The Beach Draft Has Been Passed

The Commissioners made a few changes after the public spoke tonight, and with a little more input from the Commissioners the Driving on the Beach Draft was passed. I do not have a clean copy to post on the blog but have asked both Ms. Jones and Mr. Burke to send me a copy when it updated and I will post the complete updated draft on the blog as soon as I receive it. I took notes tonight and hopefully have all the changes straight that I am sharing with you.

Here Goes:

- All permits, both those for permanent and non permanent residents will be one per owner. A house must be on the property. A vacant lots will not qualify for a permit.

- The permit will be issued under the name of the property owner. The vehicle owner must match the property owner. If more than one owner, say in a trust, only one permit will be issued to the agreed upon main owner. (This I guess will have to be decided among owners who all own permits now as only one can be issued.)

- Only those folks who own a permit as of this date ( Jan 12th, 2010) will be allowed to renew their permit for next year. (This is called grandfathering) If you own more than one permit you will only be able to renew one, the other will become invalid.

- Permits can be renewed on June 1st. Renew time will be limited from June 1-August 1. If you do not renew your permit within that time frame you will lose it. Permit applications can be downloaded off the Collier County Web Site but you can not pay for permit online. So you will need to apply for permit in person.

- If the owner of the permit passes away,or the property is sold, then the permit can not be passed on to someone else. It becomes invalid.
(lots of debate on this but no changing the minds of the Commissioners)

The Commissioners will receive a report from the Tax Collector by Oct 1st. They will see the number of permits issued and also if there are any problems noted or additions that appear to be addressed then they will look at it at that time.

The whole goal was to reduce the number of permits issued for driving....and the Commissioners are hoping that this new draft will do that. What they are thinking or so I am assuming they are thinking, is that over time the number of permits issued will get smaller and smaller. New property owners in Walton will not be allowed to purchase a permit. There were several real estate folks who spoke about this but no changes were made by the Commissioners.

Please check back in about ten days and I should have the complete update Draft that was voted on tonight posted on the blog. I think I covered all the changes but I might have missed some exact wording.

The new draft is not perfect by any means but at least non permanent residents can still drive on the beach if they have a valid permit now.