Plan to reopen Mickler's Landing, as soon as this week, in the works

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — Days after a private project cut off public access to the beach at Mikler's Landing, there's a plan in the works to get it back open.

District 4 County Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker said he expects the beach to reopen this week.

People who use Mickler's Landing called, emailed and spoke up during a commission meeting Tuesday.

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We're now learning details about a plan to get their beach back open.

"I had a woman who (said) her husband recently passed away and her morning routine is to come out here and walk," Blocker said.

Blocker got calls from several constituents complaining about the closure. He said if it wasn't for them calling Friday, he wouldn't have known the entire access point had been shut down.

The agreement was that construction crews would use 25 percent of the parking lot.

"As you can see here, this is not 25 percent. The entire parking lot is being used. That is not what we understood," Blocker said ​​​​​​.

Blocker is disappointed that county staff took it upon themselves to close off the entire access point.

"We as a board elected by the citizens, we have the authority to make that decision not our staff," Blocker said.

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It's an issue Blocker said that he will address, and prevent from happening in the future.

In the meantime he's asked the county and the Sheriff's Office to figure out a solution right away.

It's not set in stone yet, but they're thinking of fencing one part of the parking lot to allow heavy machinery to park and leave the other part open to the public. They're also thinking of having deputies direct traffic.

"Do you want to address the perception that public access to the beach was shut down because of affluent homeowners?" Lorena Inclan asked.

"That's absolutely not true," Blocker said.

He said that if he had known the beach access would be entirely blocked off, he would've never agreed to the project.

Blocker said the homeowners who are paying for the dune restoration project also have a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection.

Cox Media Group