This condo complex near the north tip of Longboat Key was built very close to the edge of the Gulf. The beach around the seawall has eroded to the point that there is no public access to beaches further north... and Longboat's ever popular destination, Beer Can Island.
Looking south from the same point, we see that other condos are built far back from the beach.
The satellite photo (maps.google.com: dated earlier 2009),shows the condo next to a wide beach.
(Click to enlarge)
The following article by Dave Bulloch in the Winter 2009 issue of "Littorally Speaking" addresses the issue: http://littoralsociety.org/newsletters.aspx Sarasota Seawalls on the Wane
The Sarasota County commissioners have just revamped the County coastal setback code to all but make it impossible to build a seawall on the Gulf side of the County shoreline. Seawalls along an active coastline are an invitation to future disaster. They are eventually undermined and fall into the water and almost immediately enhance rapid erosion at one end or the other on someone else’s property. The new rules require that the seawall be in the public interest: (1) it cannot impede public access to the beach,(2) it cannot harm adjacent property, and (3) it must be unfeasible to move or elevate the structure to be protected and to replace lost sand or other habitat. The new code bans walls, groins or other protective structures for any new structures. Sixty years ago, most local people understood the dangers of building so close to active shores. Beach homes were small and built to move or lose and put as far back from the waterline as feasible. As wealthy people from inland arrived with no storm experience (and a lull in intense storms) the McMansions went up along the Gulf. Our filled-up barrier islands are a catastrophe waiting to happen. Consider this: in the 1920’s when practically no one except a few fishermen lived there, the surge from a hurricane went over the tops of the red mangroves, about 14 feet in height. Caveat emptor. (Read more about why seawalls don’t work in the Summer 2006 issue of Coastal Reporter, available in PDF format at www.littoralsociety.org under the Resources/Newsletters tab.