Small Town News

New rules nix most new beach driving permits

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To reduce the number of vehicles on Walton County's limited beach driving area, on Jan. 12 the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) approved an amendment to the county beach driving ordinance.

The commissioners had been weighing different options for cutting down on the number of these permits since several months earlier. Prior to the amendment becoming effective, county property owners and immediate family members residing with them were eligible to apply for new beach driving permits at a cost of $105 per year.

Mike Burke, county attorney, provided a proposed amendment to the ordinance for the commissioners' consideration at the Jan. 12 public hearing. Aside from provisions for charter boat operator beach driving permits, the proposed amendment was based on the "grandfathering" of existing permits under certain conditions. It provided for the number of permits issued each year to be reduced by the number of permits not renewed each year.

Reasons for permits "dropping off would be failure of the permit holder to apply for a renewal or the permit holder becoming ineligible due to not meeting the conditions of the amended beach driving ordinance.

According to the proposal, both county residents and nonresidents applying for a beach driving permit would be required to have had a permit for the preceding year. In other words, permit renewals would be possible but not new applications. Also, new requirements for beach driving permit holders would be added, including being current on one's property taxes and having a habitable residence in place on one's property. In addition, a cap of one vehicle permit and one boat trailer permit per piece of property was part of the proposal.

Under the proposal, failure to renew one's beach driving permit would result in that permit being eliminated. There would be no provision for a permit to be transferred to another family member, so a permit would cease to be renewable upon the death of the permit holder.

Burke's proposed amendment set a maximum of 20 vehicle permits/boat trailer permits to be issued to licensed charter boat captains operating charter fishing businesses in the county, for business purposes. Grandfathering was not proposed for this category of permits.

A number of citizens commented on the proposal. Grayton Beach resident Lloyd Blue was generally in support of the amendment as proposed, calling beach driving in Walton County a "privilege." He favored the limit of one permit per piece of property and suggested adding a time limit for permit renewal.

Grant Blackwell, also of Grayton Beach, disagreed about the one-permit-per-property cap. "It's really going to jeopardize our way of life down here," he said of the limit, speaking on behalf of full-time residents.

Blackwell suggested a limit' of two vehicle permits per property for residents and one permit per property for nonresidents.

David Kramer suggested a 15-to-30-day time period before the enactment of the amendment to allow property owners interested in obtaining a beach driving permit to do so.

Kitty Taylor said she did not understand the reason for grandfathering permits.

"It gives us a starting place," responded District 5 Commissioner Cecilia Jones. Jones said fine-tuning of the regulations would be possible later-- but that it is necessary for the BCC to "get a handle" on the number of permits.

"We've got to start limiting the number of people driving on the beach," agreed District 4 Commissioner Sara Comander.

Burke followed up on Blue's suggestion by add-ing to the proposal a June 1-Aug. 1 "window" for renewing beach driving permits, after which renewal would not be possible.

Concerned about a large increase in permits, the commissioners opted not to go with Kramer's suggestion for a time period prior to enactment of the amendment.

"We're creating a different class of residents," Bob Hudson warned. Hudson predicted the approval of the amendment would result in no one driving on the beach except for charter boat operators.

Another resident, whose family had owned property in Walton County since the turn of the century, advocated opening up more of the beach to driving in order to reduce congestion in less than one-percent of the county's 26-mile beachfront where driving is allowed.

Burke's proposal as finalized provided for the BCC to review the current number of beach driving permits in October 2010 and look at revisions to allow additional people to get permits, if the amendment had provided sufficient reduction in the number of permits.

The amendment, along with the changes agreed on, was approved by unanimous vote.

The Walton County Tax Collector's Office is responsible for issuance of beach driving permits. On Jan. 15, Kara Stallings of the tax collector's office confirmed that the amendment was considered to be in effect as of 8:30 a.m. that day, due to it having been received at that time by the Secretary of State in Tallahassee.

Stallings said the number of beach driving permits issued from June 1 to date stood at 981 on the effective date of the ordinance.

Dotty Nist may be contacted at beachbreezenews(r) gmail.com



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© 2010 The DeFuniak Springs Herald DeFuniak Springs, Florida. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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