[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     MEXICO BEACH PROPERTY BOUNDARY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ALLEN BOYD

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 23, 2000

  Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, today, along with my Florida colleague 
Representative Joe Scarborough, I am introducing legislation that is 
intended to correct a boundary mistake made on a map in the Department 
of Interior's 1988 Report to Congress: Coastal Barrier Resources 
System. The map was subsequently adopted by Congress in the 1990 
Coastal Barrier Improvement Act.
  The St. Joe Company owns 45 acres east of the City of Mexico Beach, 
Florida. In 1988, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the ``Service'') 
proposed certain additions and modifications to the Coastal Barrier 
Resources System (CBRS). This proposal was accompanied by maps which 
depicted the existing boundaries of the CBRS as well as the proposed 
additions and modifications. However, while the maps expressly reported 
to show the existing CBRS boundaries, at least one of them instead 
contained a boundary line that erroneously included about 45 acres of 
St. Joe property. Because the boundary was unintentionally misdrawn 
neither the property owner nor Congress was given notice of this 
action. In 1990, Congress enacted the Coastal Barrier Improvement Act. 
The CBRS maps adopted by Congress with the 1990 Act included the 
erroneous boundary line from the Service's proposed map.
  Several years after the Mexico Beach property was mistakenly included 
in the CBRS, St. Joe representatives discovered the mistake while 
examining maps at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Last year, 
representatives of St. Joe met with Department of Interior and Service 
officials to discuss the mistake. As a result of those discussions a 
letter was written to the Company from the Acting Director of the 
United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Gary Frazier, acknowledging 
that a boundary mistake had been made and stating that the Service 
would not object to legislation to correct the mistake. Specifically, 
Mr. Frazier sated:

       The Service recognizes that in the 1988 Report to Congress 
     the inclusion of the property in question was not identified 
     as a boundary change for this unit, either in the 
     accompanying map or text of the Report. Regrettably, this 
     meant that neither the property owner nor Congress was 
     provided with adequate notice of the boundary change 
     reflected in the revised map for P-31. Therefore, because of 
     this error in the Report and the equities associated with 
     this specific situation, the Service would not oppose future 
     legislative action to remove the 45 acres owned by the St. 
     Joe Company from the System.

  The St. Joe Company has taken the proper steps in approaching the 
Department of Interior and the Service about this problem. 
Representative Scarborough and I are taking the next step in this 
process by introducing legislation to correct this mistake. It has been 
over ten years since Congress enacted the legislation which adopted the 
new map misdrawing the boundary of the Mexico Beach property. 
Therefore, I urge the House to act expeditiously on this legislation.

                          ____________________