GALVESTON - Beachfront property owners on Galveston Island who once benefited from tax-funded beach cleaning are now delving into their own pockets for seaweed removal and may soon be responsible for removing litter.

A Texas Supreme Court decision this year that turned much of the public beach on Galveston Island into private property is at the heart of a decision by the Galveston Park Board to suspend seaweed raking on non-public beaches. In two weeks the Park Board will consider a proposal to remove all its trash barrels and halt litter removal from what are now considered private beaches.

The Supreme Court's decision in the lawsuit by San Diego attorney Carol Severance challenging the Texas Open Beaches Act, combined with strained resources, led the Park Board to halt seaweed raking on private beaches, said Kelly de Schaun, executive director.

Seaweed cleaning

Since the ruling favoring Severance, the state has considered most of the beaches on the west end of Galveston Island private, although few property owners restrict access. The Park Board until recently continued to clean seaweed from private beaches as long as the homeowners association granted a temporary easement.

But the number of seaweed cleaning requests rose from five in 2011 to 18 this year, de Schaun said. The Park Board discovered it was spending more effort on private beaches than on public ones.

"In essence, we've been redirecting resources meant for operating the parks and seawall to cover beach cleaning expenses for areas outside of our jurisdiction, such as the West End," de Shaun said.

Park Board cleaning efforts were further strained by an unusual amount of seaweed washing up on island beaches and an increase in beach use, board Chairman Craig Brown said. Visits to Stewart Beach are up 7.5 percent his year, according to Park Board figures.

The Park Board on Aug. 14 will consider recommendations from an advisory committee to remove trash cans placed along miles of now private beach and restrict litter removal to the wet beach, the part covered by tides, which remains public.

Brown said that for health and safety reasons the Park Board would continue to remove debris washed onto the beach along the entire 32 miles of island coastline.

Can afford it

Although some of his neighbors are upset about the possibility of losing tax-financed litter removal, beachfront homeowner Sergio Pineda believes it's fair.

"I would support any decision they would take for the simple reason that people should not nickel and dime the Park Board," said Pineda, who lives in the Sands of Kahala Beach subdivision.

Owners of beachfront rentals earn as much as $3,000 a month from rent and can easily afford to rent a Dumpster as he does, Pineda said.

The $2.3 million beach maintenance budget is paid for through a 15 percent hotel occupancy tax. Of the 15 cents on each dollar collected, 1.277 cents is for beach cleaning, which supplies about two-thirds of the beach cleaning budget, de Schaun said. The remaining one-third comes from money that would otherwise be used for parks, she said.

The West End accounts for about 13 percent of hotel tax revenues, she said.

harvey.rice@chron.com