By DOTTY NIST
After hearing from county staff and 22 members of the public at a two-hour special meeting on May 18, the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) opted to put off a decision on proposed changes to county regulations for lots within the Coastal Dune Lake Protection Zone (CDLPZ).
The meeting was held at the South Walton Annex.
The CDLPZ extends 300 feet from the coastal dune lakes and their tributaries.
The proposed revisions would apply to both the Walton County Comprehensive Plan (CP) and Land Development Code (LDC).
The changes would increase vegetative clearing allowed on portions of lots in the CDLPZ from 25 percent to 50 percent. They would also move this percentage requirement from the CP while leaving it in the LDC for the purpose of providing for property owners to go to the Walton County Zoning Board of Adjustments to seek variances from dune lake regulations. Variances from LDC provisions are possible, but no variances are possible from CP provisions.
A 100-foot CDLPZ buffer, within which no clearing is allowed other than walkways, generally applies to the deeper lots in the CDLPZ. Currently the 25 percent clearable portion is calculated based on square footage outside of this 100-foot zone. As proposed, the 50-percent clearable area would be based on gross square footage and would include portions of lots within the 100-foot zone.
Standards for platted lots in existing subdivisions would supercede current and proposed standards.
As proposed at the May 18 meeting, the language would provide for nonconforming homes in the CDLPZ to be reconstructed to the same footprint if destroyed by fire or other disaster. During BCC discussion, the proposed language was changed to the more general “structure” to allow for reconstruction of buildings other than homes.
As suggested by District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows, the proposal was also changed to provide for a destroyed structure to be rebuilt farther from a lake or tributary on the lot if desired.
It was acknowledged by staff at the meeting that the CDLPZ regulations currently on the books had been unevenly enforced over the years.
The changes have been proposed for the stated purpose of flexibility in allowing for homes to be sited on lots within the CDLPZ. Mac Carpenter of Walton County Planning and Development Services spoke of “tremendous pressure” that the planning department is experiencing now for construction of homes on undeveloped lots.
The county commissioners heard a variety of opinions and questions from the public on the proposed changes, evidencing great interest in the dune lakes on the part of citizens, both those living near the lakes and not.
In BCC discussion following public comment, Carpenter brought up a code provision located in “an obscure location” that provides for structures in existence as of the date of the county’s adoption of the CP in 1996 to be considered conforming. In order to uphold rights of owners of property within the CDLPZ, the commissioners also discussed a similar action to deem structures currently existing as conforming and thus providing for them to rebuilt in the same footprint if destroyed.
It was clarified that rebuilt structures would have to comply with current building codes.
Staff was directed to work on the proposed language to address provisions that would apply for rebuilding of destroyed structures in three categories, including those in existence at the time of CP adoption, those built between that time and the present, and those to be built on undeveloped lots in the future. They were instructed to include which rules would apply in each instances and also whether expansion of structures would be allowed when rebuilt.
The hearing was continued to the June 23 BCC meeting, at which the revised language is set to be presented. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and take place at the Walton County Courthouse in DeFuniak Springs.
