Special to the PRESS
There is an important Public Forum regarding future development of the northern beaches of Cameron County on South Padre Island coming up Wednesday, Oct. 28!
In 2009, after Hurricanes Dolly and Ike decimated the Texas Coast Lines and the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Fund, the 81st Texas Legislature passed legislation that required Texas Coastal Communities to come up with Erosion Response Plans to promote resilient development and reduce the risk of public expenditures in protecting development and infrastructure associated with these communities. The mandate read, “…to reduce public expenditures for erosion and storm damages. The plans may include provisions for establishing a building setback, protecting public beach access and the public beach easement, and procedures for preserving, restoring, and enhancing critical sand dunes that are necessary to protect public and private property from storms and erosion.”
Unfortunately the Cameron County Dune Protection Committee completely flipped the script on the idea of the plan and came up with a plan that actually moved the minimum state building setback lines 120 feet closer to the water and endanger beaches that have some of the highest erosion rates in Texas. In spite of a study called “Cameron County Erosion Analyses” by Bill Worsham of LJA engineering and Peter Ravella of PAR Consulting, which concluded that the County would be looking at between $30 million and $78 million per five miles of beach at five year intervals because of this proposed Erosion Response Plan, the County Commissioners Court still approved the plan. However, the plan was thankfully rejected by the Texas General Land Office (GLO). After several years of negotiations that went nowhere, essentially because of the lack of cooperation by the County Dune Protection Committee, the state has declared Cameron County ineligible for CEPRA and CMP funds that they desperately need to help manage their coasts and beach parks until they draft a new plan.
In this case, the Commissioners Court has now responded by bypassing the County Dune Protection Committee, which has now cost one developer $850,000 in fines and the County more than $20 million in damages on just two projects they have approved ignoring state regulations and deed restrictions, and hired PAR Consulting run by Peter A. Ravella, who researched and published the original study originally rejected by the Commissioners, to come up and help implement a new Erosion Response Plan.
This process starts with a public forum on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Cameron County Commissioners Courtroom located at 1100 E. Monroe in Brownsville. The basics of the new plan will be presented and public input will be sought. The Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter encourages all who can make the meeting to please attend, get educated and provide your comments.
More information can be found at the PAR Consulting Website created for the Cameron County Erosion Response Plan at www.CameronCountyERP.com!
Thank you for your concern on the future responsible development of our beaches!
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3 comments
At some point we all have to ask ourselves how much, if any, the state should be effectively subsidizing coastal property development. With no state insurance guarantees, much of the coastal property development that we all enjoy probably wouldn’t exist. On the other hand, why should Texas taxpayers effectively subsidize irresponsible coastal development though a state insurance program that doesn’t come close to collecting enough premiums to cover damage claims for the next big hurricane? The way I see it, the state is perfectly justified in demanding that all future coastal development adhere to much higher standards, to minimize risk to the state taxpayers.
On the surface, many see little justification for the state to offer subsidized insurance for coastal properties. What entitles coastal property owners to receive such a generous benefit, with insurance premiums well below private market rates? Subsidizing coastal properties isn’t fair to inland tax payers who get stuck with the bill every time a big hurricane hits the Texas coast.
The only good reason I’ve heard for the state to insure coastal properties is because most beachfront property owners don’t have kids in the local schools, so much of the property tax they pay goes back to the state to subsidize other school districts around the state. And that’s a LOT of money, a steady and reliable stream of annual revenue for Austin politicians to assert their control over the state’s schools.
just look at what happened to old john tompkins, the original spi real estate tycoon. He ran into a lot of potential property owners that thought it was crazy to build on a sand bar in the hurricane zone. so tompkins build a big pink beachfront house, near the north end of town. eventually erosion threatened the house, a breakwater was constructed. erosion then took the breakwater. eventually the house started to lose its foundation, was abandoned and torn down, but not before tomkins convinced many people to build on the island. now the lot the tompkins house sat on is a public beach access
true story