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Beach
Homes in the Clear
Galveston
County Daily News, September 20, 2006,
by Kelly Hawes
GALVESTON
— The Texas General Land Office has scrapped
its list of homes on the public beach.
“There
is no list,” said Sam L. Webb, the office’s
deputy commissioner of coastal resources. “We’re
not going to maintain a list.”
Webb’s
remarks came a day after Land Commissioner Jerry
Patterson issued a statement clarifying his enforcement
policy related to the Open Beaches Act.
“This
policy balances the right of public access to Texas
beaches with the interests of property owners whose
homes wind up on or near the beach due to erosion,”
Patterson said in a news release. “This policy
is a common sense approach, clear and focused.”
Webb denied
the policy represented a step back from the commissioner’s
pledge to enforce the Open Beaches Act.
“I don’t
think it’s a step back,” he said. “He’s
trying to find the best balance.”
Jerry Mohn,
president of the West Galveston Island Property
Owners Association, applauded the move.
“It’s
just really good news,” he said.
Patterson
in June had announced a plan to offer property owners
up to $40,000 apiece to move their homes off the
public beach. He said this week that the program
would focus on homes that were surrounded by water,
homes that posed a health or safety hazard and homes
that were entirely blocking the beach.
“That’s
really how it should be,” Mohn said.
Mohn said
he wasn’t against taking action when it was
necessary.
“If
they’re blocking access, the houses should
come off the beach,” he said.
Webb was in
Galveston on Tuesday to meet with a team of land
office surveyors plotting the line of mean high
tide from the end of the seawall to San Luis Pass.
Surveyors said the work might take several more
weeks.
Webb said
his office would combine the work of the surveyors
with recent aerial photos to find any homes that
appeared to be encroaching on the beach.
So far, he
said, the news appears good for beachfront property
owners.
“Although
a few houses lie across the line of vegetation,
we’re not finding houses in Galveston that
are obstructing the beach,” he said.
What that
means, he said, is that few, if any, Galveston homes
are in danger of enforcement action.
“The
number of houses will be from zero to five,”
Webb said. “Probably zero. I don’t see
any on Galveston Island today.”
In a news
release, Patterson again stressed that his office
would go to court only as a last resort.
“I want
to make it clear,” he said. “My intent
is to work with property owners to resolve such
a situation amicably where practical.”
Webb said
that approach only made sense.
“Litigation
can be lengthy, costly and risky,” he said.
“If a court were to find in favor of a homeowner,
that could potentially weaken the Open Beaches Act.”
The land office
already has found itself the defendant in one lawsuit.
Carol Severance, who spent $1.2 million last year
for three houses on the list, went to court in August
seeking to stop the land office from trying to force
any of them from the beach.
Her attorney,
J. David Breemer of the Pacific Legal Foundation,
noted that the land office was due to file a response
to that lawsuit on Friday.
“What
I think you’re seeing is a coordinated response
to draw back from the edge of the cliff, so to speak,”
he said.
Breemer said
his client would take nothing for granted.
“We’re
not ready to ditch the lawsuit just yet,”
he said.
Ellis Pickett
of the Texas Surfrider Foundation said he thought
the land office might be positioning itself for
the legislative session starting in January.
“I think
the plan is to cool things off a bit,” he
said.
It will be
easier to push through coastal legislation, he said,
if the land office is not dealing with a lot of
lawsuits from unhappy homeowners.
Pickett acknowledged
that not all of his organization’s members
were happy with Patterson’s latest position.
“We
have some people who want to string him up and others
who say, ‘Let’s see what happens,’”
he said.
Pickett is
among those calling for calm.
“I’m
still feeling optimistic that Patterson is going
to do the right thing,” he said.
He admitted
that the land office was now taking a hands-off
approach to some houses that were clearly beyond
the dune line.
“There
are some who think we should have a party under
a beach house to illustrate where the public easement
is,” Pickett said.
He’s
not among those, however.
“Those
people have more money than we do,” he said
of the beachfront property owners. “It doesn’t
do us a lot of good to make them mad.”
Jack Shubert,
whose home at one point had been included on the
state’s list, called the decision to scrap
that list a step forward.
“It
doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “I
mean, the list was so bad they really had to.”
Shubert pointed
out that his home was on the list even though it
was entirely behind the dune line. He said he would
be skeptical of any legislation that might increase
the authority of the land office in enforcing the
Open Beaches Act.
“I just
don’t believe they’re capable of making
the determination,” he said.
The land office
first assembled the list after Tropical Storm Frances
in 1998. In June, it had issued an updated version
complete with percentages.
“Trying
to maintain an ongoing list is futile,” Webb
said Tuesday.
He said the
line of vegetation could change almost overnight,
meaning that a house that was on the list one day
might not be on it the next. Instead, he said, the
office will deal with homes on a case-by-case basis.
“If
a property owner contacts us, or we have an issue
with a particular house, we’ll make a determination
on that specific property,” he said.
+++
Beach plan
Land Commissioner
Jerry Patterson announced his legislative agenda
for 2007. Patterson’s proposals would:
• Create
fines and civil penalties for those who willfully
erect structures that hinder access to the beach
• Deny
state-funded windstorm insurance coverage for structures
on the public beach, based upon criteria set by
the land commissioner
• Study
setbacks for new construction and seek additional
authority for counties
• Make
the provisions of the Open Beaches Act clear to
buyers — in plain language — on disclosures
for all coastal property transactions
Information:
www.glo.state. tx.us/coastal/beachdune/penbeaches.html
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