Florida Panhandle Beach Access Dispute Pits Private Property Rights Against Public Use

Walton County's 26 miles of Gulf shoreline — flanked by the upscale towns of Seaside, WaterColor, and Alys Beach — have become the focal point of a dispute over whether the public retains the right to use beaches historically open to recreation, or whether private landowners can restrict access to sand behind their homes.

The conflict escalated roughly a decade ago when the county commission passed a customary-use ordinance asserting the public's right to beaches long used for recreation. Some politically connected homeowners, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, objected, and the Florida Legislature responded in 2018 with a law requiring the county to sue landowners individually to establish customary use. The Legislature repealed that law last year under public pressure, but Walton County had already settled with landowners, and some have since filed quiet-title claims to the dry sand behind their homes, according to NPR.

What remains, said Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson Jr., is ambiguity. Deputies responding to beach disputes said they cannot determine property boundaries on the spot and have not made a trespassing arrest on the beach in a decade, instead working to de-escalate confrontations. Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell has sued the sheriff for not enforcing trespass law, and has separately filed a civil suit against a 68-year-old woman his attorney says was sitting on his private property. Her supporters say she was seaward of the mean high-tide line, which is generally considered public land.