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The Stranded Subdivision


TheNiche

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For those of you with Google Earth, go to the following coordinates:

Lat 29.074846

Lon -95.145260

There, you will see a marshy island near San Luis pass on which are a row of single family homes with docks. There are no roads whatsoever. If you look generally around the area, you'll also notice other scattered single family homes, some apparently over the water, and others on tiny shell islands completely surrounded by it. As far as I am personally concerned, this is complete and utter coolness.

The ultimate retreat.

Anybody got any info?

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For those of you with Google Earth, go to the following coordinates:

Lat 29.074846

Lon -95.145260

There, you will see a marshy island near San Luis pass on which are a row of single family homes with docks. There are no roads whatsoever. If you look generally around the area, you'll also notice other scattered single family homes, some apparently over the water, and others on tiny shell islands completely surrounded by it. As far as I am personally concerned, this is complete and utter coolness.

The ultimate retreat.

Anybody got any info?

They're probably fishers shacks; tons of them line the gulf coast. The most remote ones are the ones in the Laguna Madre.

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  • 4 months later...

If they are true Fishermans shacks, then you can't buy them. At one time in the State of Texas you could essentially squat on an island in the bay by building a structure there as long as you got a permit from the State of Texas. They discontinued this process in the seventies and basically allowed exsisting houses to continue to be used. Once the structure falls down then you can no longer rebuild and you loose your permit. The houses on the map around San Louis pass are probably houses that had access by car at some point and just eventually got cut off from that access. The currents are really strong through the pass and the shoreline around there is constantly changing. I fish a lot in Chocolate Bayou, and Chocolate Bay and there are a number of those houses there. Some are still on islands while some have had there islands washed away from under them and literally are just out in the water. Texas conservation laws don't allow for them anymore just as if you own a beachouse and the beach is washed away and all of a sudden your house is on the beach in front of the dune line, then you no longer own it. Texas state law states that all land from the dune line to the water is public property. No one who owns a beach house in Texas has the right to deny people the right to walk on any stretch of beach. They may deny access across their property from inland but the beach is open access.

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If they are true Fishermans shacks, then you can't buy them. At one time in the State of Texas you could essentially squat on an island in the bay by building a structure there as long as you got a permit from the State of Texas. They discontinued this process in the seventies and basically allowed exsisting houses to continue to be used. Once the structure falls down then you can no longer rebuild and you loose your permit. The houses on the map around San Louis pass are probably houses that had access by car at some point and just eventually got cut off from that access. The currents are really strong through the pass and the shoreline around there is constantly changing. I fish a lot in Chocolate Bayou, and Chocolate Bay and there are a number of those houses there. Some are still on islands while some have had there islands washed away from under them and literally are just out in the water. Texas conservation laws don't allow for them anymore just as if you own a beachouse and the beach is washed away and all of a sudden your house is on the beach in front of the dune line, then you no longer own it. Texas state law states that all land from the dune line to the water is public property. No one who owns a beach house in Texas has the right to deny people the right to walk on any stretch of beach. They may deny access across their property from inland but the beach is open access.

You can buy them. You can rebuild them. You can even relocate them if TPWD gives you permission. But there are only so many permits out there, and you can't get any new ones, and they're trying to buy back existing permits. To me, this sounds like a market that will experience some pretty extreme appreciation, if it hasn't already.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/faq/warden/floating_cabins.phtml

I've also determined that there are 441 floating cabins registered with the state. Now, where can I buy one???

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Your link refers to "floating cabins" which are different from the permanent cabins I was talking about. Floating Cabins are basically shacks that are built on pontoons and float on the water. They can be towed from one place to another. Fisherman Cabins are perminent structures built like beach houses on stilts.

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Your link refers to "floating cabins" which are different from the permanent cabins I was talking about. Floating Cabins are basically shacks that are built on pontoons and float on the water. They can be towed from one place to another. Fisherman Cabins are perminent structures built like beach houses on stilts.
"Floating Cabin" is defined as a structure securely moored in the coastal water of this state used for habitation or shelter and not routinely used for transportation. The term includes all mooring lines, anchors, anchor lines, spuds, and pilings and any other tethering devices.

I also downloaded the shape file for ArcGIS that depicts where the state has permits out for "floating cabins" and there they were, all around San Luis Pass and various other bays and estuatries off the beaten track, just how I saw them on Google Earth. I was even able to find a couple websites where owners were renting out their "floating cabins" for overnight and weekend use. One site even had pictures, and there were no pontoons.

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Guess I just can't really explain it to well. I looked at several sites that rented floating cabins and everything I saw was just that, a cabin that floated. The spuds and pilings you reference from the TP&W site in my mind refers to what you tie them up to.

This is one site I saw and all the cabins were floating.

http://www.captaincarl.com/floatingcabins.html

The houses I am refering to are pretty much regular old beach houses of the type you would see along the beaches and canals in Galveston or Freeport. They were built on islands in the bays and those are the type you can no longer buy or build.

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Texas Parks and Wildlife manages the permits for Floating Cabins because they are floating, and as a result a type of boat which is under their jurisdiction. The structures I'm referring to are really houses built on islands in the bays that come and go due to erosion and storms. These islands are the result of dredging, old oyster reefs and sometimes sand bars. The regulation of these areas fall under the jurisdiction of the Texas Land Office. The rules below basically say that if you owned and used it prior to August 27, 1973 and continue to use it then okay, you can. However if it gets knocked down, or you abandon it then you have to get a permit from them to go back and do anything, and basically they don't grant those anymore so you loose the house.

I have fished Galveston, Chocolate, Bastrop, Christmas, Trinity and East Bays since the mid 60's and knew friends of my Father that had these type structures. Over the years they gradually lost them becasue as storms would tear them up they could not go back and do repairs without a permit. They tried but in every case they were denied and the stated goal of the Land Office was to eliminate these types of houses. These structures are definatly not the Floating Cabins you are referring to.

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