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41 <br />October 4, 2022 <br />ITEM 14.13. <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />INTER -OFFICE MEMORANDUM <br />TO: <br />Members of the Board of County Commissioners <br />DATE: <br />September 26, 2022 <br />SUBJECT: <br />Discussion on Changes to Beach Renourishment Project Easement <br />FROM: <br />Joseph H. Earman <br />Commissioner, District 3 <br />Background <br />Sector 7 beach renourishment continues to be a significant issue. At the March 8th BOCC <br />meeting, the Board — citing the lack of sufficient signed easements (90% threshold) needed to <br />move forward — elected to postpone the Sector 7 project until at least November, 2023, while staff <br />applied for extensions to FEMA and FDEP funding. <br />At the August 16'x' BOCC meeting, the Board agreed that I should begin to meet with individual <br />Sector 7 homeowners (or groups of them) to gather information on how the county might best <br />protect and enhance their eroded beaches. <br />Discussion <br />Based on the advice of Sector 7 community leaders, I believe there is a reasonable way forward <br />to the current stalemate by making slight modifications to the existing easement. Specifically, I'm <br />proposing the following two changes: <br />1. Removing the term "perpetual" from the easement addresses a concern mentioned by <br />many of the holdout property owners. The length of the agreement would be implicitly <br />perpetual, rather than explicitly. <br />2. Removing any specific references to swimming and sunbathing does not change the <br />understood recreational uses associated with the beaches in Sector 7, despite the fact <br />there is no convenient public access point within. Regardless of wording, it remains the <br />county's stated goal to avoid barriers to public access being installed on the beaches. <br />Analysis <br />Based on the advice of Sector 7 community leaders, there is reason to believe that the 90% <br />threshold will be met if the proposed changes to the easement are approved by the BCC. <br />195 <br />