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•🧑⚖️ Who: Florida State Senate, Senator Jay Trumbull, former Senate Presidents Don Gaetz and Kathleen Passidomo, Walton County officials, property owners, and residents.
•📜 What: A bill (SB 1622) seeking to repeal a 2018 law that restricted public beach access in Walton County.
•📅 When: The bill passed the Judiciary Committee in March 2025 and is progressing through the legislative process.
•📍 Where: Florida State Senate, affecting Walton County beaches.
•❓ Why: Supporters argue the current law harms tourism and property values, while opponents believe repealing it could lead to legal battles over private property rights.
Two members of the Florida Senate, including a former State Senator from Walton County were the two no votes against a measure that would repeal the state law that effectively ended customary use on the beaches of 30a and South Walton in 2018. Customary use is the legal doctrine in Florida that allows members of the public to walk along the beaches in a certain area, whether or
Despite their objections to the bill, Senate Bill 1622 moved through the Florida State Senate on a 9-2 margin and is another step closer to becoming law – and repealing a controversial law affecting Walton County that has been on the books since 2018.
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In the last quarter century, states and municipalities in Florida began to pass ordinances to protect what they saw as the customary use of beaches by the public.
In September of 2016, Walton County passed a similar ordinance – a little bit later than many other counties with beachfronts.
In 2018, Past President of the Florida Senate, Kathleen Passidomo, wrote and got a law to Governor (Now Senator) Rick Scott’s Desk that would force counties to sue for and prove that the public had a right to customary use along beaches where private property owners owned waterfront land. Senators added an amendments and passed along with the bill that exempted counties with ordinances similar to the Walton County ordinances – as long as counties passed them before 2016. It left Walton County as the only county with beachfront affected by the law, according to a point made in the discussion by State Senator Tom Leek of St. Augustine.
Since then, various organizations, including Walton County’s Board of County Commissioners and non-government organizations, have clashed with property owners over the law. On the beaches, owners and security personnel acting on their behalf have had tense encounters with members of the public traversing on or using the beach they believe is their land by right.
State Senator Jay Trumbull (R – Panama City) introduced Senate Bill 1622 to repeal the current law and essentially reset the rules around beach access to their pre-2018 settings.
Former Florida State Senate Presidents Don Gaetz (R – Crestview) and Kathleen Passidomo (R – Ft. Myers) voted against the measure -though they say they have procedural rather than substantive objections to Trumbull’s bill.
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Trumbull’s bill would remove the state law requiring local governments, including Walton County’s, to go to a court with evidence proving customary use on a private landowner’s beach to ensure customary use in the future for the public.
About a dozen people, including Walton County Commissioner Tony Anderson, Destin Mayor Bobby Wagner, former State Representative Dr. Joel Rudman, and Former Santa Rosa County Commissioner James Calkins spoke in favor of the bill.
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All told, those in favor of the bill moving out of the judiciary committee and onto the senate floor argued the current situation harms tourism and real estate – the main drivers of Walton County’s economy.
Mayor Wagner spoke first and told the assembled senators he worries the bill will cost the entire State of Florida due to the bad publicity the bill has generated. “we’re seeing fights break out,” Wagner said about the situation in South Walton, “So for us, being a southern culture of hospitality, it’s turning into a political nightmare with lliteral lines in the sand.”
Dr. Joel Rudman added that the housing market could also take a loss along with locals who see those vacation homes as a long-term investment in the community for their retirement. “Only five percent of vacation homes are Gulf front, so we are effectively blocking beach access to ninety-five percent of the vacation homes in the area. Also keep in mind, those are Floridians that own those homes,” Dr. Rudman said, “Those are our retirement plans. That’s how I plan to retire when I reach a certain age. So if you don’t have rent, you can’t meet your mortgage, you’re about to have an economic and a housing collapse in Walton County, the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
A single member of the public, John Howard, spoke his peace against the bill. He called it a violation of the United States Constitution’s Fourth and Fifteenth Amendments. “Private property ain’t a popularity contest. It’s not mob rule, where enough people coveting your beachfront property means you lose it. That flies in the face of the American foundation, protecting the individual, not bending to the loudest crowd,” Howard argued.
Howard added that Walton County had sued for customary use, as the law written in 2018 required, and had its case thrown out with prejudice (meaning Walton County can’t bring the case back in front of the court.)
Senators Gaetz and Passidomo made their arguments in discussion in the Judiciary Committee hearing along the same lines. “I have an amazing amount of knowledge about what happened that many of you do not,” Passidomo said to the crowd, “I worked with the Walton County Commission and I worked with the Florida Bar Real Property Section and we crafted a bill that was passed 2018 and it was very simple.”
Gaetz was more circumspect in his comments and predicted that a full repeal of Passidomo’s law would open a Pandora’s Box of litigation around the state. “My hard prediction is that whatever you do with this bill is not going to solve the problems of Walton County of people who think they own property near the beach or on the beach,” Gaetz said. He added he hopes Trumbull and Passidomo can get together to make agreeable amendments before the bill gets to the floor for a general vote. “I’ll have to vote against it today, but I hope that this bill will make a stop at the Kathlee Passidomo Reconstructive Surgery Center before it gets to the floor.”
Before the bill can make it to the State Senate floor for a vote, it will need to survive dates with the State Senate’s Rules and Community Affairs committees.
That’s not guaranteed.
Additionally, State Representative Alex Andrade’s related bill in the Florida State House must make it through its three stops in its Civil Justice and Claims, Natural Resources and Disasters and Judiciary committees.
It will go to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk if it passes in both state legislature chambers. He can choose to sign it into law – and it would take effect immediately; he can decline to sign it and it will become law automatically (in seven days if the bill gets to him while the legislature is in session or 15 days if it comes to him out of session), or he can choose to veto the bill.
