Conversations by the Rio Grande Valley New Media community.

Legal Private Access At The Shores?

Recently, Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter received a request for "private property" beach access pictures from the Coastal Bend Chapter. They are working on a Texas Open Beaches Act public service announcement and wanted evidence of illegal private accesses for the production. Stuart received the request and sent it out to the rest of the EC for suggestions.

I knew of only one place on the Gulf side of South Padre Island that displayed a "private property; no trespassing" sign at what appeared to be a public access to a dune walkover. It was at the northern end of the island at the Franke's new development, "The Shores". I went up there and took multiple pictures of the access, sign and walkover and then sent off to Stuart so he could forward them to Corpus.

This access has piqued my curiosity for some time and I have never really acted upon the impulse to find out how "The Shores" could be getting away with this in such a blatant way. I felt it was time to find out once and for all.

I had two options. One was to post the question on the SPI Forum and have it debated by people with pseudonyms, that may or may not know what they are talking about, or go straight to the source and ask the Mayor of South Padre Island. So, after sending off the pics to Stu I emailed Mayor Pinkerton and asked him how can this be a legal private access point since it was the only access and dune walkover for more than half of a mile. It took about a week but I got my response and actually feel pretty stupid for not coming to the answer beforehand.

It turns out that Mayor Pinkerton sent my question over to South Padre Island City Attorney Paul Cunningham who responded to me through the Mayor yesterday. It turns out that since one can drive on the beach and park anywhere they want or are able, the public access requirements have been met through default and "The Shores" are in complete compliance with the public access statutes of TOBA!

I don't know if Surfrider Foundation Coastal Bend was planning on using those pic but we will have to withdraw them.

Thank you Mayor Pinkerton and Mr. Cunningham.