Senate Bill sb2282

    Florida Senate - 2005                                  SB 2282

    By Senator Baker





    20-1516A-05

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to beach access and use;

  3         providing legislative findings and intent;

  4         requiring the Attorney General to take all

  5         steps necessary to protect and defend the

  6         public right of beach access and use;

  7         prohibiting persons from creating an

  8         obstruction that denies public access to or use

  9         of the beach; prohibiting persons from erecting

10         a sign, barrier, or other structure intending

11         to restrict public access to or use of the

12         beach; providing an effective date.

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14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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16         Section 1.  Legislative findings and intent; public

17  policy; protection of beach access.--The Legislature finds

18  that since time immemorial the public has enjoyed a right to

19  access, make recreational use of, and use for customary

20  purposes the beach, and that such use has been ancient,

21  reasonable, without interruption, and free from dispute.

22  Further, it is the intent of the Legislature to mandate that

23  the government define, protect, and enforce the public's

24  customary rights of beach access and use. It is not the intent

25  of this act to affect the title of the owner of land adjacent

26  to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, to impair the right

27  of any such owner to contest the existence of the customary

28  right of the public to access and use any particular area of

29  privately owned beach, or to reduce or limit any rights, other

30  than customary rights, of public access or use that may exist

31  or arise. It is therefore the state's public policy that the

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2005                                  SB 2282
    20-1516A-05




 1  public, subject to the provisions of this act, shall have the

 2  right to make recreational and other customary uses of the

 3  beach. The Office of the Attorney General shall be authorized

 4  to take all steps necessary to protect and defend the public

 5  right of access and use declared by this section.

 6         Section 2.  Prohibition of obstruction; right of

 7  personal access.--Except as provided for in this act, it shall

 8  be prohibited for any person to:

 9         (1)  Create, erect, or construct any structure,

10  barrier, or restraint, either vegetative or manmade, that will

11  interfere with or obstruct the right of the public to enter or

12  leave the beach by way of any approach or to lawfully use any

13  part of the beach for recreation or other customary purposes.

14         (2)  Erect any sign, barrier, or other structure with

15  the intent of falsely notifying the public that the public

16  does not have the right to access or use the beach adjacent to

17  the owner's land.

18         Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2005.

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