The Ohana house has new owners, and the seawall that juts into the Gulf is newly renovated. What remains the same, though, is beachgoers are not permitted to walk across the seawall, a point accentuated with the recent installation of a wooden fence on either side of the structure accompanied by vegetation.
Those walking on the beach have four options when they come upon the Ohana seawall. Beachgoers can either wade into the Gulf to avoid it, walk off the beach and use the sidewalk on Gulf of Mexico Drive to get around Ohana, turn around and head back, or climb onto the seawall to continue their walk on the beach and risk a trespass order from police.
Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Director Allen Parsons said whether the beach is public is not a matter of what the plot of land looks like in property appraiser records but by the erosion control line. On the town’s frequently asked questions page of its website, the town writes that the erosion control line “distinguishes between private upland ownership and public or sovereign ownership.”…