Victory for Texas beaches

On Nov. 3, Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment to protect access to the beach with 78 percent of the vote, the second highest vote-getter of the 11 amendments on the ballot. Proposition 9 amended the Texas Constitution “to protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Texans enjoy this right to access our beaches every day in many different ways: surfing on South Padre Island, fishing in Galveston Bay and bird watching on the Coastal Bend. The Texas Legislature first adopted the Open Beaches Act in 1959, declaring that Texas beaches belong to all Texans. However, in the following 50 years, these protections have been regularly threatened by the Legislature and the courts.