An Califorinian Attack on the Texas Open Beaches Act

This fall the Texas Supreme Court will hear the case Severance versus Patterson. The case pits Los Angeles Divorce Attorney Carol Severance against Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, The Texas General Land Office and the Texas Open Beaches Act.

This case could not be filled with more irony if it tried. A Divorce Attorney named Severance wants to sever the public's right to access and use public beaches in Texas and end the 50 year old Texas Open Beaches Act.

The truth of the matter is this. Ms. Severance knowingly purchased five coastal properties acknowledging the rolling easement of the Public Beach as outlined by the Open Beaches Act and the danger of loss of property due to erosion by signing the real estate disclosure statement. There is some evidence that this may have been a set-up all along as Ms. Severance, while claiming to purchase property for investment, knowingly purchased one property that was a front row home on Bermuda Beach that had been on the Texas General Land Office's removal list since 1998.

In 2006, Severance along with 116 other property owners received a letter from the GLO notifying them that their properties, hers being on Jamaica Beach and Kennedy Drive, were within the public easement and must be removed. The GLO offered up to $40,000 for each property to help in moving or demolishing the homes. Severance refused and with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit property right law group out of California, sued Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Texas Attorney General Jim Abbot and Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk and seek to have the Texas Open Beaches Act declared unconstitutional as her Fourth Amendment rights of protection of unlawful seizure had been violated.

In 2007, District Judge Kenneth Hoyt dismissed Severance's claim declaring the Open Beaches Act constitutional and Severance had knowingly entered into her contracts knowing the risks. However, on appeal the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals kicked the case back to the Texas Supreme Court who had been curiously silent on this issue. The Fifth Circuit wants three questions answered before it makes its ruling.

1. Does Texas recognize a rolling public beach easement?
2. Is this easement derived from English and Spanish Common Law or the Open Beaches Act?
3. To What extent should an affected property owner be compensated by the state?

According to the Galveston County Daily News, In his dissenting opinion of his fellow Judges' decision to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court, Fifth Circuit Judge Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. called Severance versus Patterson a "thinly veiled Libertarian Crusade".

“The real alignment between Severance and the Pacific Legal Foundation is not discernible from the record on appeal, but the real object of these Californians’ Cervantian tilting at Texas’s Open Beaches Act (‘OBA’) is clearly not to obtain reasonable compensation for a taking of properties either actually or nominally purchased by Severance, but is to eviscerate the OBA, precisely the kind of legislation that, by its own declaration, the Foundation targets,” he wrote.

Carol Severance is a Divorce Lawyer that hold Real Estate Licenses in both Texas and California. Of all people, she knew what she was getting into and did it with her eyes wide open. The only purpose that her suit serves is to gut the Texas Open Beaches Act in the name of the Libertarian Cause of property rights. I would whole heartily understand this endeavor except for the fact that while she is claiming an illegal taking of her land by the state, she is not offering to give up the subsidies that the Texas tax payers cough up to drive her Federal Flood and Windstorm Insurance rates down to allow her to insure such a risky decision. Basically, she is claiming that the state and the public have taken the land that they in part paid to insure.

This, in my opinion, is an overt and malicious attack on the Open Beaches Act that was premeditated by someone from out of state along with an activist legal foundation that has a set agenda of attacking laws that protect the public's rights to public lands and can not be rule in favor of. To rule favorably on this case would kill the public's right to Texas beaches except for a few parks along the coast.

Mythical Creatures

Courtesy of James Davidson of Taranaki Toons; Cartoon Propaganda for the Enlightened

Surfrider South Texas' International Surfing Day Children's Clinic Goes Off! Again

Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter's 3rd Annual International Surfing Day Children's Surf Clinic was a great success again this year! Although the numbers are always hard to figure out, we did have 90 kids officially come through the clinic on Saturday, June 20th! It was little more of a workout this year as the surf was a little bigger than in the past and there being a trough to swim through but the parents and the kids were stoked as well as our volunteers. Every kid rode waves and a few were already going down the line by the end of the day!

We could not have pulled this off so smoothly inside Isla Blanca Park on a Saturday without the help of our volunteers and we thank y'all so much.

Bo Hollingsworth and all of our instructors were awesome, quickly figuring out a "short stop"system to get kids back to their instructor quickly.

A huge thanks goes out to Susan Bagley, Vicki Nixon, Rachel Franchesci and Kelley Rolf for getting the kids registered and fed which was quite possibly the hardest job of the day.

Thanks to Millie Frazier and Chrissy Dijkman for volunteering to show and document the day's events by snapping pics of all the kiddies and volunteers!

Once again, we can not thank enough the awesome local businesses who made this event totally free for the kids. Thanks to On the Beach and Island Native for providing the surf boards. Thanks goes out to Kerry Swartz for donating the blank t-shirts, Adrian at Toucan Graphics who designed the art and Brit Turkington at Si Creations who printed them. Thanks to Josh and Amy at Psychadeli, who have not officially re-opened but still made 100 lunches for the kids and volunteers! Finally, thanks to Mary K. Hancock at The SPI Convention Center who provided tents, tables and water for the event.

We would also like to thank the Headquarters Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, Surfing Magazine and Monster Energy who lined up some great national sponsors that donated some really great stuff for us to give away this year such as board shorts, flip-flops, Vans shoes, deck pads and leashes!

Thank you all!

Here is a slide show of some of the kids from Saturday taken by Chrissy Dijkman!


Find more photos like this on International Surfing Day


To check out some more great pics from Saturdays Children's Clinic you can go to Millie's Facebook page and check hers out. We will be getting more over the next few days.

You can also check out 8 year old Kendra Laguera's really cool booklet she made for ISD here.

We can't wait untill next year!

On behalf of Stuart, Leah, Mundo, Rachel, Chrissy and John,

Thanks

--
Rob Nixon
Chairman
Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter

Governor Rick Perry Fumbles HB770

Well if y'all haven't heard yet, Texas Governor Rick Perry took the easy way out and did nothing in regard to HB770. So under the Texas Constitution it is now an abominable law. Of course this does not mean that the fight is over. Land Commissioner Patterson as well as the four Surfrider chapters in Texas are still fighting the legality and constitutionality of the law.

I can't tell you how pissed off this makes me as a Texan. With my Father being one of the first FBI agent in the Rio Grande Valley, I grew up surrounded by Texas Rangers and individuals that were stand up people and were not afraid to take a stand either way. They stood up for what they believed in. This is the same for my Grandparents. These people whom I grew up around, for better or worse, shaped my ideals of what an individual should strive to be. They were brash, honest, opinionated, independent and proud of who they were. They were Texans in the mold of Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, Rip Ford and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Governor Perry showed that he is the antithesis of that folkloric figure this past weekend in my eyes by taking the neutral way out. Sign the bill or veto it but at least take a stand man!

An International Surfing Day Gift

The following series of images are from a booklet that one of our most active members made for the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter and gave it to me today for International Surfing Day! She is at every beach clean-up, every fundraiser, every meeting and every other event we have. Her name is Kendra Laguera and she is 8 years old.

Thanks Kendra!

Click on images for larger views!

Happy International Surfing Day!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL SURFING DAY!!

Today we show the kids how magical the ocean can be!

The Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter, hopes everyone has a great day! Get out and get wet!

Coastal Soltions SPI Project: Surfrider South Texas Chapter's Position

It is the position of the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter that the Town of South Padre Island not further seek the installation of the shore stabilization project that Coastal Solutions has proposed. We are very grateful and appreciative of Ms. Garrett’s efforts and willingness to include all stake holders and to meet with us on multiple occasions to address our questions and our concerns. We actually find that we have common ground on many coastal issues. However, it is our opinion that this project has more questions than answers and has the potential to cause further damage to the beaches of South Padre Island.

Simply put, any structure placed in the surf zone or within the littoral current will have an effect upon the beaches of South Padre Island. That is a given. The question is does the benefit outweigh the potential damage that may result in the placement of these structures immediately off the beach of South Padre Island?

This proposed project may indeed protect the few property owners that will be immediately within the project area, but it could have a detrimental effect on the beaches and property owners to the north. To date, there has not been any submerged breakwater or sand retention structure that has not caused some sort of acceleration in downstream erosion. If this were to occur in this case, it would adversely affect a group of property owners that are already experiencing erosion rates of between 5.5 and 10.8 feet per year. By installing this artificial structure, the Town of South Padre Island may be exposing itself to future liability to lawsuit from these property owners in the event that these structures were to be deemed the source of accelerated erosion rates. This could mean further expense in compensation of these parties and increased cost of maintaining the northern beaches through beach dredge and fill projects. There have been multiple examples of this situation playing itself out all along the eastern coastline of the United States, often with the municipality losing the case and being forced to compensate the affected parties in some way. In fact, this is one of the cornerstone arguments in the upcoming Surfside Property Owners Case in which these owners blame manmade structures and projects for the erosion that placed their homes within the public beach and in some cases in the Gulf of Mexico and are demanding what they believe is their rightful full reimbursement of their lost property. This case will soon be heard by the Texas Supreme Court.

Furthermore, the proposed geotextile tubes that will be used in the construction of this project have a poor history of holding up to large storm events that produce powerful currents and waves or lasting a long time within the harsh coastal environment. Direct UV exposure, even with UV resistant materials can also cause the quick breakdown of the fabric within the geotubes. Though these geotubes will be mostly submerged, this is not a new application in there use. To date there have been four submerged artificial reefs that have been constructed out of geotubes. All have had to have multiple tubes replaced in relatively short periods of time due to rupture from wear and tear under the water’s surface with some only lasting a matter of months. This has the potential to cause the long term maintenance costs of these structures to be far more than the town may desire to expend.

This project is essentially an experiment that the town of South Padre Island is about to partially finance. Coastal Solutions has repeatedly said that they will be doing both preliminary data collection and post project monitoring and we, of course, think that this is an outstanding idea. However, if in the wake of the post project monitoring, this project is deemed ineffective or is found to be adversely affecting the surrounding beaches, then removal must occur. This is not as simple as slicing the geotubes open and letting the sand flow out and then removing the material as is often touted. Some experts equate the process to trying to remove a wet sock buried in the wet sand. It often rips into several pieces and the proper total removal of the fabric can be labor intensive and very costly. The Surfrider Foundation is experiencing this first hand in El Segundo, California where we are in the process of removing an experimental reef that was determined to be a failure in its desired purpose of mitigating a lost surf break. The reef cost $300,000 to install and it is estimated that the final cost of the removal will be near $500,000, almost twice of that to install it. So the question as to who is responsible for the removal of the Coastal Solutions project and how much it will realistically cost, if unsuccessful, should be seriously considered before approval of the project is considered.

Finally complex arrangements of near shore structure can result in dangerous currents that could jeopardize the safety of any swimmers within that area. In fact, these altered currents are what this project relies upon to collect the desired sand. In the event of larger waves and higher winds where strong rip currents develop, the potential for swimmers’ safety being compromised can be amplified within these structures. This again, could add to the town’s exposure to future lawsuits and compensation as it was their structure that they installed.

Again, the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter does very much appreciate the effort that Ms. Garrett and Coastal Solution has shown in trying to address these concerns that we have but they still very much exist and should be very seriously considered before the town or the county, for that matter, decides to proceed any further with this shore stabilization project. The $1.3 Million projected cost does not take into account what any probable future affects may cost the town in the form of property damage, maintenance and beach user’s safety.

For these stated reasons and concerns, we respectfully urge the Board of Aldermen, the Mayor and the City Manger to not move forward with this project at this time.