Trouble in Paradise? New Florida Laws Attack Driving With Cell Phone in Hand, Opioids for Pain Relief & Public Use of the Beach
One of the many things Florida Legislators accomplished during the recent session was to pass 100 new laws, many of which took effect on July 1, some of which will adversely affect you or someone you know. In an effort to save some of the 16 Floridians that die daily of opioid overdose, House Bill 20 requires initial prescriptions for deadly opioids like Fentanyl and Oxycontin are in most cases limited to 3 days initially, 7 days for acute cases.
While there are exceptions for chronic cases, cancer, terminal illness and more, supplies will be severely limited, particularly until the exceptions are fully understood. Meanwhile people in pain should explore other types of pain relief, including: medical massage, hot tubs, saunas, acupuncture, chiropractic, medical marijuana and accelerated healing efforts like lasers, to name just a few.
House Bill 33 makes ‘Texting while driving’ a primary offense. Police can now stop motorists for holding their cell phones while driving. Drivers can face $200 fines. House Bill 631, which some legislators claim was intended to give beachfront property owners rights to limit access to their share of beach, if they wish, if their deed gives them rights to the “high water line”. In such a case the public beach starts where the sand is usually wet. It appears to be an effort to take power out of local governments hands for allowing or not allowing visitors on such beachfront property.
Some beachfront property owners saw the law as granting them permission to keep the public off the beach behind their multimillion dollar beachfront homes, whether the beachfront actually belongs to them or not. It’s complicated.
In a recent Sarasota news report, State Representative Joe Gruters says “…a lot of overzealous homeowners have gone out and put out markers or fences on the public beach. I’d never have signed the bill if I’d known they would interpret it that way” Governor Scott’s Executive order warns state agencies not to take any action implementing HB631 Law.
In a April 20, 2018 Palm Coast Observer article about the new law, State Rep. Paul Renner responds to Flagler County administrator’s warning of chaos statewide.
In an earlier article Flagler’s County administrator said this bill has “exported chaos statewide.” Flagler’s County Attorney went further to say the legislation: “Totally changes the world.” The article goes on to claim that the new law “lets beachfront property owners effectively wall off portions of the beach from the public.” State Rep. Paul Renner says “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Beachfront property rights can vary from parcel to parcel. Case in point. The City of St. Pete Beach had been in court since 2009 with the late Chet Chmielewski, who owned one of the beachfront homes in the block adjoining and south of the Don Cesar Resort. The city recently gave up their appeal of the decision that awarded $1.5 mil to Chet’s estate. It was a fairly unique circumstance, however the passage of House Bill 631 and the legal outcome of Chet’s case has emboldened others who feel they have had their rights to privacy trampled upon.
St. Pete beach resident Beth Morean, lives in similar proximity to the Don CeSar Resort as Chmielewski used to, and across the street from the new Zamora Hotel. Beth sent Paradise NEWS copies of a host of emails back and forth between her and the hotel owner and managers and city officials since May 24th begging for some relief to the stream of people illegally crossing her land to take “my private trail to the beach.” She said “I used to think Chet was crazy, but now I completely understand.
St. Pete Beach Mayor Al Johnson says misunderstanding of HB631 is rampant. He advised that the bill only prescribes a way for ‘beach owners’, those with deeds that extend to the high water line which are very few property owners in St. Pete Beach, to assert rights to keep others off the beach, if there is not customary use of that beach by the public.
He says public works has had to remove recently installed signs, gates and even concrete block walls that residents had put out on the beach, and elsewhere, other than their own private property. PN
Article by Peter A. Roos