Word: beachfronts
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...year after Hurricane Alicia walloped the Texas coast around Galveston last summer, the storm has not entirely abated. Having weathered natural disaster, some 140 beachfront-property owners are facing an even worse legal catastrophe. Texas law gives the public the right to use all the beach in the corridor between the sea at low tide and the natural vegetation line. The violent winds and rain of Hurricane Alicia tore away such large chunks of land that private, $100,000 homes are no longer sitting on privately controlled property. When officials moved in to claim the land for sunbathers and fishermen...
...means unusual. From sea to shining sea, landlocked citizens are asserting what in many states is their traditional right of access to the beaches, even if they have to tramp across private property to get there. At the same time, property owners, especially wealthy residents of exclusive beachfront communities, are becoming increasingly militant about the invasion of beachgoers. In Maine's high-priced coastal enclaves, property owners, many of them from out of state, have built fences, thrown rocks, towed cars and on at least one occasion brandished a shotgun to keep clammers, fishermen and would-be sunbathers...
...Coast was sparsely developed. Widespread construction of private homes, hotels and high-rise condominiums has come only in the past ten or 15 years. The new objections, in the wake of Hurricane Alicia, are nothing but "the arrogance of affluence," says Assistant Attorney General Ken Cross. "Building on a beachfront is a gamble with nature. When they take that gamble and put their money down, they should be prepared to risk losing...
...Some beachfront dwellers accept their losses from the ever-changing sea, but not from the ever-changing state. In California, the state coastal commission ruled in 1977 that when owners build or rebuild sea walls to protect their property from erosion, all land seaward of the embankments is automatically opened to public access. In 1979 a Ventura County community called Whalers' Village built a revetment and fought the public-access rule. A local court found the requirement unconstitutional in 1983 because it was "the taking of private property without paying just compensation." The ruling is being appealed. "The government...
...successfully crossed in nearly three centuries. The Allies spent two years turning all of southern Britain into an arsenal and point of departure. They built 163 new airfields. They shipped in 2 million tons of weapons and supplies, 1,500 tanks, mountains of food and fuel. Since the targeted beachfront lacked harbors, Allied engineers built two enormous artificial harbors that could be towed across the Channel and moored in place once the beaches were...