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'aft. <br />Office qf .11,11/0., o31/5/ <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />ATTORNEY' <br />Dylan Reingold, County Attorney <br />William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney <br />Kate Pingolt Cotner, Assistant County Attorney <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />FROM: William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorneyâ–ºV )1 <br />DATE: February 25, 2015 <br />SUBJECT: Quit Claim Deed for Blue Cypress Lake Stilt Houses <br />Background: In 2012, the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the <br />State of Florida, (Trustees) filed suit against the owners of three stilt houses constructed <br />offshore of Blue Cypress Lake. The suit alleges that the houses are built on sovereign <br />submerged land owned by the State of Florida. The owners of the houses: Kim Blair, Jay & <br />Carol Scott, and Charlie Cayson & Robert Tucker, have answered the lawsuit claiming the <br />houses are not built on sovereign submerged lands rather they are on property owned by <br />Indian River County. <br />In most cases, the land lying underneath lakes, rivers, streams, lagoons and other bodies of <br />water in Florida are claimed by the State as sovereign submerged lands. The claim dates <br />back to when the early explorers claimed the land which is now Florida for the King of Spain. <br />Claim to the submerged lands was passed on to the State after Florida became a state in <br />1845. In 1914, the area around Blue Cypress Lake was platted. A copy of the 1914 plat is <br />attached to this memorandum. As you can see Lot L was created on the southwestern shore <br />of the lake. In 1947, the owners of a portion of Lot L, B.L. and Dora Belle Holman conveyed <br />the property to Indian River County with the condition that the property be used for <br />recreational purposes. Later, Blue Cypress Lake Park was created and is now known as <br />Joneal Middleton Blue Cypress Lake Park. <br />Old Board of County Commissioner's minutes and aerial photography suggest that fishing <br />shacks and camps existed on Blue Cypress Lake since a road was put in to gain access to <br />the lake in the 1940's. Access to the shacks was made by boat and they were used as rustic <br />fishing shacks until the Hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. After suffering heavy damages in the <br />199 <br />