Continuing to look at the various types of waterfront around how about the Maheu Estates plats off of Prosperity farms Rd on streets like Edgewater, Azure and Bay in Palm Beach Gardens?
The first plat, Maheu Estates for the lots on Edgewater Drive shows a “Canal Easement” and the grantor goes on to specify:
Ingress & egress of boats. That’s the right to move a boat over this submerged land. Is it for the general public or only the abutters? What about the right to place piling (build upon) the bottomage for a dock? How about dredging and maintenance? Lots of questions on this one IMO.
The Maheu Estates Addition Plat is for houses on Azure & Bay uses similar language but notes the waterways on that plat as “Lagoons”. That plat shows a small sliver of “Pearl” lagoon on the north side of Bay Circle lots and then a canal shown on another plat (26/81) on the north side of this sliver canal.
That plat (the plat 26/81 for cabana colony actually) shows a “Canal” and notes that:
“Public Use” so we don’t have to worry about an access agreement but a dedication is something else. Roads and such are dedicated to the government so long as they meet certain standards, as they were in North Palm Beach, and the municipality accepted the dedication. No idea if the county ever did this. Did they ever accept this gift of submerged lands to maintain in perpetuity? A dedication also implies a public right to use this land. It’s like a street BUT one can not build on a street so why would one be able to build on a dedicated canal?
Maheu estates Addition 2 for houses on Carib and Driftwood shows Lagoos and a Creek and that plat notesz:
So, here we are again. Ingress and egress is OK but how about docks and dredging?
Also, the houses on the south side of Carib ONLY have frontage on the public canal (26/81) . The other side of the waterway the grantor clearly shows a small piece of land below the water (“Pearl Lagoon”) with a different description and they would not have done that without good reason. That reason is that this was need to be able to build a dock.
One thing saves them though. The state is shown as the owner of the bottomage of the canals in this area. Seems odd to me but OK. Thus, most of these properties would enjoy Riparian rights.
