50 years ago, Oregon’s beach battle kept sands open to everyone

sand-steps
Photograph: © SAF – Coastal Care

Excerpts;

The Beach Bill gave Oregonians ownership of the state’s beaches, and that’s a rare distinction. Only Hawaii has similar protection, and our unlimited access to the beach has made the Oregon Coast a big tourist destination..

Read Full Article; Oregon News Live (05-10-2017)

Line drawn in the sand between beach access and protection; SF Examiner (02-15-2017)
Even on such a soggy, San Francisco day, people still enjoy city beaches. It’s incredible that 19th-century legislators had the foresight to preserve coastal areas as a public right in the California Constitution. For more than 40 years, the California Coastal Act has further protected “maximum access” to the coast “for all the people…”

Drawing a Line In The Sand In Malibu, CA, CNN (09-06-2015)
As it nears its 40th year, the California Coastal Commission is stepping up its efforts to make California’s coastline accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford to hoard the view. In theory, a person could walk along the water for the length of California, from the Oregon state line to the Mexican border, without setting foot on private property…

Here’s why private property can become the public’s beach, NC; The Outer Banks Voice (09-13-2016)
Unknown to many residents and tourists is the potentially pesky fact that property lines for most oceanfront lots extend well onto the dry sand beach…

A Judicial Affirmation of the Public’s Common Law Right to Use All of North Carolina’s Dry-sand Beaches, Legal Tides (02-10-2016)
In Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, Nov. 17, 2015, the North Carolina Court of Appeals unqualifiedly held that the “ocean beaches of North Carolina … are subject to public trust rights.” This case means is that all the dry-sand beaches, whether natural or nourished, are open to public use for purposes related to the enjoyment of the State’s ocean waters and shorelines. Private oceanfront landowners cannot exclude the public from any portion of the dry-sand beach even if the private landowner’s legal title includes the dry- sand beach. Until the Court’s decision in the Nies case, no North Carolina court opinion directly addressed the question of whether all dry-sand beaches of the State were, in fact, open to public use…

Disappearing beaches: a line in the sand; ABC News (06-07-2016)
The forces chewing away at the nation’s beaches are only getting worse as climate change fuels rising seas…

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