Jacob Ogles
Walton County residents could soon have access to beaches restored, regardless of private ownership.
The House unanimously passed a bill (SB 1622) that would repeal a 2018 law limiting public access and barring local governments from passing ordinances regarding customary use. That effectively nullified Walton County’s customary use ordinance.
Since the House took up and passed the Senate legislation with no changes, it will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.
“This issue is the No. 1 subject issue amongst my constituents,” said Rep. Shane Abbott, a DeFuniak Springs Republican. “It is so much so that when I tried to leave church on Sunday, I had three people stop me to ask me what I’d be doing about the park beaches. So with that said, this bill goes a long way to helping correct what we did in 2018.”
The Senate passed the legislation last week in the upper chamber, where it drew two dissenting votes.
Those came from Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican who sponsored the 2018 bill, and Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican. Both are former Senate Presidents.
But Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican in line to be Senate President himself, argued in the upper chamber that the 2018 measure unfairly singled out Walton County.
“While the repeal of this law will help restore balance between personal property rights and the public’s ability to enjoy our pristine shoreline, it will also help provide a better path forward to a well-intentioned law that has, unfortunately, fallen short of its intended goal,” he argued in committee.
The 2018 legislation was supported by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who lived in Walton County at the time and heavily lobbied lawmakers to protect private beaches. But Huckabee sold his Blue Mountain Beach home in 2021.
