House Bill 1262

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO TRANSFER AND RECONVEY CERTAIN REAL PROPERTY LOCATED IN BAY ST. LOUIS, HANCOCK COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, IN FEE SIMPLE TO THE ORIGINAL OWNERS, THEIR HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF SUCH PROPERTIES, OWNERSHIP TO WHICH HAS BEEN CLAIMED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE AS PUBLIC TIDELANDS SUBSEQUENT TO AUGUST 29, 2005; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) The Department of Finance and Administration is hereby authorized to transfer and reconvey by means of donation to the original owners, or to their heirs or assigns, certain real property located in the City of Bay St. Louis. The properties to be reconveyed having been bounded to its immediate east by a seawall erected without public funds by the citizens of Bay St. Louis and the Gulf of Mexico to the east of such seawall previous to August 29, 2005, were held in fee simple by certain persons in their private individual capacities to the mean high tide line abutting such properties. Such persons were divested of their rights in certain portions of said properties subsequent to August 29, 2005, at such time that the Office of Secretary of State claimed title to such portions of these properties and designated them as public tidelands under which ownership and control is held by such office in trust for the State of Mississippi. Such properties being more particularly described as follows:

Those parcels of property immediately adjacent to the Eastern boundary of Beach Boulevard; then bounded on the South at the point of intersection of Beach Boulevard and the crossing of the railroad line operated by the Hancock County Port and Commission with connections CSX; and then runs North to the point of intersection of Beach Boulevard and Ulman Avenue; thence bounded on the East by the seawall erected by the State of Mississippi subsequent to August 29, 2005, and the Gulf of Mexico.

(2) Before the real property authorized under subsection (1) of this section for reconveyance, the Department of Finance and Administration shall abrogate any title to such property held by the Secretary of State so as to render such titles void ab initio. Upon such abrogation the department shall reconvey such parcels of property, as those properties existed before August 29, 2005, to the original owners, or to their heirs or assigns without restriction of conditional use.

(3) The State of Mississippi shall retain all mineral rights to the real property reconveyed under this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2014.