Sally
Beach Fanatic
By Gabriel Tynes
The clock is ticking for more than a dozen Gulf front homeowners who encroached upon county property to install seawalls in the wake of Hurricane Dennis last year. In question is whether several Seagrove properties will have to remove the expensive protective barriers if they fail to receive the county’s approval before the end of October.
A line of homes on Montgomery Street join a few other scattered properties in perpetuating the encroachment. All the properties suffered significant erosion after Dennis’ intense storm surge, and were hastily granted permits to fortify what remained. Today, most of the properties are protected by freshly planted dunes that cover seawalls and subterranean geotubes. All of the fortifications were constructed on beach property that was deeded to the county as public swimming areas in the 1950s.
In a letter from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection dated Aug. 16, five Seagrove residents were given an ultimatum to either provide written authorization of the encroachment from the county within 60 days or face having the seawalls removed. Representatives for a total of 19 homeowners brought the issue to the Board of County Commissioners Sept. 26, but the board delayed permission until implications of the encroachment could be further studied.
County Commissioner Cindy Meadows said there was no prior example for private infrastructure on public property, and several issues needed to be addressed before the matter could be resolved.
“We are in favor of helping residents shore up their homes but this issue is a little twisted,” Meadows said. “The real question to me is how can the county sign on to these permits when they were done by private owners on public property?”
Terry Anderson, a Santa Rosa Beach engineer who is representing 14 clients in the issue, told the BCC that their permission was “imperative.”
The clock is ticking for more than a dozen Gulf front homeowners who encroached upon county property to install seawalls in the wake of Hurricane Dennis last year. In question is whether several Seagrove properties will have to remove the expensive protective barriers if they fail to receive the county’s approval before the end of October.
A line of homes on Montgomery Street join a few other scattered properties in perpetuating the encroachment. All the properties suffered significant erosion after Dennis’ intense storm surge, and were hastily granted permits to fortify what remained. Today, most of the properties are protected by freshly planted dunes that cover seawalls and subterranean geotubes. All of the fortifications were constructed on beach property that was deeded to the county as public swimming areas in the 1950s.
In a letter from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection dated Aug. 16, five Seagrove residents were given an ultimatum to either provide written authorization of the encroachment from the county within 60 days or face having the seawalls removed. Representatives for a total of 19 homeowners brought the issue to the Board of County Commissioners Sept. 26, but the board delayed permission until implications of the encroachment could be further studied.
County Commissioner Cindy Meadows said there was no prior example for private infrastructure on public property, and several issues needed to be addressed before the matter could be resolved.
“We are in favor of helping residents shore up their homes but this issue is a little twisted,” Meadows said. “The real question to me is how can the county sign on to these permits when they were done by private owners on public property?”
Terry Anderson, a Santa Rosa Beach engineer who is representing 14 clients in the issue, told the BCC that their permission was “imperative.”