Backstreet Boy’s Beach Battle: Why Walton County Must Act on SB 1622 Before More Floridians Are Treated as Trespassers

From my desk at Mitkevicius Law in Pensacola, I’ve watched a troubling pattern emerge along the Emerald Coast: disputes over sand are increasingly becoming disputes with law enforcement.

The latest example involves Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell, who’s suing both a 67-year-old neighbor and the Walton County Sheriff’s Office over beach access at his Santa Rosa Beach home. The case perfectly illustrates why Florida’s 2025 repeal of restrictive beach-access laws matters—and why Walton County needs to use its restored authority before more beachgoers end up treated as criminals.

The Legal Landscape: Two Lines in the Sand

Florida beach law draws two critical boundaries:

The wet sand (below mean high water) belongs to all Floridians under Article X, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution. This is settled law.

The dry sand is where things get complicated. While often privately owned by deed, Florida’s Supreme Court established in City of Daytona Beach v. Tona-Rama (1974) that longstanding public recreational use can create “customary use” rights that property owners cannot simply erase.

As the Court held: when the public has engaged in “ancient, reasonable, without interruption and free from dispute” use of dry sand for recreation, that customary use becomes a legal right—even on privately owned beach.

The Florida Attorney General has explicitly confirmed that local governments can regulate dry-sand beaches and rely on customary-use doctrine in disputes involving trespass and private property rights.

How We Got Here: The HB 631 Stranglehold

In 2018, the Florida Legislature passed HB 631, adding section 163.035 to Florida Statutes. This law made it nearly impossible for counties to protect customary beach use by requiring them to:

• Obtain a judicial declaration through special proceedings before adopting any customary-use ordinance

• Litigate parcel-by-parcel, rather than recognize customary use coast-wide

• Bear the cost of expensive legal battles just to confirm what residents already knew

Walton County tried. They filed a massive lawsuit covering 1,194 Gulf-front parcels. The result? A confusing patchwork where some parcels have confirmed customary use and others don’t, leaving beachgoers with no clear guidance about when they’ve crossed into “private” territory.

The 2025 Reset: SB 1622 Changes Everything

On June 24, 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1622 in Santa Rosa Beach, repealing section 163.035 entirely.

The official bill analysis makes the impact clear: local governments can now adopt ordinances “based upon customary use” of privately owned beaches without jumping through HB 631’s procedural hoops.

Translation: Counties like Walton now have clear authority to pass broad, coast-wide customary-use ordinances protecting public recreational use of dry sand.

Whether they actually do it is a policy choice—and the clock is ticking.

The Littrell Case: When Beach Disputes Become Criminal Matters

Into this legal moment comes Brian Littrell’s beachfront war.

According to recent coverage, Littrell filed two lawsuits:

1. Against neighbor Carolyn HillLittrell claims the 67-year-old repeatedly set up on “his” dry sand, ignored “No Trespassing” signs, cursed at his property manager, and refused to leave even when deputies arrived. He’s seeking $50,000 in damages for harassment.

2. Against Walton County Sheriff’s OfficeLittrell argues deputies aren’t enforcing trespass laws aggressively enough on his beach, despite his signs and trespass authorization forms.

Body-cam and social-media footage show tense confrontations, including a property manager approaching beachgoers with a drill and a deputy openly questioning the concept of private beaches.

Hill has moved to dismiss the civil suit, arguing her beach access is protected by customary use and constitutional principles.

From a criminal defense perspective, here’s the problem:

1. A property owner frames a public-access question as “trespassing”

2. Dispatch codes it as a criminal trespass call

3. Deputies respond under standard procedures for “trespassing on Gulf-front property”

4. Any refusal or pushback can escalate to trespass warnings, disorderly conduct charges, or arrest

Without a clear customary-use ordinance, ordinary beach use becomes a police matter—especially when the complainant has money, lawyers, and celebrity status.

The Mexico Warning: What Happens Without Strong Protection

Want to see how this plays out long-term? Look at Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

On paper, Mexico has moved aggressively toward public access:

• The General Law of National Assets recognizes beaches as national public property

• 2020 reforms explicitly guaranteed free beach access, prohibiting fees and unjustified barriers

• In 2025, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved further reforms guaranteeing unrestricted access

Yet the reality in Cancún, Tulum, and beyond tells a different story:

• Resorts use fences, security, and “guest-only” policies to deter local residents despite the law

• Communities in Tulum have repeatedly blocked Federal Highway 307 to protest restricted access and practices that effectively privatize coastline

The lesson is clear: Paper guarantees mean nothing if day-to-day enforcement drifts toward privatization.

SB 1622 gives Florida counties the tools to prevent that drift. The Littrell case shows how quickly we can slide the other way.

What Walton County Should Do Now

With SB 1622’s repeal of restrictions, Walton County should adopt a customary-use ordinance that:

1. Recognizes Customary Use Coast-WideDeclare that the public has customary rights to use all dry-sand areas along Walton’s Gulf coast for walking, sitting, sunbathing, fishing, and water access—based on documented historical use.

2. Creates Clear, Narrow Privacy BuffersEstablish small buffer zones at the base of occupied structures while making explicit that beyond those buffers, the dry sand is shared public space.

3. Limits Criminal Trespass EnforcementMake clear that peaceful recreation in customary-use areas is not trespass, and that boundary disputes are civil land-use matters—not grounds for arrest.

4. Provides Public TransparencyTrack and publish beach-related trespass calls, warnings, and arrests by location to prevent quiet privatization through selective enforcement.

Why This Matters Beyond Walton

The Littrell litigation isn’t just about one celebrity or one neighbor—it’s a test case for how Florida handles beach access in the post-HB 631 era.

If counties adopt strong customary-use ordinances with clear enforcement policies, Florida’s public trust doctrine means something on the ground.

If they hesitate, beach disputes will keep arriving as criminal trespass cases, and outcomes will depend less on centuries of public use and more on who holds the deed and has the sheriff on speed dial.

From a criminal defense standpoint, using trespass law to police longstanding public spaces is dangerous.

From a community standpoint, it’s a quiet way of turning the Emerald Coast into the most privatized corners of the Riviera Maya.

Walton County now has both the legal authority and national spotlight to do this right. A robust customary-use ordinance would send a simple message:

Florida’s beaches aren’t just backdrops for private property—they’re living public spaces, and the law will treat them that way.