Public Access Is A Right!

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Keep Texas Beaches Public
Jerry Patterson Texas GLO Commissioner
Editorial in Corpus Christi Caller/Times,October 17, 2009
Can you imagine driving your family to the beach for summer vacation, only to find a high fence covered with “no trespassing” signs?
For Texans, the ability to go to any beach they choose seems natural. But that isn’t the case elsewhere.
Florida, California and nearly every other coastal state in the Union allow owners of beachfront property to exclude the public and permit public beach access only in a limited number of locations.
Our freedom to walk on any beach we choose is unique,and under constant threat. Developers,overpaid lawyers and even the Legislature fail to appreciate this freedom.
That’s why I urge you to vote yes on Proposition 9 on Nov. 3 and enshrine our right to our beaches in the Texas Constitution. With your help, we can forever recognize and protect Texans right to access their beach and add it to our Texas Bill of Rights so that it cannot be taken away.
This prescriptive right to access the beach is as old as Texas. Before statehood, when Texas was a republic, travelers regularly used the beach as a highway. In the days before roads, Texas’ long beaches served as an expressway for horses, stagecoach’s and even the mail.
This tradition of public use constitutes a common law right. Like so many common
law rights,this right faced legal challenges. It was eroded over the years as
development boomed along the Texas coast. By the 1950s,some beachfront property
owners were building fences all the way to the water to make their own private
beaches.
In 1959, the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Open Beaches Act to put this
common law into statute. Despite natural disasters,and no small amount of
controversy,the Texas Open Beaches Act has withstood the test of time and
continues to affirm the public’s free and unrestricted access to public beaches.
It has served Texas well for 50 years. It’s now time to enshrine this right in
our Texas Constitution.
Proposition 9 would elevate the freedom to access the beach to a lot of other
freedoms we depend on,like freedom of speech,freedom of worship and the right
to carry a firearm.
Just like those rights,Texans’ right to access public beaches should be protected in perpetuity. The Legislature will still have a say on how that right is managed, but the right itself will be preserved.
If you want to keep your summer vacations at the Texas beach, vote yes on proposition 9 and let’s send a signal that Texas beaches belong to all Texans.

Jerry Patterson is Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. A former state
senator, Marine officer and a Vietnam veteran, Patterson lives in Austin.