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Proposed Shore Protection Changes Could Move Property Lines
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A Savannah legislator says Georgia needs to revise its definition of where beaches end and private property begins.
Republican Rep. Jesse Petrea is a co-sponsor of a bill to revise the 1979 law that protects Georgia's dunes, beaches, shoals and sandbars — thus also protecting barrier island property from erosion and hurricane damage.
He tells the Savannah Morning News that the current line zig-zags, excluding some areas that need protection and including others that don't.
It's based on 20-foot-tall trees and structures existing in or before July 1979.
Petrea says the line should be 25 feet inland of the ordinary high water mark; sand dunes; or a structure associated with shoreline stabilization.
Environmental groups say the idea is basically good, but the line should be farther inland.
Charles McMillan of the Georgia Conservancy says the Shoreline Protection Act is pretty inconsistent.
"You may not have a tree for several hundred feet in a cleared area, and it would make that whole area subject to the Shoreline Protection Act," McMillan said.
The current law can make things complicated for local governments and homeowners who might find a large part of their land is technically protected.
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