More Background On The Supreme Court's Beachfront Takings Case

The Eminent Domain Law Blog, published by our colleagues at Owners' Counsel of America, has summarized Stop the Beachfront Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep't of Environmental Protection, No. 08-11, the takings and due process case which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed yesterday to review. 

Beachfront property owners along Florida's Gulfcoast, have been trying to stop an effort by local and state officials to restore the beach through renourishment, a process by which sand is dredged from the ocean floor, transported through pipes and distributed along eroded beach areas, in essence adding sand to widen the beach. This proposed beach renourishment project would cover nearly seven miles of shoreline and widen the beach by approximately 210 feet in Destin, FL.

A key issue in the litigation thus far, which has moved from Circuit Court to the First District Court of Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, is that by adding sand to the waterfront and restoring the beach, the State of Florida will assume ownership of some of the beach. The property owners have argued that their littoral rights would be limited, amounting to a regulatory taking, without just compensation.

Check it out here. (I am the Hawaii member of Owners' Counsel.)

The Questions Presented are posted here, and links to other reports are here.