The Walton Sun

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's highest court handed Destin city leaders a long-awaited victory Monday when the justices determined that beach restoration is a duty of the state.

The seven justices ruled against six Destin-area beachfront property owners who wanted to stop the state from rebuilding their eroded beaches.

In an opinion released Monday, Florida's Supreme Court ruled the state has a constitutional duty to protect its beaches. The court says the Florida's Beach and Shore Preservation Act allows the state to add sand to beaches eroded from storms and other causes.

The act, the majority ruled, "achieves a reasonable balance between public and private interests in the shore."

The homeowners argued that the restoration unfairly limited their beach access without proper compensation, but the court ruled 5-2 against the property owners.

The court seemed to leave the door open for a new set of lawsuits that maintain that many of Destin's beaches set for restoration aren't critically eroded.

"We again emphasize that our decision in this case is strictly limited to the context of restoring critically eroded beaches under the Beach and Shore Preservation Act."

In a dissenting view, judge J. Lewis maintained that the majority decision has "butchered" state law and created a "dangerous precedent."

"Additionally, I fear that the majority's construction of the Beach and Shore Preservation Act is based upon infirm, tortured logic and a rescission from existing precedent under a hollow claim that existing law does not apply or is not relevant here," he wrote.

The justice further added that the decision has "destroyed" property rights.

"As constitutionally protected rights slide, it becomes more difficult to protect others. The rights inherent in private-property ownership are at the foundation of this nation and this State. I simply cannot join a decision which, in my view, unnecessarily eliminates private-property rights without providing "full compensation" as required by article X, section 6 of the Florida Constitution."

City leaders and property owners have been awaiting the court's verdict for more than a year.