Don't Mess with Texas Beach Access - Stop SB 434 and HB 3114

The public's beach access rights were being threatened by bad bills that had been introduced in the 2023 state legislative session. Currently Texans have the right to access the state’s beaches from the mean low tide line to the line of vegetation. This right is guaranteed by the Texas Open Beaches Act which became law in 1959 and was voted into the Texas State Constitution in 2009 by 75% of those voting in a statewide referendum. These bills would have flipped the burden of proof in instances of determining beach access, and the burden would have been placed on the party seeking to establish the beach access easement rather than the party encroaching on a beach access easement. They would also have deleted the finding that the line of vegetation automatically establishes the landward boundary of a public easement.