OUR VIEW: Beach access under fire

Gov. Rick Scott deserves the shellacking he’s getting for signing a controversial bill that could make it harder to access the beach along 60 percent of Florida’s coastline. But state lawmakers, including every House member from Volusia and Flagler counties, deserve a share of the blame. The legislation — apparently crafted to empower wealthy owners of oceanfront property to chase people off “their” stretch of sand — was reportedly written for some powerful Walton County interests who would like to claim a private beach. But the new law threw local governments across the state into panic mode, and may have created legal entanglements that will take years to resolve.

Under long-standing law and custom, Floridians own the beaches. Legally, that protection extends to the mean high-water mark, but tradition has preserved the right of beachgoers to access the “dry sand” portion of beaches between the dune line and the high-water mark. Without that customary access, residents in many parts of the state would have no place to park their coolers, towels and extra sunscreen and, in some areas, no way to reach the shoreline at all.

The bill passed this year would allow the owners of oceanfront property to put no-trespassing signs on that dry-sand area of adjacent beach. In fact, signs like that are already popping up in some areas of the state. The bill spells out only one defense: Local governments would have to sue each property owner individually and prove that a particular stretch of beach has been steadily used by the public.

Not everybody interprets the law that way. Flagler County is one of several that passed special ordinances to protect the public’s access to beaches, and county officials have worked over the years to maintain beach-access points that should make it easy to defend public access. Meanwhile, Volusia County doesn’t really have a dog in the fight; it’s one of two counties (St. Johns County being the other) that were specifically exempted from the 2018 legislation.

Last week Scott, clearly feeling the heat in his Senate campaign, signed an executive order that walks a tightrope between party loyalty and self-preservation. In it, Scott makes the ridiculous assertion that the intent of the new law was to meant expand beach access, despite all evidence to the contrary — and then, a paragraph later, orders local and state officials to ignore it.

If Scott intends to represent Florida in the Senate, he really should study the differences between executive and legislative authority. His chance to stop this bad legislation probably evaporated the minute he signed it into law.

Local voters should be asking their lawmakers — state representatives Tom Leek, Patrick Henry, Paul Renner and David Santiago — why they voted in favor of the private-beach legislation. (Local senators Dorothy Hukill and Travis Hutson voted “no.”) Volusia and Flagler residents should also join the chorus of people demanding that the law be repealed, even if local beach access is safe.

This is a statewide issue. Florida’s beaches are the original lifeblood of this state’s tourist economy, and Floridians regard beach access as their birthright. Threatening access to them was an boneheaded move, and the Legislature should undo the damage at the earliest opportunity.