Johns but address the overreaching Walton Ordinance,” Hunter’s email said. 2, 2016.’ That would protect Volusia and St. “Since the Walton County ordinance was adopted mid-year 2016, can’t we just say ‘this section shall not apply to an ordinance adopted and effective on or before Jan. Johns counties into HB 631 would spur more Walton County lawsuits. In the email Hunter states that he and “the lawyers litigating the Walton County case” feared that incorporating Volusia and St. 9, an email was sent from attorney Gary Hunter at Hopping Green and Sams to Edwards-Walpole at the firm of Saul Ewing Arnstein and Lehr, her place of business in Fort Lauderdale. Johns ordinances were allowed to stand, seemingly simply because they were adopted before Jan. Rick Scott signed it into law, Volusia and St. While Walton County’s customary use ordinance was shredded by the bill when Gov. Johns counties - the only two Florida counties other than Walton to have established customary use ordinances - from the bill’s provisions.
11, 2018, HB 631 was amended to exclude Volusia and St. Records show that sometime between November of 2017 and Jan. Walton County is alone among 67 Florida counties facing the controversy created by HB 631. Local law enforcement, faced with a quandary over enforcement of trespassing regulations, is often summoned to mediate beach front disputes. Some have even begun testing the private owners’ assertions that they have the right to remove trespassers.Ĭonfrontations are occurring nearly daily between beachgoers and private property owners. Proponents of customary use, the theory that beaches have been public property for as long as humans have utilized them, have taken offense at the private owners' actions and are loudly disputing their claims that some portions of the beach are off-limits.
Attorneys at Hopping Green and Sams helped influence Edwards-Walpole’s decision to amend HB 631 so that only Walton County would feel its impact.Īfter July 1, when HB 631 went into effect, coastal property owners in Walton County began posting no trespassing signs and taking action to keep almost everyone, including county tourist development employees, off of the dry sand portions of beach to which they hold deeds. Katie Edwards-Walpole, D-98th, had input from a law firm that now represents Walton County beach property owners. A South Florida Democrat did much of the heavy lifting to guide HB 631 through a Florida Legislature dominated by Republicans.īut state Rep.
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