There is a country music song that talks about “oceanfront” property in Arizona as a metaphor for someone being a fool:

I got some ocean front property in Arizona.

From my front porch you can see the sea.

I got some ocean front property in Arizona

If you’ll buy that, I’ll throw the golden gate in free.

But in Virginia, the citizens of the Commonwealth could be played the fool under HB2310.

HB2310 literally gives away created waterfront land to the upland owner.  Put another way, if you legally fill in over top of state bottomland, you get the new waterfront property for free. 

Contrast this to existing law, which requires you pay a quarter of the assessed value of the waterfront property.  Pretty good bargain already, but one that takes in to account the work the upland owner has done to add value.

House Bill 2310 is offensive on several levels, the least of which is that it appears the country music songwriter understands jus publicum, the bundle of public trust rights which have been part of English common law for thousands of years.

Jus publicum is the bundle of trust rights the public has to fully use and enjoy for commerce, navigation and fishing of the public trust lands.  And what is a public trust land?  Very simply, it includes, but is not limited to, the waters and bottomland of the Commonwealth.

The Public Trust Doctrine simply provides that lands, waters and living resources in a state are held by that state in trust for the benefit of all of the people, and not just the upland owners.  The trust is a real trust in the legal sense of the word. 

Waterfront property owners don’t get to build a dock because they own the bottomland in front of their property, but in spite of that fact.  Thus, HB2310 gives away the very land that you and I own.

What makes this measure even more egregious is the fact that we are giving away state owned land to those who are most able to afford it – waterfront property owners.  And, evidently, in some cases the property being given away is commercial in nature.  In other words, if a developer of a waterfront condominium complex legally fills in bottomland, then he can merely petition the state to have that bottomland given to him.

Under the Public Trust Doctrine, the trustees are I and my peers - state legislators who can delegate our authority to the executive branch.  Maybe if we believe giving away the bottomland for free is good policy, we might just get a bridge thrown in for free.