State rejects Belleair Shore bid to remove public-private beach boundary

BELLEAIR SHORE — Siding with Pinellas County and Belleair Beach, the state has rejected this town’s controversial bid to remove a long-standing coastal boundary, a move that opponents feared could privatize public beach areas.

In a final order issued June 23, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) denied Belleair Shore's petition to cancel the erosion control line, or ECL. The DEP ruled that the town failed to meet the conditions required under state law for removing the boundary.

The erosion control line separates public beach areas from private upland property through Belleair Shore. The state has denied the town's request to vacate the boundary. Aerial from Pinellas County.

The erosion control line separates public beach areas from private upland property through Belleair Shore. The state has denied the town's request to vacate the boundary. Aerial from Pinellas County.

The ruling is a major setback for the ultra-exclusive town, made up of 57 Gulf-front homes. The Belleair Shore Town Commission had argued the ECL was improperly recorded in 1997 and unlawfully deprived beachfront property owners of private property rights.

The ECL establishes a fixed legal boundary between state-owned public beach lands and private upland property, replacing the naturally shifting mean high-water line before a beach renourishment project begins.

DEP officials found that the underlying Sand Key renourishment project was begun and completed within the time frame required by law, making the ECL ineligible for cancellation.

The order also rejected the town’s attempt to vacate only the Belleair Shore segment of the boundary. State law authorizes cancellation of an entire ECL, not a portion of it.

"The Project for this ECL was commenced and completed in 1998, which is within two years of the ECL establishment timeframe," reads the 6-page order by the DEP's Deputy Director of Resilience and Coastal Protection, Lainie Edwards.

The ruling also disputed one of the town’s central claims: that Belleair Shore received no benefit from the Sand Key project because no sand was directly placed along its shoreline. The order states that the town received sand from adjacent nourishment placements beginning in 1998 and as recently as 2018.

The decision comes after weeks of growing opposition from neighboring governments and residents.

"We won!" Belleair Beach City Council member Frank Bankard, who first raised concerns about the ECL at a work session in April, said in an email.

Belleair Shore Mayor Steve Blume did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

Pinellas County Commission Chairman Dave Eggers had urged the state to reject the petition, writing in a June 16 letter that removing the ECL could jeopardize public beach access, complicate future beach renourishment projects and create legal and administrative problems.

A review by county attorneys also concluded that Belleair Shore’s petition "does not meet the requirements necessary to support rescission or modification of the ECL,'' according to the letter. The town claimed in its petition that all statutory requirements had been met.

Also last week, the Belleair Beach City Council adopted a resolution supporting the ECL, saying it protects shoreline access, property rights and decades of taxpayer-funded beach restoration efforts.

Indian Rocks Beach Mayor Lan Vaughan likewise said that state officials should consider the proposal’s effects on neighboring communities and public access, “not just the interests of property owners who purchased with full knowledge of the ECL and the coastal framework already in place.”

Belleair Shore officials had maintained that the ECL should be canceled because no beach renourishment project was ever carried out within the town’s borders and because more than 70 percent of affected property owners supported the request.

According to the petition, those signatures represented 3,866 linear feet of the town’s 5,433 feet of beachfront property.

At a town commission meeting in May, Vice Mayor Daniel Storie described the effort as an attempt to restore private property rights.

"The reason we're vacating the ECL is the Army Corps of Engineers and Florida DEP have admitted that it was wrongfully recorded," Storie said. "We're correcting an error. An error that took private property from residents of Belleair Shore."

The DEP disagreed, concluding the petition failed on multiple legal grounds.

Belleair Shore has 21 days to challenge the decision through an administrative hearing and may ultimately seek judicial review.