Sorry for the rant: They're ****ing CLOSING DOWN the beaches in my town. The courts decided: "Well, these landowners own the land ACROSS from the beaches, so yeah... THEY OWN THE DAMNED BEACH ITSELF!!!" This means no one can go on the beach WITHOUT permission from the owner of part of the beach. Then they can only go so far before the other neighbors get ticked at you for "trespassing". My whole TOWN depends on the beaches for money. People visit my town SPECIFICALLY to see Walker's Point and spend money in the shops after going to the beaches or on a rainy day. So now my whole town can be bankrupt because some snooty idiots want to "claim" to own a private beach. And I take walks on summer days there and eat dinner on the beach sometimes after terrible days to cheer myself up and relax. My mom's WHOLE INCOME during the summer comes from tourists and weddings that are near or on the beach. Sorry for the rant, but this just basically destroyed a good chunk of my life and the town.
It was appealed to the State supreme court and they said they owned the land to private beaches... Luckily/unluckily, I just found out it was in the town over. It still BADLY hurts that town and tourism, and they're still asking for flood insurance despite it being privatized now. I heard they're going after my town still, too... I know I flipped out, but it's a big deal in my town on the beaches, it's our livelihood. Same for the town over that just made it private.
Is there actually a large area affected? I find it hard to believe they'd give up public land that easily, especially if you live in a tourist environment.
I googled this information when I found out: Apparently in the 1600's, there's a law that makes whoever owns the property across from the beaches owns a tract of land OF THE BEACH. Note: This was before beach land became a huge commodity, back then the people who owned it were people who worked on a ship. Captains lived further inland and it was considered a privilege to own land away from the beach. Basically, it's two small beaches... At least the town over that had this whole thing go down. My town has three, and every year in my town the beach owners sue the town and drag them to court to own the beach. Which is basically I would say about a mile of beach. It doesn't seem much, but on beach days, you have to be there at 9 (when the beaches open to the public and rules are enforced, it's a dog beach basically until then.) To find a parking spot, it's filled from one end of the beaches to the other with cars parked. And you can't usually find a spot to park until 4:30 PM, when the tourists leave for the day. ALL the tourists go to the beach to surf, tan and enjoy their vacation. All our hotels around beach resorts are rented out every weekend to max capacity, traffic is bumper to bumper, parking is charged up to 20 dollars a space for the day, even fishermen run tours and fishing trips for tourists due to the attraction to the water... From say: Memorial Day to Labor day. Weather pending, of course. Throw in that my town has a direct view of Walker's point from the largest beach where thousands of people come to see it, and you have a huge problem. Walker's Point is George Bush's family beach house, btw... I even see Barbara Bush walking on the beach sometimes. It's only about a mile, in my town, but that mile brings in tourists as far away as California to be there. And there's towns around that do the same thing that are on beaches and are smaller usually. Hell, our towns are built around beaches to have people come and pay for their goods because of their close proximity. We only have one major season to bring in cash and that's summer. Basically: Take away the access to the beaches... Take away the main revenue of the state. There was a massive panic a few years ago because a oil company had a pipeline burst on them in the Gulf Coast. It was heading North and basically destroyed the Florida beaches, it looked like a for sure it would hit our state and destroy ours, too... It didn't, but the state spent a fortune on protecting the beaches due to the mere thought of it. That's how important it is.
I just find it hard to believe a law from 400 years back wouldn't be overturned or reevaluated or that more recent laws supersede it. I mean Britain still has a law about 12 year boys have to train each day with a bow and arrow, legally. But the law is coid because of recent laws that ban offensive weapons and such. Seems a silly law to uphold basically.
This all sounds very horrible, and yeah, it is a very stupid law to uphold- what do they get from owning the beaches privately anyway? I really hope they see sense.
To be fair, can you imagine how great it would be to own a private beach? One of my neighbours growing up actually did, it was a lot of fun to go to the beach without a ton of people there once in a while. This does sound like a pretty ****** situation though.
There's ridiculous laws upheld all the time. It's also depending on what judge you get. If your judge owns their own beachfront property, even out of state, they will show interest towards the beach front owners and not the town. And yeah, it's just a huge bragging right. To be fair to the owners, the dogs owned by tourists and some locals on my beach are usually never controlled, cleaned up after, and run across the street onto the beach front owners property. Hence one of the reasons I think they sued the town. The dog situation in itself is ridiculous and most likely will be dragged to court soon due to the way the dogs are never controlled. But it shouldn't destroy the state because people can't stand their 90 pound attack dog named Fluffy. (Yes, people have been bitten at the beach, and there's been dog fights, not on purpose, but still, and my mom has been nearly attacked twice on her daily walks.) Hence the reason I told her to carry a stick around in self defense. And yes, I love dogs, but I also know if a dog is out to attack you and can force you to the hospital, you need to defend yourself. Anywho, back on tangent, the fact they can't have them walk on the beach, is not fair to the state. I know some towns, like York which is a few towns away has a laundry list of rules just for your dogs to set foot on the beach. Including distance from other people without their consent, what the dogs temperament should be like, how you should dispose of waste, etc... They've had no problems, but not nearly as many people due to the rules. An interesting note: The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) banned all dogs from one beach because an owned unleashed dog destroyed an endangered species nest, it was either that or face a HUGE fine that would've made the town severely broke, there were so many people who threw a fit about it, including crying, they retracted the ban.
