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Court
Ruling May Change the Shape of Florida’s Coastline Two citizens groups
recently sued the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the
Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, the City of
Destin and Walton County, to halt a planned beach nourishment project in
Walton County, FL. The plaintiffs claimed the project allowed the state
to take significant property rights – specifically, the common
law riparian right to have their property boundary extend to the mean
high water line - from owners of waterfront property upland of the
project without compensation. State sovereignty over state-funded
artificial beach between the old and new mean high water line is a
mainstay of Florida’s coastal management strategy (see McGehee,
David D., "Characterization
of Coastal Erosion Management by the Gulf States," 1999). On
April 28, 2006 the First District Court of Appeals agreed with the
plaintiffs and remanded the case to the Department of Environmental
Protection. The ruling instructed the various governmental agencies that
if the project cannot be designed to avoid taking these property rights,
the “unconstitutional taking of … riparian rights”” must be made
through eminent domain proceedings. This ruling will effectively halt
beach nourishment as a state policy in Florida until either the ruling
is reversed or major revisions to DEP’s rules (and funding) are
implemented. Read the DCA
Ruling: CASE
NO 1D05-4086.pdf (link
to file) |
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David McGehee recently gave a talk entitled "Sets, Seiches, & Rips - Long Wave Effects In Shallow Water". In response to several requests, the presentation slides are now available for viewing or downloading. The presentation slides in Adobe Acrobat
format can be
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