Florida wants to fix a legal boundary along 0.91 miles of beach south of Carlin Park so the county can put sand back on it, and the public gets its say at an online workshop and hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
JUPITER — JupiterDaily readers have watched this fall's king tides chew up the beach at Carlin Park, where erosion carved away the Civic Center's deck and forced its closure. The next chapter of that story is less dramatic but just as important: before Palm Beach County can rebuild this stretch of shoreline with new sand, the state has to draw a permanent line in the sand, and it is asking the public to weigh in first.
A hearing on Zoom's Tallahassee cousin
The Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, the governor and Cabinet acting as the overseer of state-owned lands, has scheduled a virtual public workshop and hearing for Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern. The workshop comes first and is the time to ask questions. The hearing follows immediately, and that is when residents can speak in support of, comment on, or object to the proposed line and the way it was surveyed.
Anyone can join on Microsoft Teams (meeting ID 268 462 302 275 996 6, passcode F8fC9qz6) or by phone at 872-242-8934, conference ID 138 027 473#.
What an erosion control line actually is
Beach property lines in Florida normally sit at the mean high water line, which moves as the beach erodes and rebuilds. That becomes a problem when taxpayers pay to pump or truck in sand: without a fixed boundary, a restored public beach could slowly become private land as it grows.
An erosion control line solves that. It is a legal requirement before a beach erosion control project under Florida law, and once the trustees approve it and it is recorded in the county's plat books, the boundary stops moving. Land seaward of the line belongs to the state, land landward stays with the beachfront owners, and that split stays put no matter how the shoreline shifts afterward. Owners keep their rights to reach the water, to their views, and to swim, boat and fish, and the state generally cannot allow buildings on the sand seaward of the line, other than structures that prevent erosion.
In plain terms: the line is what makes the sand the county is about to add a public beach for good.
Where the line would run
The proposed line follows the mean high water line as surveyed on April 6, 2026, along about 0.91 miles of Jupiter's Atlantic shoreline, between state survey monuments R-21.3 and R-25.9. Plotted out, that is the beach east of South A1A starting just south of Carlin Park and running south.
The line is being set for Palm Beach County's North County Comprehensive Shore Protection Project, Segment II. State planning documents describe this segment, from roughly R-19 to R-26, as critically eroded, and say the county plans to build a beach restoration project between R-21.3 and R-25.9 in 2026/2027. At the Town of Jupiter Beach Committee's July 27 meeting, a county coastal manager said all three segments of the north county project would be under construction this winter, from Nov. 1 through the end of April, with intermittent beach access closures along the way, and that Segment II would also get a larger dune-planting project. The county has not announced a start date for sand on this stretch.
How to comment, and the deadline
Written comments and objections can be sent before the hearing, and for two additional weeks after it, through Dec. 2, to William Guy Weeks, Beaches, Inlets and Ports Program, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 3544, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400, by email at william.weeks@FloridaDEP.gov, or by phone at 850-245-7696.
The trustees are not required to approve the line. The notice states they reserve the right to deny it, in which case the county's restoration plans for this stretch would face a much harder path.
