Last Updated: 9 p.m.
A project 15 years in the works to preserve 2.6 miles of shoreline in Flagler Beach is on the verge of collapse over the opposition of just 13 property owners whose opposition to signing easements the county attorney describes as extortionist. The alternative might be a sea wall.
The lawyer representing most of the property owners, however, says the county’s tactics have been intimidating and alienating, while the city has used tactics he described as blackmail.
The project, designed to protect the homes and businesses along A1A and A1A itself by building a robust dune system with massive amounts of sand dredged offshore, had finally got a $17.5 million congressional appropriation two years ago and $8 million in state funding shortly after that, precluding Flagler County or Flagler Beach from contributing any local dollars. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was preparing to move ahead and complete the project by next year.
Flagler County government had to secure 141 easements from property owners so the Corps could dump the sand on their property. The dumping was not to remove or interfere with property rights, vistas or beach access so much as theoretically improve the properties and almost certainly prolong the properties’ viability on a segment of shore slowly being ravaged by erosion and rising seas.
The county secured all but 15 of the 141 easements. Thirteen property owners (two of them owning two parcels each) have refused to sign, 10 of them because they want money from the county, even though all other property owners did not get money and the county has no money to give out–not for a project that will in fact improve property owners’ properties, in the county’s view. The other property owners are resisting because they worry they’ll lose their view of the ocean, or their beach access.
The 10 retained the same lawyer, Clearwater’s John LeRoux, an eminent domain and property rights specialist.
“All you’re hearing is the county’s perspective and the city’s perspective, and what they want to do for a public project. These owners haven’t asked for this, and they certainly haven’t asked to be treated this way,” LeRoux said late this afternoon. (LeRoux returned a call immediately after this article initially published. He said it was his first interview with a media outlet since the beginning of the county’s campaign to get the easements. “I did not want to get into any sort of words within the press I wanted to keep our lines of communications honest and open,” he said, referring to Hadeed. He changed his mind when the matter was being aired openly, but from one side.)
“They tried to intimidate people, they showed up on doors when people were supposed to be separating,” LaRoux said, citing Hadeed, Suzanne Johnston, the county tax collector, Matt Doughney, the Flagler Beach police chief, and a fourth individual (a staffer with Johnston) who knocked on doors. “They had people standing on their doorsteps wanting to talk about easements, they weren’t wearing facemasks.” Some of the tactics were successful, LaRoux said, since they secured easements, “but with some people it had the opposite effect,” alienating the rest. “That turns off a lot of people.”
His clients, he said, have been contacted through Facebook messages, through cell phones whose numbers had not been given out, and through city notices such as the one about beach walk-overs. LaRoux said the city told the hold-outs that they could not get permits for future walkovers as the walkovers would be considered hazardous. (That claim has not been verified.)
Hadeed said there was nothing nefarious about what he termed a “walkabout.”
“I referred to it a little bit jokingly as a walkabout, but I announced that at a public meeting that we were going to do that, that there were a number of people we couldn’t reach and we were going to go door to door,” with a notary and a witness, Hadeed said. “They went strictly to make contact, Matt came along just to make sure everything went smoothly.”
The beach-rebuilding project entails dumping 330,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from a sand bar 10 miles offshore and shaped into a 10-foot dune along 2.6 miles of beach south of the Pier, between South 6th and South 28th Street. Every property owner that refuses to sign an easement creates a gap in the dune wall that plunders the viability of the project, accentuating erosion in those portions and potentially endangering the properties behind it. For that reason, “they need a 100 percent participation by owners in order to proceed with the project,” County Attorney Al Hadeed said of the Corps.
So the viability of the entire project has come down to 10 owners who would “essentially extort us into writing checks to them,” Hadeed said, and three additional owners who are resisting for other reasons.
If the project doesn’t go ahead, Hadeed said, the Florida Department of Transportation could revisit plans to build a sea wall or retaining wall along A1A, an options Flagler Beach residents have opposed because of its unsightliness and potential long-term damage to the broadness of the beach. But the transportation department is focused on one thing: preserving its road. “They own a lot more land than people realize,” Hadeed said of DOT and the east side of A1A. “We might well be seeing them go back and revisit that engineering solution and put up a retaining wall.”
The county has been seeking easements since the beginning of the year. It has already burned through a March 25 deadline previously set by the Corps, as it’s kept pleading with property owners. “We’re fighting for the life of Flagler Beach,” County Commission Chairman Dave Sullivan said in the context of a February meeting with property owners, where the county made an all-out pitch for the easements. By then 54 property owners had signed. The county then secured 72 more.
But the 13 remaining property owners have formed an invisible wall of their own.
“If we can’t get this logjam broken within the next couple of weeks, this is essentially a dead project,” County Administrator Jerry Cameron said. “The Corps is not going to move forward with gaps in it. I don’t know how we would deal with that unless these folks come to the conclusion that we are in fact improving their property considerably by this effort. And if in their own interest and the civic interest they are unwilling to cooperate with what is a very beneficial project, I think that we’re essentially dead in the water.”
The county and Flagler Beach residents have been desperate to convince the hold-outs to sign. Commissioner Hansen wanted a letter sent to each of the property owners saying, “you’ve got to decide now. There is no money. I mean, just make it formal. That’s it. This is your last chance. Either join us or the project is dead. They need to know the weigh of their decision.” But the county has already made those entreaties, and the property owners have nothing to lose by not signing–except potentially losing their properties and endangering the loss of property for those along the segment.
Hadeed has compared the situation to a bunch of property owners whose roofs are caving in, with government proposing to fix their roofs at no charge, only to be asked by the property owners: “How much will you pay me?”
Those property owners think that “if they wait to the very end, that the governments are so desperate, that we will start writing checks,” Hadeed said. “Well, a, there is no other money, because all the money that we’ve had, we put it into the dune restoration project. Every penny. If we were to start paying people, well, that’s money taken away from the ability to build and restore dunes in Flagler Beach and Flagler County. So the only thing we’re asking is permission to do the project. We’re not taking the land. We don’t want ownership. We don’t want to acquire any property interest. We’re going to go and restore the property. We’re going to create lands where there is no land. We’re going to enhance views. We’re going to enhance the access to the beach. And in doing so, we are not creating any damage to their property or to their property interests. In fact, we’re conferring value to their property and protection.”
Hadeed also spoke to the fairness of it: the 80-some property owners who have signed easements did so without expectations of money. It would not be fair to them if any payments were made to remaining property owners just because they held out longer.
The money nine of the 10 property owners LaRoux is representing would amount to about $15,000 per parcel, for the beachside parcel the county is seeking to get easements for, or what would have amounted to $135,000.
Asked how the property owners he represents consider the easement an infringement on their property rights, LaRoux referred to the current legal language of the agreement: “It is overly broad,” he said, adding, referring to Hadeed: “He even said in the subsequent project that they do without the U.S. Army he would not use this language because it’s too much in favor of the government.” From that, LaRoux is interpreting the language as a taking. “Doesn’t that in and of itself tell you there is something being taken away from you?”
Hadeed doesn’t see it that way: property owners’ parcels are being improved, not taken. And he says LaRoux’s $15,000 gambit is incomplete on two scores. First, he agrees that LaRoux pointed him in the direction of a provision in the agreement that opens the way for a payment–as long as it’s below $10,000, per Army Corps rules, a provision the county and the city were, in any case, not interested in pursuing. But then LaRoux came back with the proposal for $15,000 per parcel, not $10,000, plus $5,000 in legal fees, per parcel. “He went outside the very thing that he pointed out to me,” Hadeed said.
“When I talked to the folks it was like DOA,” Hadeed said, using the acronym for “dead on arrival.” By which he meant he’d asked both the county and city commissions whether they were interested in spending money, and both had said no. But the precise proposal of either a $10,000 or a $15,000 payment was not brought out in a public meeting at any point, including the emergency meeting the county commission held on this matter earlier this month.
“That’s a nominal interest, if we pay them we have to go back and pay everybody else,” Hadeed said late this afternoon, “and the amount he asked for wasn’t even in the rule, and he knew that.”
As LaRoux noted, the county has hardly been the only agency involved in attempts to convince the property owners to sign. Several Flagler Beach residents addressed the Flagler Beach City Commission last week–preaching to the choir, as several of them said, since the commission is all in for the project, but hoping top send out yet another message to the property owners.
“This is as long as we’ve lived here, the most, the biggest project and the most important project that we actually have control over, thanks to people in this room,” John Fisher, who lives at 16th Street and A1A, said. “And to give this up is going to give up the beach. And what we have in front of us is an incredible opportunity to save our little beach town, and to save Flagler Beach in many ways, because it will not be the same without the beach. And we have this opportunity. If anybody knows anyone who’s voiced opposition or indecision on this project, I know Mr. Hadeed has helped us, and I will, certainly go to bat too for anybody that has an open ear that would be interested in seeing what the facts are as they’ve been presented.”
The county discussed excluding the parcels from the project. But the Army Corps wouldn’t go for it. “They said that that would not be possible, that it would violate the congressional directive as to the restoration of these dunes,” Hadeed said. The 2.6 miles in question fall “within a specially designated critically eroding shoreline as determined by the Department of Environmental Protection. Which means that it has the highest likelihood of sustaining additional further catastrophic damage as opposed to any other part of the beach.” The segment parallels the entirety of the segment that Hurricane Matthew sheared off in 2016, carving into A1A like a giant-toothed coal extractor.
“What does it mean potentially if we lose the project?” Hadeed asked rhetorically. “Right off the bat we’re going to lose $25 million of funding that we have secured from federal and state sources, and we have spent a lot of time trying to assemble how we’ve reached that point, even to have the Florida Department of Transportation pay our local match requirement.”
The 2.6 mile segment is only part of a larger project the county hopes to carry out on its own on either side of the segment, building similar-sized dunes, though it doesn’t have the means to do so at the moment. If it were to secure the money, it could use the same dredging spot that the Army Corps will use. The county is to lease that borrow site. “But if we don’t have a project to dedicate it to, it’s like almost a useless gift, I hate to say it that way,” Hadeed said.
The easements were submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for review on June 30. The Corps is expected to render a decision on the project soon. The verdict is expected to be grim.
Business owners with property on the beach are as concerned as residents. who has also been active in pushing for the easements. “My message is to those who haven’t signed yet,” Scott Fox, owner of Tortugas on A1A, said, “and just knowing the consequences of what holding out is going to do and how that’s going to affect everybody in this city and this county, and surrounding counties, everybody that enjoys Flagler Beach, from insurance to quality of life to their neighbors. It’s a domino effect, and it affects more than just them. I’d also like to propose us all thinking outside the box and coming up with ways. Obviously we can’t write them a check. We all know that money is not there. But maybe the commission and the city can come up with some outside the box ways to maybe present something that may seem like a win-win to everybody, and I’ll let you collectively put your heads together on some ideas for that, but time is of the essence and I think we’re in the final hours.”
John Lulgjuraj, co-owner of Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill on A1A, is also pressing the hold-outs to sign, but he wanted a more considerate approach, describing them as “people who went through a lot of personal issues. There’s a lot of things we don’t know about in people’s personal lives, and a lot of them feel like they’re being attacked now, because a lot of public information about them has been out there.” Lulgjuraj cautioned against being combative.
LaRoux has been “I asked him if there was some other alternative, I think that was last week some time but I haven’t heard back from him.” Hadeed said all options were taken to the Army Corps, while the option of paying money was a no-go.
The county, meanwhile, lists the names and addresses of the hold-outs prominently atop the public web page the county created to inform and encourage property owners to sign–the Scarlet Letter-type tactic Lulgjuraj was alluding to, but with spreadsheet-like detail. If it is a form of social shaming, it stands in contrast to the property owners holding hostage their neighbors and the barrier island, and by extension the city’s reliance on its beach for its quality of life, its tourism economy, and of course its identity.
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Duncan says
Greed and selfishness!
The 10 holdouts should be ashamed of themselves for negatively impacting the lives of thousands in an attempt to extort cash from the taxpayers of Flagler (while already bolstering the value of their property using taxpayer funds). The remaining three perhaps will come to their senses with a little persaition by the community.
If this goes south because of the greed of these protozoans, they will be the most unwelcome people in Flagler Beach and if Karma has its way, their property will be the first parcels to washout to sea!
Fools errand says
Right! Let’s take away people’s property rights and force them to do what the popular vote is. In fact take away all liberties. Let’s go communist!
Mythoughts says
So many years have gone by with stories about the A1A description of the area’s of the road, rebuilding it with sand, bringing in rocks, engineers companies and government engineers getting involved what is the problem?
How long can these failures continue to go on without getting fixed once and for all, the story has gotten really old and I am sure for the residence and the business owners involved.
Somebody needs to take control and resolve this endless problem once and for all.
Steve says
IMO There is no once and for all. Move the road back a block or close in sections because it is all for naught. Mother Nature is going to take it back no matter what you build.
CJ says
You are correct…
The master plane was to always move that area back one road…
Do the JOB THE CORRECT WAY AS IT WAS LAID OUT MANY YEARS AGO….
Please ..
Use the money the correct way…
Greg says
I would not go any farther with the owners. Either they sign, or move on with a sea wall. Greed at its best.
Richard says
Why not use some common sense and go forward with the dune restoration project without the peoples consent who are holding out BUT skip these peoples property completely. If their property sustains damage with any future storms then they get to pay for the repairs out of their pockets in addition to any repairs sustained to surrounding areas from collateral damage. If they don’t pay then add the repairs to their next real estate tax bill. OR maybe if you state to them that if they don’t sign then the property will be taken over by immanent domain in which case they will get peanuts for the property they just lost plus they will lose any rights to the crossovers which will become available for public use. That way the public will have more access to the beaches. If you snooze you loose!
Dennis says
Agreed, if they don’t sign, the county should take the property.
Gary R says
@Richard – Try reading the article before commenting. The county discussed excluding the parcels from the project. But the Army Corps wouldn’t go for it. “They said that that would not be possible, that it would violate the congressional directive as to the restoration of these dunes,”
LDRM Flagler says
Compare it to a HOA where you have combined townhouses of 2 or more. No roofing company will give you a warranty on your roof unless all of them are replaced. Water follows the path of least resistance. So one pays anyhow, with no warranty and the other side does not leak into their house, so they won’t repair it. However, the catch is, the leak in the first house is caused by the other townhouse roof. In this case, you just hope your neighbor is a good person with a moral compass.
Letthemeatsand says
Greed always wins in the short term.
Sink or swim says
Publish the property owners names and addresses
Maybe they will change their mind before their money hungry hands get washed away by the next Hurricane
Gary R says
@Sink or swim – Didn’t read the article did you? Last paragraph says – The county, meanwhile, lists the names and addresses of the hold-outs prominently atop the public web page the county created to inform and encourage property owners to sign–the Scarlet Letter-type tactic Lulgjuraj was alluding to, but with spreadsheet-like detail. All you have to do is click the blue hyperlink that says atop the public web page. There is the list of the owners and addresses. Then at the bottom of that page you can click on – *Click here for more data on holdout properties.
Capt says
If they are not careful the State or the DOT will take it. Eminent domain. But first these agencies must provide just compensation to the property owners.
ASF says
In other words, these people are trying to extort money from the county. What would really be ironic is if any of these property owners” are part of the “Get Captains BBQ” contingent
Susan says
When those homeowners cant get to their homes because the street caved in and then their houses fall into the sea they may see how ignorant they are.
Lance Carroll says
Actually, all the properties are accessible by the alleyway at west side of said properties, just as most of the garages are on on west side of A1A/beachfront homes. I am simply clarifying the reality. Respectfully submitted,
Lance Carroll
Concerned Citizen says
I’m not surprised Flagler Beach would use strong arm tactics. Anything to get their way.
Wouldn’t expect anything less from a City with an Ass for a City Manager. And a comissioner who runs over people after a few drinks at a bar. And runs his own code enforcement. And then theere’s the comissioner who beat his girlfriend. And got off the charges after running her out of town. Then leaning on her to drop charges.
I hope these people continue to fight. And not let Flagler Beach intimidate them. Although you maybe asked to step outside. Or get hit by a truck crossing a crosswalk. Stick it out and keep doing what is neccessary to protect your property.
Trailer Bob says
Hey mister angry…the improvement that would be done on these holdouts properties would increase the value of those lots. This is simply (most likely new yorkers) people trying to hold the taxpayers hostage until they can profit from the project. Anyone who sees this differently is naive. Eminent domain may work, but they would still need to be compensated for the lots they own. There is no money for that.
Al says
You had a good point…. until you added the “most likely new yorkers”….. unknown and another bias which is unwarranted
Lance Carroll says
Yup. The “mostly New Yorkers” comment is indifferent and untrue.
erobot says
Dear non-New Yorker, you may not be aware that all funds come from tax-payers no matter how they were how they were gathered and which fund they now reside. Some of you may not remember an earlier attempt to out-smart the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean won that time and the $30,000,000 boulders are now in Casablanca. The ocean will be win every time because it is the most powerful force on the planet and doesn’t care about restaurant profits in Flagler Beach although that seems to be the primary item of interest on the FB commission’s agenda.
Here’s a clue: The beach is too narrow. Note: There is no comparable flooding north and south of us where the beach is wider.
Concerned Citizen says
@ Trailer Bob,
I’m not angry. More like resigned. This government will get that property without fair compensation. Because that’s how Flagler County rolls.
As far as comments towards the Commission. It’s all publicly documented behavior. And it was all protected by the “good ol boy sytem” Several Commisioners were involved in criminal cases. Both skirted charges based on their status.
Maybe you find this behavior acceptable. I do not. I expect more from our representatives. And I sure don’t expect them to catch criminal charges or commit serious crimes like a DUI. And still hold office like nothing happened.
Lance Carroll says
Has there been any recent or prolonged study that measures the dune changes along this dune area in question? I have seen the sands come and go. The dune has come and go. The dune has been replaced by man over and over all to come and go as the ocean chooses. I say leave it alone. The money may be better spent preparing Central Ave to handle the traffic as to when A1A collapses into the ocean, again. Of course the farce of the A1A rebuild is collapsing on its’ own as this issue is debated. Like sands through the hourglass…. As for the ten or so property owners on their way to killing this “DOA” project, keep doing what you are doing.
Respectfully,
Lance Carroll
Jimbo99 says
The 13 holdouts, do that section with an A1A shut down for both directions, they can have their view of the ocean, just no access to their property or beaches beyond parking the street behind them and a walk. The rest of the world cares little if they live there or are in business there. I don’t see how this is much different from the North end of Flagler county to do the work there ? From what I see of the road there, did they do this as the cart in front of the horse ? They closed & detoured that.
Lynn says
Bottom line….the property owners should be paid for the eminent domain fair price. If they secured all that money for the project fork some over….we know that photo was a publicity stunt with a county employee, the tax collector of all people with the argument it is going to make property values rise…..for what? More taxes!!! The business owners are looking at their bottom line which they stand to make more money if their buildings are not washed away. The homeowners may not benefit especially if once they had private walk overs when it comes time to sell because walking across the street is a lot more convenient than walking multiple blocks. I wouldn’t put it past the idea that some people doing the dealing are lining their pockets with kickbacks or have relatives have contracts…please don’t even respond otherwise, if you do you were born yesterday or just plain naive.
Stan says
Do whats right and move A1A to central. It wasteful to tey and fight mother nature.
Willy Boy says
Have seen this same scenario up and down both coasts in the past 50 years. The Corps of Engineers will just work right around them. Mother Nature will do what it will do. The holdouts usually benefit by not signing. Some people just don’t like being bullied or shamed. This happens with every Corps project. Most folks go along, but a few always don’t. Life goes on, and the sand returns to where forth it came.
Richard O Wells says
Just because some residences didn’t require compensation doesn’t mean the small group of others should be shamed” if they do. I think there is a compromise to be had involving a tax credit (not cash money) and / or specify an actual improvement, such as a walkover on the remaining parcels (assuming this would be considered an improvement).
PB says
I must be naive. Can someone please explain how someone control the beach. Is this owners on the West side of A1A? Sorry I just don’t understand.
Denali says
If you look at the parcel map for that area you will see dozens of small parcels on the east side of the highway. Perhaps you have noticed the walkovers with signs saying PRIVATE. Those are on the small parcels owed (usually) by the folks immediately west of the highway. They do not include the actual beach just down to the toe of the slope.
https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=598&LayerID=9801&PageTypeID=1&PageID=0
is the link to the parcel map.
Every once in a while you see these pop up for sale. There is one across from the Golden Lion that sold for $10,000 back in 2008.
CentralAvethenextA!A says
Littoral rights.
Washed Out says
Makes NO difference one way or the other. Mother Nature will take what she wants. Hurricanes are getting larger and more powerful due to climate change. The ocean levels are rising quickly. Only a matter of time before Flagler Beach gets washed over to the intra-coastal waterway . Its coming !!!
Please Save the Dunes says
I am sad to hear that the project may be DOA because of a select few.
If you have attended any of the meetings or read any of the information that has been mailed to your home, several times, you would understand that this project is beneficial to property owners like me and you, as well as, to the community.
After attending the meetings and reviewing the materials received for the past 15 years, myself as well as many of my neighbors had our personal attorneys review the paperwork and all came to the same conclusion, “it is a win, win for the property owner”. It is surprising that your attorney had a different conclusion from all these other attorneys, but maybe there is a different motivation besides what is best for you.
I urge all those that are holding out to please have consideration for your neighbors, those on AIA and on S. Central. Those that live on S. Central also have a vested interest. If AIA washes away again the traffic would be diverted again and maybe permanently. Please have consideration for all those Business’ along AIA that lost income when AIA had to be closed and repaired.
We should all be working together to ensure the preservation of our dunes.
JTL says
Maybe a suggestion… Go. back and read Pierre Tristam’s article from 2018 that is listed above in related articles:
Flagler’s Beach Renourishment is Exorbitant Futility
Why is this such a good idea now?
Jane GentileYoud says
Eminent domain is legal to create ‘easements’. Hadeed needs to go in my opinion.
LDRM Flagler says
Eminent domain (noun) “The right of a government or it’s agents to expropriate for public use, with payment of compensation.” I think one idea would be, that in moving forward with the project, if any one gets money for their riparian rights, it should be bought. The others who don’t get paid keep their land while still protecting it and A1A and giving our city many more years of our beach.
CLV says
People should not be vilified for asserting their Constitutional rights. Rather, public officials should be ashamed of themselves for participating in a campaign of public intimidation against property owners who are only seeking due process of law.
The final clause of the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution says: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The Army Corps recognizes the private property rights of the owners whose property will be impacted by the project. That is why the Corps requires easements. As to those those property owners who, for whatever reasons, chose not to give the easements voluntarily, there is a process for the government to acquire them—eminent domain. That is the Constitutional way.
The government can “take” the easements very quickly, and then argue in the courts about whether the owners are entitled to any payment. If the property owners are wrong about the monetary impact of the easements on their properties, then a court would award them no damages. If the property owners could persuade a jury that that they have lost value, then they are entitled to damages. They would receive the “just compensation” the Constitution requires.
Why the county has waited until the last minute to commence eminent domain proceedings against the “hold-out” property owners is a mystery. Perhaps that is why the county is now resorting desperately to social shaming. But this dispute should be resolved though the rule of law—not mob rule.
The more you know says
But no one is taking away anyone’s property – there is no eminent domain issue. All the county / army Corp of engineers are asking for is an easement, which is asking the property owners’ for their permission to rebuild the dunes on the property owners land. No on is taking away anything from anyone. The owners property would be improved. There is so much mis-information being circulated here.
Skeptical says
Read the contract between the county and the Core of Engineers; the county can request properties that have not signed an easement be taken by eminent domain. (On core of engineer’s website). There’s 3.1 million dollars in the budget for property acquisition and damages. My guess is that if they don’t sign, the property will be purchased through eminent domain, and then previous owners will no longer have access, or rights to a walkover on land the county will then own. Take the land, and then the county allows the easement. Easily justifiable on critically endangered lands. And, eminent domain for 15 properties at fair market value is cheaper than paying the 126 that have signed voluntarily. John LaRoux still gets his third. He is not the savior of these lot owners.
erobot says
He did go, but he came back. :-)
TimB says
I’m inspired by their holdout. I’m no longer going to wear a mask until someone pays me!
E. Hoffa says
CRAZY selfish Fools! Common Sense is missing in these ‘hold out’ property owners! Beware of the next hurricane, they will have wished that they had taken a Yoga class so they can kiss their *** Goodby!
Lance Carroll says
Actually, the dune and road was already restored across the east side of most or all properties in question. I am simply pointing out the facts of this matter. These property owners, obviously, ain’t ‘kissing ass.’
CB from PC says
The property owners have every right to deny activity by the Corps of Engineers on their property.
It is called “quiet enjoyment”.
Their insurance carriers may have a different opinion based on their refusal to participate in a so-called beneficial project.
Based on what I have seen here of storm damage over the past 20 years, any replenishment project is only good until the next hurricane.
Just another piss away of money.
Read about NC Highway 12 on the Outer Banks to see how well it works elsewhere.
erobot says
Go a lot further than that. Venice, Italy has been fighting a losing battle with the sea for a thousand years..
deb says
Let mother nature take her course and she will decide where the dunes will reside and the beach will start and end. Do nothing and watch.
Jim B. says
It’s too bad we have greedy property owners where the majority suffers for their greed. The so called attorney gives the profession a bad name. So I guess everyone else is wrong but you and your greedy clients. I don’t blame the county for giving back the money so others can benefit. Just amazing stupidity!
Pogo says
@Doomed dune$, $ea wall$, border wall$
trumpholes’ brains on trump
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/789725311/acquiring-private-land-is-slowing-trumps-border-wall
Republicans plan for offshore oil drilling – after election (You can fool some suckers ALL duh time.)
https://www.google.com/search?d&ei=gQUTX6GFCfDH_QaMgq3YAw&q=Republicans+plan+for+offshore+oil+drilling+-+after+election&oq=Republicans+plan+for+offshore+oil+drilling+-+after+election&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzoECAAQRzoHCAAQsQMQQzoCCAA6CAgAEOoCEI8BOgQIABBDOgUIABCxAzoICAAQsQMQgwE6BAgAEAM6BggAEBYQHjoFCCEQoAE6BAgAEA06BggAEA0QHjoICCEQFhAdEB46BwghEAoQoAE6BQghEKsCUKefC1jCsg5g2boOaARwAXgEgAHUAogBl1eSAQkzLjUwLjEyLjKYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6sAEK&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjhyff1_9bqAhXwY98KHQxBCzsQ4dUDCAs&uact=5
Two FB Property Owners and Taxpayers says
The State and County sand project with the goal of refurbishing the Flagler Beach shoreline is a generous gift to the A1A property owners as well as the community! Gifts from the government and ultimately tax payers are few and far between and this project is a BIG GIFT that should be welcomed and endorsed by all property owners.
The property owners who are holding out and not signing easements are misinformed or misguided.
The benefits of the sand to each property are numerous in the short term (enhance use and aesthetics of shoreline, provide a defense against further shoreline erosion, increase wildlife habitat, support and protect Highway A1A and increase property value) and the scope of the project is long term so there is a benefit to future generations.
To those property owners who have not signed the easements it’s time to DO THE RIGHT THING for yourself, your heirs and the community. Sign the easements so that the project can move forward before the funding is revoked and/or Flagler Beach is destroyed by another hurricane!
Palmcoaster says
C’mon guys if I were you I accept the deal and maybe if the county needs to change a bit the wording on the docs. Because next storm my not only take your crossover the dunes may take the whole A1A and your house on the west side of it. Think about it a solid all across back feel in those 144 easements and new dune may hold few more years..because honestly I believe mother nature and climate change is going to come hard in all water fronts and reclaim it all. With climate change you are in a very precarious situation and our taxes wont be there to bail you out after the next hurricane. Think about it. I would not risk the whole A1A in front of it and my house for maybe what 15,000 that you want for the easement just to back fill the dune? THINK please. Be aware to ask for too big of a bite to chew.
Richard says
I agree! I am just waiting for the day when I have Beach Front property while living on S Daytona Ave after the ocean has claimed everything on A1A and Central. The value of my property will skyrocket!
Move along says
Mother Nature will take care of the issue, as she always does. If the 10 holdouts don’t budge, it’s time to move on.
ITALIAN LOGIC says
I’m in the process of planning a nationwide online recruitment effort to encourage homeless encampments on the properties of the holdouts. Money will be raised for food and other necessities only available to homeless residents of those specific properties. Once the ball is rolling it is IMPOSSIBLE to stop ! THINK I’M KIDDING ?
Maureen McAvoy says
Haven’t seen anywhere that the Army Corps of Engineers is requiring the property owner to sign a document that waives any property owners’ right to sue if the project damages the owner’s property. If they want people to sign, don’t require them to sign away their legal rights to protect their own property. It’s not always about money. Would you sign away your right to sue for damages to your home or property? What if the plan fails. Remember the Everglades was almost destroyed by mistakes made by the Army Corps of Engineers. They are not infallible. They have made huge mistakes on other projects. The fact that they are requiring property owners to sign away their legal rights to just compensation in the event that they destroy the property due to their own mishandling of the project leads me to think that they are not confident that this will “fix” the problem. Some property owners have agreed to sign without the caveat about sueing for damages to their property. Get the whole story before accusing people of being greedy.