Anna Maria may be more significantly impacted by a new state law regulating how owners can limit use of their beachfront property than initially thought.
City attorney Becky Vose told commissioners April 12 that HB631, the Possession of Real Property Act, set to go into effect July 1, may threaten public beach use.
The law says beachfront property owners can declare portions of their property private on the beachfront — landward of the established mean high tide line.
An islandwide erosion control line set in 1992 with a beach renourishment project can protect much of the island’s beaches, but Vose said the specific language in the bill would make it difficult for a municipality to protect public beaches without taking proactive measures.
She said commissioners should prioritize adopting a customary-use ordinance before July 1 to provide an “affirmative defense” against potential public-private beach feuds.
She said without establishing areas for customary use, the city would have to go to the courthouse to argue with people who try to prohibit access to their property landward of the mean high tide line.
In addition, Vose said it would be imperative for the city to collect testimony from people to prove and protect historical use of the beaches.
Vose recommended the city search archives at the Anna Maria Island Historical Society to prove the city’s beaches historically have been used by the public.
Vose said by taking steps now, the city might be able to dissuade property owners who might want to assert their property line on the beach.
Murphy said a letter from Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources, reassures the ability to develop an “affirmative defense” is a compromise in the new law.
But Vose says that’s not quite accurate. She spoke to an attorney for Walton County, where an ordinance regulating beach access prompted the bill.
The attorney described the bill as cutting off all four limbs, then restoring one arm with the affirmative defense initiative, Vose told commissioners.
Two people commented at the April 12 meeting that they were harassed by a person on South Bay Boulevard who claimed his property continued from the shore into the open water.
Jayne Slade-Dashiell of Anna Maria and her friend, Karen Pacific, a regular visitor from Indiana, told commissioners the property owner called police on them early morning Feb. 13 when they attempted their usual stroll on the beach along South Bay Boulevard.
The Bay Boulevard resident told the women to return to the street in front of his house and walk around before returning to the beach.
However, no version of the law allows property owners to claim private use of submerged lands. The mean high tide line falls along the portion of the beach where, on average, the tide rises highest.
The area seaward of the mean high tide line is typically public property, including on the bayfront in Anna Maria, where a severely eroded bayfront now has a beach.
Anna Maria resident Jack Brennan volunteered April 13 to take on the task of gathering data demonstrating historic use of Anna Maria’s beaches.
Murphy tasked Vose with drafting an ordinance to establish customary use ahead of the state’s July 1 effective date for the law.