## Facts

- Walton County, Florida adopted beach-related ordinances, including (1) an ordinance addressing “obstructions” on county beaches and (2) a “Customary Use Ordinance” stating the public had a customary right to use the county’s dry-sand beaches for recreation.
- Lionel and Tammy Alford owned beachfront property in Walton County and objected to the County’s regulation of use of the dry-sand area adjacent to private beachfront parcels.
- The Alfords sued Walton County in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, bringing federal constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and related state-law claims.
- As to the beach-obstruction ordinance, the Alfords alleged the County’s enforcement interfered with their protected expression on the beach.
- As to the Customary Use Ordinance, the Alfords alleged the County exceeded its authority by recognizing customary-use rights on a countywide basis and argued that any customary-use determination for privately owned dry sand must be made by courts based on evidence of historic use, rather than declared by ordinance.
- The County sought summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether Walton County’s enforcement of its beach-obstruction ordinance against the Alfords’ expressive conduct violated the First Amendment.
2. Whether Walton County could, through a county ordinance, recognize and protect public customary recreational use of dry-sand beaches, or whether customary use must be established only through case-by-case court determinations.

## Decision

- The court granted summary judgment for the Alfords on their First Amendment claim challenging the County’s enforcement of the beach-obstruction ordinance.
- The court dismissed the Alfords’ remaining federal claims (including due process and related theories) as moot in light of the relief granted on the First Amendment claim.
- On the separate state-law challenge to a different county ordinance (including the County’s countywide recognition of customary use), the court entered summary judgment for Walton County.

## Legal Principles

- Expressive conduct is protected by the First Amendment, and government restrictions applied to such conduct must satisfy First Amendment standards applicable to the type of regulation at issue.
- Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine dispute of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
- A federal court may dismiss claims as moot when intervening relief or events mean the court can no longer grant additional effective relief on those claims.
- Florida’s customary-use doctrine may recognize public recreational use rights in certain dry-sand beach areas based on long-standing, uninterrupted public use without effective objection.
- Florida counties have home-rule authority to enact local ordinances on county matters unless the ordinance conflicts with controlling state law.

## Conclusion

In *Alford v. Walton County*, the Northern District of Florida resolved a multi-claim challenge to Walton County beach regulations by granting the Alfords summary judgment on a First Amendment claim arising from the County’s enforcement of a beach-obstruction ordinance, dismissing other federal counts as moot, and granting Walton County summary judgment on a separate state-law challenge to another county beach-use ordinance, including the County’s countywide recognition of customary recreational use of dry-sand beaches.


Alford v. Walton County, 2017 WL 8785115 (2017)