Inside Belleair Shore's Beach Boundary Fight

BELLEAIR SHORE — Months before petitioning the state to vacate a decades-old beach boundary, a town commissioner asked the town attorney how Belleair Shore would enforce its ordinances if the line were removed, records show.

Internal emails reveal Town Commissioner Michael Tolbert considered that issue "one of the key" questions facing the town as commissioners prepared their bid to remove the erosion control line, or ECL.

The emails show officials were looking beyond the immediate petition to questions that could arise if they succeeded in removing the ECL, including the extent of the town's authority over its mile-long beachfront.

Now, despite not knowing what the effort could cost, town commissioners voted unanimously July 21 to continue that fight by appealing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's denial of the town's petition to vacate the ECL. The legal boundary, established as part of beach renourishment projects, generally separates publicly owned beach areas from privately owned uplands.

Commissioners also authorized Mayor Steve Blume to select outside legal counsel to represent the town in the administrative appeal.

Town Attorney Daniel Lewis said the town has until 5 p.m. Aug. 7 to file its petition with the Division of Administrative Hearings. He recommended hiring outside counsel because the case falls outside his area of expertise and said he had received proposals from attorneys charging between $435 and $475 an hour.

Lewis said he could not estimate the overall cost.

"It'll be costly," he said. "It's going to be a significant financial investment if the town wants to proceed forward with it."

Despite the uncertainty, commissioners agreed the appeal was worth pursuing.

"The entity that declined it used every opportunity to avoid the facts," Mayor Steve Blume said of DEP. "We need to be the one to lead the charge."

The referenced emails were obtained by Belleair Beach City Council member Frank Bankard through a public records request and shared with Pinellas Current.

In a Feb. 5 message to Lewis, Tolbert wrote that "one of the key questions" was "where do we draw the line between where we can enforce ordinances and where do state laws take over" if the ECL were removed.

Tolbert added that, unlike attorney and former Belleair Beach Mayor Joseph Manzo, who “argues the ECL is the line, most in Belleair Shore argue it's into the water.”

Tolbert acknowledged relying in part on artificial intelligence research that "can be dangerous" before asking Lewis "to tell us how we are going to enforce ordinances" beyond the ECL or the mean high-water line from which it is derived.

Lewis replied that he would call Tolbert later that day. The emails do not include any written response addressing the questions.

The emails also reveal officials girding for the political and legal battle over the petition.

In a June 23 email, Tolbert urged Lewis to prepare responses to objections raised by Belleair Beach, Pinellas County and DEP "before the narrative turns against us in the court of public opinion." Tolbert wrote that he expected upcoming commission meetings to become "quite contentious" between residents of Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore.

He also disputed claims that removing the ECL would restrict public beach access, calling those concerns "unfounded." He suggested opposition was being driven by "a vocal few" rather than the broader Belleair Beach community.

Belleair Shore’s petition to remove the ECL within the town argued that no beach nourishment had occurred there after the boundary was recorded in 1997.

The petition was filed in May, following Pinellas County's Sand Key beach renourishment project, during which some Belleair Shore property owners complained at town meetings about construction equipment traversing their beachfront for months.

DEP rejected the petition last month, determining the original Sand Key project in 1998 had been completed as required and that Florida law does not authorize vacating only a portion of an ECL.

The town's pending appeal is already drawing additional governments into the dispute.

Bankard is urging the Pinellas County Commission, which previously opposed Belleair Shore's petition in a letter to DEP, to intervene in the appeal. He argued the outcome could establish a precedent affecting other beachfront communities and property owners along Florida's Gulf Coast.

The Belleair Beach City Council is scheduled July 27 to consider a resolution authorizing the city to intervene in any administrative proceeding challenging DEP's denial of Belleair Shore's petition.