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Leaning beachhouse torn down
Published November 14, 2009
SURFSIDE BEACH — Of the 15 or so beachhouses originally at the center of a property rights lawsuit against the state, only two remain standing after village officials got the go-ahead Friday to tear down a property that powerful waves had left leaning.
The house, which was in the 200 block of Beach Drive, is the second to come down this week as erosion continues to eat away at the pedestrian beach. The first house, part of the lawsuit alleging the Texas General Land Office was improperly moving to obtain homeowners’ land, collapsed on its own early Wednesday.
“It’s extremely, extremely sad that we’re at this point, but this is a situation that has been a problem for a lot of years,” Alderwoman Peggy Llewellyn said.
The village paid Vernor Materials & Equipment about $3,950 Thursday to tear down the beachhouse, which showed signs of falling over, after receiving permission from the property owner, Mayor Larry Davison said. The village contacted the owner, a Houston resident, after officials decided it presented a hazard to the public.
“Someone could have been hurt badly, so we notified the owner that we were going to do it because of the risk and that they were going to be held liable if it fell and killed somebody,” Davison said. “So they agreed to go ahead.”
The homeowners group is suing the land office over property rights after years of erosion landed their beachhouses on the public beach. Earlier this year, a state appellate court levied a blow to their case after determining the land office was not attempting to take the land but protect a rolling easement that had been there for years.
While it is sad to see yet another beachhouse come down, it shows signs of progress as the village works toward obtaining a nourishment project for the pedestrian beach, Llewellyn said.
Officials believe the beach has lost as much as 2 feet of beach since October, when cold fronts and storms churning in the Gulf of Mexico caused higher than average tides that pulled sand away.
“This was a fairly small event, but for a house to come down and another, I think it will bring attention to the situation that we have,” she said.
The village has been trying to rebuild Beach Drive since Hurricane Ike made landfall early Sept. 13, 2008. It damaged the sewer system and the revetment wall protecting a row of beachhouses. This week, officials determined the roadway had been undermined after sections of the ground beneath it eroded away.
Land office officials have refused to nourish the pedestrian beach until the homes found on the public beach are gone, saying they could not use taxpayers’ dollars for a project that some could argue would only benefit a few.
But the regulator changed its stance after erosion brought down the first home early Wednesday. The force of its landing scattered debris all over the pedestrian beach and revetment wall.
Land office officials plan to visit the beachfront and speak with residents about possible action to combat erosion problems. A date had not been set Friday afternoon, land office spokesman Jim Suydam said.
Davison said he hopes the land office will move to improve the damaged pedestrian beach.
“It will be a good thing to get this behind us and get some sand on the beach and get back to where we were headed, which was making the beach the premier beach in Brazoria County,” Davison said.
Nathaniel Lukefahr covers Surfside Beach for The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0151.
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