Some beachfront property owners in South Walton County use ropes to mark off private property. [NICK TOMECEK/DAILY NEWS] ▲ Emily Shriner (left) and Madison Blackstock of Nashville, Tennessee, were unsure where they could sit on the beach near the Blue Mountain Beach access. [NICK TOMECEK/DAILY NEWS] ▲ A sign posted next to a public beach access at Dune Allen Beach tells visitors to walk along the water's edge. [DEVON RAVINE/DAILY NEWS] ▲ Walton County Sheriff's Deputy Russell McMillian tells beachgoer Stormy Stoy last year that her umbrella and chairs were on a private beach and must be moved closer to the water. [FILE PHOTO/DAILY NEWS] ▲ A broken umbrella sticks out of a trash bag at a South Walton public beach access. [NICK TOMECEK/DAILY NEWS] ▲ Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson speaks with Vizcaya residents Mark Whittaker (right)and Bill Knox last year after a press conference on the property line of the Vizcaya neighborhood. [FILE PHOTO/DAILY NEWS] ▲

It is telling that the two sides in Walton County's bitter battle over its beaches don't even agree about what it was last year that blew apart decades of harmonious relations along one of Florida's most beautiful coastlines.

The dispute has evolved to the point in which it now pits the Walton County Commission against more than 600 beach property owners in an all-or-nothing legal fight that will decide whether or not 26 miles of county beach are considered open and accessible to the public.

"There's going to be a profound winner and a profound loser," said attorney David Pleat, who represents some 60 property owners.

The County Commission last November voted unanimously to seek a judge's determination that its claim of customary use was valid and the county's beaches should be publicly accessible. On Dec. 11, it filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment.

Before filing the suit, the county notified 1,194 beach property owners of its intention to take legal action. Thus far, 602 of those owners have hired lawyers to intervene on their behalf in the court case and resist the county's effort.

Walton Circuit Court Judge David Green has been assigned the case and at some point will rule either for or against the county. Most people involved in the case figure Green's ruling won't resolve anything, and that whichever side loses will appeal.

David Raushkolb, a Seaside businessman and customary use supporter who is one of a handful of residents who has filed to intervene on the side of the county, said he believes the case will eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although a compromise would save property owners and taxpayers millions of dollars, there doesn't appear to be any appetite for that on either side.

"What is a compromise? I don't even know what that means," said Daniel Uhlfelder, a customary use proponent and the attorney who represents the group that wants to intervene on the side of the county. "For hundreds of years people have used the beaches, and now they're trying to say we can't. The compromise is just letting people use the beach."

Glidewell, who won his County Commission race by taking the publicly popular stance of claiming to be a customary use supporter, earned support from property owners by assuring them in private conversations he would seek compromise everyone could live with.

He has since gone back on that promise and blames property owners for his decision to do so. The property owners don't want compromise, they want surrender, he said recently.

"I will not be bullied or threatened into anything," he told Huckabee in an April 8 email.

Not all private property owners appear to be as deeply entrenched in their views as Glidewell has surmised. Suzanne Harris, the president of private Edgewater Condominiums, has maintained throughout the battle that she won't run people off of the beach behind her complex, as long as they behave.

"We need to come to some sort of compromise. This community is so split you'll never go forward with anything if you have two factions that are fighting over everything," Harris said. "Maybe if we could come up with something and we could live with it this summer, and we could live with it again next summer ... just give us a chance to try to work things out."

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, offered his own compromise to the customary use/private property conundrum even before the county passed its 2017 ordinance.

He suggested something he called Beach Share, a strictly voluntary exercise in which property owners would, if they so chose, offer to allow the public to use their beaches.

Under the plan, visitors to a private parcel would agree to abide by clearly stated rules. If they refused, they could be arrested and prosecuted under trespass statutes.

If Beach Share was approved as authored by Huckabee, owners would be immune from liability for visitors to their beach and law officers would be provided to deal with rules violations. Signs would be provided to mark Beach Share properties, and Beach Share homes would receive tax breaks based on the amount of beach area that was shared.

When he was campaigning for office and communicating with Huckabee about a potential for compromise, Glidewell said he saw Beach Share as a reasonable place to start.

But Huckabee, who declined to speak directly to the Northwest Florida Daily News, has expressed in emails his frustration with the five county commissioners who were in office when he proposed his plan. He said only one ever contacted him about the idea, and was obviously not serious about doing anything with the proposal.

He also expressed disappointment to Glidewell after the new county commissioner decided he wouldn't look for compromise on the customary beach issue.

"You said you can only 'work with people who talk to you.' I did. I offered you a proposal that you even acknowledged was a reasonable starting point for some resolution of the beach controversy," Huckabee said in an email. "Once you were elected, I never heard back."