Who’s Telling the Truth
To the Editor:
After reading the latest commentary by our Vice Mayor, Herb Ackin it didn’t surprise me of his desperate attempt to deceive the public into believing that we are in need of beach re-nourishment and that our homes and businesses are falling into the gulf. It’s Herb himself that has turned a deaf ear to the experts and the beach front owners who will be affected by this reckless environmental destruction of our beach. The problems with Herb’s statements are that they are not based on facts. Herb has continually stated that if we don’t renourish our beach, that we won’t get any help from the government since we are not a managed beach. He apparently doesn’t know that all our beaches and coastal properties in the state of Florida are protected under the Beach and Shore Preservation Act.
Herb stated that “An easement, as it relates to this project is temporary permission for the folks doing the project to cross your beachfront with the equipment necessary to place sand in front of your home” but the truth is that the easement requirements that were sent out and signed, were for Perpetuity, 50, 40, 20, and 10 years; Not at all temporary.
As defined by Wikipedia: “An easement is considered as a property right in itself at common law and is still treated as a type of property in most jurisdictions. As opposed to the granting of a license which only gives a holder a personal privilege to use land of another for a limited purpose, a license can be terminated much more easily than easements”. The problem in granting an easement is that they are hard to dissolve, and could become tangled into other legal maneuverings leaving the individual property owner in an unwanted legal fight with all government agencies as opposed to a license.
Herb states that “It also gives them permission to come back and add sand within the next ten years if you need it. The rights of public access to property will be essentially the same before and after the project. If people were allowed to sit in your lawn chairs before re-nourishment they still will; if they weren’t they won’t. Simple, not a bad deal right?” What Herb doesn’t know is that when these folk, AKA the U S army corps of engineers place sand in front of your house it will permanently and forever be for the use and right of the public even after these easements expire. You will still own the land and pay the taxes on it, but you will “NOT” be able to exclude the public’s use of it, build on it or use it exclusively as it was prior to granting the easement. Sounds like a bad deal to me, not to mention liability.
Herb states that “Given the state of our country and economy beach re-nourishment will be the last major infrastructure investment our island will see for many, many years. If it doesn’t happen, businesses that are hanging on by a thread will give up and move on. New ones won’t replace them. We are in real danger of losing actual homes and businesses to erosion right now.” I don’t know of any businesses failing because of the size of our current beach which has in fact been gaining in size for the past hundred years, or any homes and businesses that are falling into the gulf from erosion.
Apparently, Herb hasn’t read or seen the County’s aerial photos or read the County’s Estero Island restoration plan which shows the accretion levels from 1927 to 2004. Nor did he read or listen to the independent consultant hire by the town council for which he was part of, who stated that our beach was in fact stable and growing. Frank Schilling and I among others have pointed this out many times publicly.
The advice from the attorney we hired to review this easement was, “I would never sign that”. So my advice to any beach front home owner is to check with an attorney specializing in real estate before signing anything, and if you have already signed an easement and wish to rescind it, you still have the opportunity to get it back by sending a letter to: Mr. Steve Boutelle, Division of County lands, P.O. Box 398, Fort Myers 33902-0398, and by requesting the withdrawal, include your STRAP number, property address and signatures of all property owners.
If the FACTS showed that we needed 5-miles of beach re-nourishment I would be the first in line, but the facts don’t support it. The Federal, State and Local governments are demanding that the beach front owners sign away their rights through these easements, rather then a license which is revocable. It’s this and many other reasons that are holding up this project, not whether there’s a dune or vegetation plan. I hope common sense and not ego is the reason this council will see the light and stop this ill conceived and environmentally damaging re-nourishment project, and hope that this council will stand up for the property rights of those affected.
The council needs to focus more on the things this community really needs; like improved roads, traffic congestion, water and sewer, storm water drainage, lower taxes, reduced government, bike paths, canal dredging and island beautification. Let the business community and the free market dictate its own survival of supply and demand, and let Mother Nature dictate itself. We need councilmen that aren’t looking for a job but want to do the job, and doing a good job is protecting the rights of the individual tax paying citizen whether they personally agree or not.
Concerned FMB Resident
David Tezak