beaches

beaches
The Texas Constitution will guarantee public access to state beaches if voters back a November ballot measure that cleared the Legislature this week.
The state’s 50-year-old Open Beaches Act already contains that promise, but the measure’s supporters say that a constitutional amendment would protect it from future tampering.
“We have one of the best coastal access laws in the country,” said Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, a Laredo Democrat who proposed the amendment. “This takes it to another level. It’s more likely that these beaches will remain public forever.”
At the moment, the Open Beaches Act could be changed by simple majorities in the state Legislature, Raymond said. But a constitutional amendment cannot be altered without a two-thirds vote of both houses and the majority of voters.
The push to protect public access comes in the wake of lawsuits challenging what is public and what is private along the 367 miles of mostly wild Texas coastline.
The Open Beaches Act prohibits houses seaward of the vegetation line, which crawls steadily landward as the beaches erode.
While trophy houses, subdivisions and hotels have sprouted along the Gulf of Mexico, rising seas, sinking land and storms have led to the rapid erosion of Texas coastline. By some estimates, as much as 10 feet of beach front washes away each year.
As the sandy shore shifts over decades, a barrier island, such as Galveston, may look the same, but it will be farther landward. Houses that once stood hundreds of feet from the surf will be encroaching on the Gulf.
In some cases, the Texas General Land Office, which is responsible for the coastline, has sued to remove houses from the beach.
Jerry Patterson, the state’s land commissioner, suggested that the proposed amendment wouldn’t change anything along the coast.
“We work every day at the Texas General Land Office to ensure the public’s right to access the beach,” he said.
Property owners contend that the existing state law tramples on their rights and that a constitutional amendment would make matters worse, according to the House’s analysis of the pros and cons of the bill.
J. David Breemer, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney who is challenging the land office’s enforcement of the Open Beaches Act, said he doesn’t believe a constitutional amendment would insulate the state from lawsuits.
“The issue is how the law is used, not the intent,” Breemer said. “The easement keeps rolling over land that the public hasn’t ever walked and development has already happened.”
Still, beachgoers and environmentalists expressed enthusiasm over the proposed amendment, which cleared the state House on a 140-1 vote and the Senate on a 29-2 vote.
Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star chapter, said the environmental group would campaign in favor of the ballot measure.
“It’s a great issue to elevate people’s awareness of coastal protection,” he said.
Jim Blackburn, a Houston attorney who is an expert on the Texas coast, said the ballot measure will be an opportunity for Texans to decide “whether they want the beach to be there for them and for generations to come. It’s appropriate for the Constitution. It’s that important of an issue.”