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WHEREAS Eastern Lake is a unique coastal dune lake prized and enjoyed by residents and tourists for generations;
AND WHEREAS Eastern Lake has been effectively closed to inflow of water from the Gulf of Mexico since June, 2005 and is losing its unique coastal dune lake characteristic; grasses, algae, and other vegetation are growing throughout the lake, creating a hazard to boaters and an aesthetic calamity to residents in the lake community; alligators are becoming prevalent and in the interest of public safety, a nine foot alligator was removed recently from an area of the lake used by tourists, as well as residents;
AND WHEREAS the closing of Eastern Lake resulted in abnormally high water levels and damages to residential properties, and greatly increases the potential for future residential flood damages;
AND WHEREAS Walton County attempted to relieve the existing flooding and future flood potential and restore the lake by salt water inflow, those efforts were only marginally successful, leaving the lake in its present condition;
AND WHEREAS Walton County has taken further steps to help restoration of Eastern Lake by retaining Preble-Rish, an engineering firm, to develop a plan that, if implemented, would restore the lake to its dune lake status;
AND WHEREAS Preble-Rish and lake community residents have determined that the lake outflow channel meanders from time to time across its natural outfall corridor;
AND WHEREAS the historically accurate outfall corridor of Eastern Lake encompasses parts of Lot 25 owned by Mr. William Head and parts of Lot 13 owned by Mr. Worth Williams, and negotiations to secure adequate outfall corridor area under reasonable conditions are likely to fail, leaving Eastern Lake landlocked indefinitely;
AND WHEREAS Walton County owns Lot 12 on the southern boundary of Eastern Lake and has the use of a 33 foot ‘right-of-way’ along the northern and western sides of Lot 13, which is necessary to access county property, maintain the outflow channel, and for emergency vehicles to access the outfall areas of the beach;
AND WHEREAS the owner of Lot 13 has petitioned the county to abandon the northern county ‘right-of-way’ at San Roy Road and has requested the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to permit a fence to be placed around Lot 13 in order to prevent public access;
AND WHEREAS said fence will from time to time intersect the meandering outflow channel of the lake and will restrict the county’s access to county Lot 12 and to the lake’s outflow channel necessary for channel maintenance;
THEREFORE WE THE UNDERSIGNED respectfully petition the Walton County Commissioners to take the flowing actions:
• Reject any request to abandon, under any circumstances, the San Roy Road ‘right-of-way’, or any part thereof;
• Work with the FDEP to reject any effort to place fencing of any type across the historical natural outfall corridor of Eastern Lake;
• Proceed quickly with actions to acquire land from Mr. Head and Mr. Williams that comprise the historical outfall corridor of Eastern Lake in order to restore the lake to its previous condition and preserve the natural recreational area outfall corridor for present and future generations. |
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(fields marked with * are required)
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Property Owners, Taxpayers, Voters and Citizens interested in preserving access to Eastern Lake and the Gulf of Mexico and concerned about the health of this unique coastal dune lake. |
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sponsor and do not in any way reflect the views of iPetitions.
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sponsor and cannot be held liable for any damages or injury or other
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named, iPetitions will consider the individual account holder with which
the petition was created as the lawful sponsor.
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