City hopeful it can negotiate keeping dune permit control
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Port Aransas officials remain hopeful that they can reach an agreement with Nueces County that will effectively exclude the city from the county's proposed 350-foot dune setback rule.

City Manager Michael Kovacs said he hopes city officials will be able to meet with newly-elected County Judge Loyd Neal and work out a compromise to the amendment that would change dune construction setbacks to 350 feet inside the vegetation line instead of the current 200 feet.

Kovacs sent a letter to Neal last week outlining the city's position on the amendment. He said he hasn'yet received a formal reply to the letter, but has heard that Neal might be willing to meet and talk about the matter.

Land owners have been upset because they consider that an unconstitutional seizure of their land on the part of the county. The new rule would mean construction of living or business buildings would be prohibited within 350 feet of the vegetation line.

They want protection for private land that's already been subdivided and platted between the 200-foot line and the 350-foot line.

Fred McCutcheon, chairman of the county's beach advisory committee, has said the county has been using a 350-foot line for years - it's simply been by agreement with developers instead of written into law. Now, Mc- Cutcheon said, the county wants to make it a formal requirement.

McCutcheon and others on the advisory committee have also said the proposed amendment was never intended to apply to Port Aransas. Instead, it was aimed at future developments on Mustang and Padre islands.

Port Aransas has been issuing its own dune permits - documents that allow a builder to construct when he can show that dunes have been given adequate protection - since 1994, when an interlocal agreement was signed with the county. Port Aransas enforces the 200-foot rule and city officials have said a 350-foot rule would make little sense here.

Nevertheless, by state law, the county has final authority for protecting the dunes and can virtually set any limits it wants within 1,000 feet of vegetation at the Gulf shore. The Texas General Land Office (GLO), which has oversight of Texas beaches, can only intervene when a coastal management plan is contrary to state law.

Corpus Christi, which doesn't have its own dune permitting program, has protested that the 350-foot rule would severely reduce its tax base. The Corpus Christi city limits include northern Padre Island and all of Mustang Island not within the Port Aransas city limits.

The proposed amendment was sent to the GLO by Nueces County commissioners last year. GLO staff members were to have reviewed it last month, but no report has been handed down as to their findings. However, at a hearing last week, a GLO attorney said he could find no violation of state law in the county's proposed amendment.

County Commissioner Chuck Cazalas, whose Precinct 4 includes Mustang Island and Port Aransas, has said he opposes including Port Aransas in the new rule. However, neither Neal nor any of the other three commissioners has returned calls from the South Jetty seeking clarification of their positions on the matter.

"The language of the compromise is really pretty mild," Kovacs said. "We have hopes that we'll be able to reach an agreement with the county to allow us to continue with our own dune permit program."