 | Constitutional Amendments - Summary | |
| Election Day: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | ||
Proposition No. 9
Heritage Alliance Recommendation: AGAINST
How the proposition will appear on the ballot:
The constitutional amendment to protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico.
Summary:
This proposition, if passed, would amend the Texas Constitution by adding Art. 1, sec. 33 to establish the public's unrestricted right to access public beaches. This right would be dedicated as a permanent public easement. The resolution would define a public beach as a state owned beach bordering on the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico, extending from the mean low tide to the landward boundary of state owned submerged land, and from the line of mean low tide to the line of vegetation bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, to which the public had acquired a right of use or easement.
The Legislature could enact laws to protect the right of public access to the beach and to protect the easement from interference and encroachments. The constitutional provision would not create a private right of enforcement.
Heritage Alliance Recommendation:
AGAINST
Conservative Principles which are the basis for this recommendation:
State law already provides in Chapter 61, Natural Resources Code, for an "open beaches" policy under which the public must have Afree and unrestricted right of ingress and egress to the larger area extending from the line of mean low tide to the line of vegetation bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.@ In effect, the vegetation line marks the property line for private property owners along Texas beaches. The attorney general must enforce the open beaches law strictly to prevent encroachments against public access to beaches. The line of vegetation can shift because of erosion, storms, or construction of seawalls and other manmade barriers. The statute defines how beach boundaries may be determined in areas with no marked line of vegetation, and it defines the line of vegetation in several circumstances, including along the Galveston Seawall.
These laws can be challenged in court when necessary to protect private property rights. The proposed amendment would place the existing law into the constitution, creating a "right" to public beaches. Legal efforts to protect private property rights would be more difficult. A vote against this proposition would preserve private property rights under current law.