturing not only my property, but also the property surrounding me, if not directly, then indirectly. Ownership means nothing without stewardship. One the big-picture scale, we are niave to think like we often do -- I "own" this lot or that lot. The Earth was around long before man, and mankind's money is so new, that the Earth does not recognize it. The Earth needs to be the Earth sometimes. Maybe this is the case here.

 

[WLD]

Y'all are cooking.

On another thread on this board, I read about the unexpected (and apparently unbudgeted) millions of new property tax dollars flowing into the Walton Co. coffers from all the pricey new real estate. And, while some of it was budgeted for infrastructure, schools, etc. it sounds like there's a lot left over.

Why not a fund to reimburse or incent owners with eroding Gulf-edge land to vacate?

Compensation would have to be fair--given that the dunes and beaches of Walton Co. have been moving landward for 100 years and hurricanes are not a new phenonmenon. If you own Gulf-front real estate, you must assume some of the risk of loss.

A buy-back wouldn't have to be completely funded by the County. FEMA and other federal and state agencies also have reimbursement programs.

Compared to most other beach communities, SoWal is still relatively undeveloped. Would building retreat be extremely painful? No doubt about it, but certainly a lot less than in Destin or Panama City Beach. Is it worth it? Guess we need to decide.

Quoting the book I mentioned earlier, "Gulf coast residents must make a choice. In the long run, in a time of rising sea level, decreasing sand supplies, and decreasing funding, they can have beaches, or they can have shorefront buildings on beachless armored shores or shorter-lived artificial beaches. Having both buildings and beaches will be difficult and very costly. If we opt in favor of buildings, the beaches will be lost--as, ultimately, will be the buildings."

 

[Smiling JOe]

WLD, :clap_1:

 

[aquaticbiology]

Amen! :clap_1:

All the old adages - The earth dosen't recognise borders. There's no such thing as a natural fence. Ingnorance is no excuse from responsibility under the law.

or -

Give them 10 cents on the dollar under emminent domain, or even worse, make the dune-built houses illegal by law, then raze 'em and charge the owners to do it!

 

[Miss Kitty]

In order to gain more info concerning the matter of beach front property, erosion and what the heck to do about it, I would really like to hear from some of those property owners. I hope someone in that category could speak of their situation and how they are handling the stress and what they consider the prudent thing to do.

 

[aquaticbiology]

Why not a fund to reimburse or incent owners with eroding Gulf-edge land to vacate?
...
Would building retreat be extremely painful?
...

would those who built on top of the dunes continue to live in walton county? or would it become a 'regulation relaxation' war between the counties like the Hundai plant became between the states.

I think the county has a plan to appear to go along with the homeowners, meanwhile letting nature run its course and then (oops!) when they fall in anyway give 'em a bailout to build on top of some other dune and repeat the process indefinately and collect as much tax money from them as their deep pockets can hold.