Save Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach
United States Senate
There’s a multi-billion dollar land grab moving through Congress.
The Senate is working on S. 1073, the Escambia County Land Conveyance Act. The purpose of the bill is “To authorize Escambia County, Florida, to convey certain property that was formerly part of Santa Rosa Island National Monument and that was conveyed to Escambia County subject to restrictions on use and reconveyance.”
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz has passed legislation in the U.S. House to sell off Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach to private developers. The land is currently protected by a 1946 Congressional Land Conveyance that guarantees all leases on the beach belong to and must benefit the public. Gaetz' bill would take away these public land rights. Senator Marco Rubio has introduced the bill in the Senate, where it is currently in the Energy & Natural Resources Committee.
The Public gains nothing, will lose Billions of dollars in valuable assets.
The take-away here is that, with the demise of thousands of leases on Santa Rosa Island, the biggest winners are the tax coffers of Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, and real estate developers. The losers are the residents of northwest Florida and the island itself. Barrier islands form to protect coastal areas. They are critical to healthy environments. Intact islands are important protection from rising waters, tides, and storm damage, so artificially breaching a barrier island is rarely good ecological practice.
This is not a partisan issue.
This would set a horrific precedent by reversing DEEDS and ownership to Publicly held lands
This is a public vs. private, citizen vs. developer, greed vs. public good issue.
If this could happen to Santa Rosa Island, which is entirely within the boundary of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and owned by the citizens of Escambia County, it could happen anywhere.
Sponsored by
To:
United States Senate
From:
[Your Name]
We, the people, are asking you to stop Senate Bill 1073 and any other policy proposed that takes PUBLIC LAND ownership away from the PUBLIC. The citizens of Escambia County became owners of Santa Rosa Island by an act of congress in 1946. The island was to be "used by [the county] for such purposes as it shall deem to be in the public interest or to be leased by it from time to time in whole or in part or parts to such persons and for such purposes as it shall deem to be in the public interest" and it was "never to be otherwise disposed of or conveyed."
Any change to the original intent of the law will open the door to additional changes. Precedent of enormous concern is being set that all conveyances of Public land would become reversible. It follows that protections of other conservation lands would also be under fire. The Gulf Islands National Seashore, bookended by Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach, also faces an existential threat.
Restrictions to the 1947 deed should matter. No sale means NO SALE.
It certainly means no politically beneficial sale of billions of dollars in valuable public property! It would be the theft of a local and national treasure that was intended by 1947 deed to be used “in the public interest” and never conveyed or sold.