Letter: Beach restoration is risky business in Destin

I am a citizen of Destin and an owner at two condominiums within the area covered by the current MSBU and the west beaches restoration program.

I spoke at the Aug. 18 meeting of the Destin City Council against the MSBU during the second reading for the adoption of the ordinance supporting the Okaloosa County action.

I was interrupted by the mayor and asked to restrict my comments to only the MSBU issue and not the violation of my riparian rights by the taking of my beachfront property.

The council has taken the attitude that the state and the county are the agencies taking our land, and that the city is merely helping with the funding by pushing the MSBU. However, if there is no MSBU, there is no money and, therefore, no beach restoration for those who do not need it.

So, how could I argue against the MSBU by not bringing up the fact that, not only is it an illegal and inequitable MSBU, but it is for an illegal purpose: the imposition of a tax on owners of ALL beachfront and surrounding property, including those who do not want beach restoration and including the beaches that are not critically-eroded. They want these owners to pay for sand that will probably be inferior, which will be dumped on the southern portion of our land that happens to be currently underwater. This results in the additional beach being declared state land (i.e. public beach).

If you own beachfront property in Destin, it is very easy to determine where your approximate southern property line is (in addition to reading your legal description or survey if you have one). Go to www.co.okaloosa.fl.us, click on “WebGIS;”  the mode should already be in the “zoom in” mode, but, if not, first click on the box labeled “zoom in.”

Then put your cursor on the approximate location of your property and zoom in” by left-clicking once.  When the next screen comes up, refine your cursor location and click again. Repeat the process. If the light blue-green property lines are not displayed, click on “Layers” and check the square box next to “Parcels,” followed by “Refresh.”

You are paying for this Web site; use it.

More disturbing than the mayor not allowing me to speak to the issue of why the MSBU should be defeated, is the impending financial disaster that may happen to the city and the county.

What the council members and others are missing is the massive financial ruin the county and the city are risking if the Florida Supreme Court rules that riparian rights can be taken but only by eminent domain (as state law now states).

The county and the city will then be on the hook for a great deal of money if the beach restoration project has already gone forward. The most important riparian rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to waterfront owners, in this case, are the right to own land to the water’s edge; the right to REMAIN the owner to the water’s edge; and the right to acquire natural accretion should Mother Nature repeat it’s cycle of taking and giving along our coastline as she has done over the millennia.

The county and the city cannot fix the mistake by “giving back” property to landowners, because they have no power to convey what the state will then own.

The county and the city will either have to prove sufficient upland interest to justify and pay for a lawful taking; or, if they fail to prove sufficient upland interest, the county and city will have to pay for the unlawful taking since state law did not allow the taking to begin with.

So, either way, a “win” by the Save Our Beaches group in its court case (current case before the Florida Supreme Court against Destin and Walton County over the already-completed beach restoration to the east) could mean financial catastrophe for both entities.

And even if the Save Our Beaches group loses, that case involves only the taking of riparian rights, and not the additional issue in Destin of taking privately-owned property between the erosion control line and the 19-year mean high water line, which could cost many millions of dollars.

The County Commissioners and the City Council obviously do not understand their huge fiscal risk in moving forward on this project without knowing how many more millions of dollars it might end up costing them to pay for property and property rights taken — whether lawfully or unlawfully.

Maybe they should get a written opinion and verification of these facts and legal issues by the city attorney before proceeding further.

Roland D. Guidry is a resident of Destin.