THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606150002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 40 lines
News out of the Virginia Beach courts this week was as welcome for beleaguered Sandbridge homeowners as a report that a deadly hurricane had changed course and headed out to sea.
The hurricane in this case was the city government which has an ordinance allowing it to quickly dismantle failing bulkheads it deems unsafe - and send homeowners a bill.
The ordinance in question gives the city's director of public works the power to judge whether a bulkhead, pier, wharf or piling is unsafe. If he detects danger, the property owner is given 30 days to repair it or the city steps in.
That one-month time frame seems hasty and arbitrary. As the judge in the case, A. Bonwill Shockley, pointed out, a toxic spill is the kind of disaster that needs to be corrected posthaste - not crumbling bulkheads.
The same judge on Tuesday ruled that the city ordinance was unconstitutional. The plaintiff's attorney argued that the time frame deprives citizens of their property without due process. Shockley ruled in his favor.
Oddly enough, one of the judge's circuit court colleagues had ruled the opposite way in February, agreeing with the city that it was within its rights to remove the failing bulkheads for public-safety reasons.
Which judge is right? Surely this will be decided eventually in a higher court.
But, at last, Sandbridge property owners - who are well aware that they live on shifting sand - have something to cheer. They already pay higher taxes than those in the rest of the city to underwrite sand replenishment, but now the city is off their backs for a while.
Residents with collapsing bulkheads are able to proceed with legal actions against the companies that constructed the seawalls without worrying that the city will remove them first.
The public ought to use common sense when visiting the Sandbridge beaches. Staying away from collapsing bulkheads would be a sensible precaution. by CNB