{"id":99281,"date":"2025-07-28T11:55:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99281\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T11:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:55:28","slug":"judge-orders-mediation-in-lawsuit-over-beach-access-on-american-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99281\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders mediation in lawsuit over beach access on American Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMERICAN BEACH, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 For generations, American Beach has been a refuge \u2014 for families and for wildlife.<\/a><\/p>\n

But right now, proposed changes to beach driving rules in Nassau County are drawing pushback from the American Beach community. <\/p>\n

The debate comes as a legal battle over beach access continues in federal court.<\/a><\/p>\n

American Beach residents say they\u2019ve been fighting this battle for decades.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Save Historic American Beach is suing Nassau County under the Endangered Species Ac<\/a>t, hoping to stop vehicles from driving on the beach, saying it\u2019s harming sea turtle nests.<\/p>\n

However, a judge ordered mediation, meaning the parties have to sit down with their legal teams to come up with a compromise. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, obviously, our community is very distraught about this,\u201d said Save Historic American Beach Chair Mark Dawkins.<\/p>\n

Dawkins said that despite the group showing photos of sea turtles being run over, the judge said video evidence was needed to issue an injunction. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat video evidence is almost impossible to get because if someone sees a car about to run over a turtle hatchling, they will stop the car,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to pull out their phone or their camera and record someone rolling over a sea turtle or sea turtle hatchling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the judge\u2019s ruling, Nassau County introduced proposed changes to its beach driving ordinance. <\/p>\n

At the July County Board of Commissioners meeting, the proposal included limiting beach driving to county residents and property owners, with restricted hours during turtle nesting season.<\/p>\n

But Dawkins said the proposal falls short\u2014and could make things worse, especially with changes that would allow large items like jet skis and surfboards to be stored near the dunes where sea turtles nest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a slap in the face. The county knows we are a resort community,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cThey passed the law to stop beach driving in resort communities, but they explicitly wrote the law to exclude American Beach because we are a historically Black community.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with more than 250 public parking spaces already available, Dawkins said there\u2019s no need for cars on the sand. He said it\u2019s not just about beach policy\u2014it\u2019s about a decades-long push for equal treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 35-year fight that is ongoing. We continue. We intend to continue the fight, because we just want to be treated the same as everyone else,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cDon\u2019t treat us differently, treat us the same, and we will be OK with that. That\u2019s all we ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

News4JAX reached out to Nassau County for comment but haven\u2019t heard back. <\/p>\n

When we first reported on the lawsuit, officials said they couldn\u2019t speak due to ongoing litigation. <\/p>\n

Mediation with Save Historic American Beach is set for Aug. 15. A vote on the proposed changes is scheduled for the Aug. 11 commission meeting\u2014and American Beach residents say they plan to attend.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMERICAN BEACH, Fla. \u2013 For generations, American Beach has been a refuge \u2014 for families and for wildlife.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,64962,718,746,3188,723,7310,12013,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-99281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-american-beach","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-morning-show","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114930734235785223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}