By DOTTY NIST
In a lively meeting on April 14 at the South Walton Annex, the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) took action on a number of items but opted to get more information before deciding on whether and, if so, how to increase the number of permits for beach driving.
Two months earlier, the BCC had approved the Grayton Beach Neighborhood Plan, minus provisions in that plan that would have allowed for 50 additional beach driving permits for owners of property within the plan area. At that time, staff was directed to prepare an ordinance to amend the Walton County Code of Ordinances to allow for the addition of these permits in the plan area.
That proposed ordinance was brought before the BCC at the April 14 meeting, providing for the additional 50 permits, which would be valid for one year and nonrenewable, with a lottery to be held in the instance of more than 50 applications from property owners within the plan area.
There was considerable discussion and a variety of opinions were aired. Dueling public comments included urging for no Grayton Beach property owner to be denied a permit, comment favoring the additional 50 permits being valid for Grayton Beach only (not the Inlet Beach beach driving area), and a recommendation for opening up the additional 50 permits to property owners countywide.
District 4 Commissioner Sara Comander commented that if she had her “druthers,” beach driving permits would be limited to people 65 or older or people with handicaps. However, she expressed agreement with the idea of opening up the additional 50 permits to people countywide if the additional permits were to be added.
Sidney Noyes, assistant county attorney, reminded the commissioners that the ordinance that had been advertised for consideration was for the 50 additional permits for property owners in the Grayton Beach Neighborhood Plan area.
District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows said her understanding had been that the ordinance would provide for the additional 50 permits for residential properties in the Grayton Beach Neighborhood Plan area with no lottery .
Meadows said that she had also thought of the possibility of re-grandfathering people countywide who had been permit holders in 2008 and had lost their permit. This loss of permits had occurred in part due to the county making changes to the beach driving permit program during that time period. Those changes had provided for the grandfathering of existing permits under certain conditions and eliminating permits for anyone previously grandfathered who did not renew annually. Later a lottery system was instituted to make one-year permits available to additional individuals.
In response to those remarks, Noyes offered to obtain figures on the number of people who had been permit holders in 2008 and had been “left off” from the program the next year. She agreed to bring that information to the next regular BCC meeting on April 28.
An ordinance incorporating changes previously agreed upon by the commissioners for the beach vending program was approved. The most substantial of the changes was a limitation on beach vendor operations to no more than 50 percent “of the public beach frontage at any public beach access.” According to the commissioners’ approval at the April 14 meeting, May 1 is to be the date for the Walton County Tourist Development Council (TDC) to implement that rule by marking vendor areas at the public beach accesses.
Brian Kellenberger, TDC director of beach operations, clarified that the 50 percent provision limits vendors but not the general public, and that the public will have the right to use all of the beach at the public accesses.
In other action, two Tax Increment Financing (TIF) areas were approved by ordinance, one for the area south of the bay and one for the unincorporated area along U.S. 331 north of the bay. The creation of these TIFs is aimed at capturing incremental increase in ad valorem tax revenues in the two areas resulting from rising property values, with those funds to be deposited in TIF trust accounts for use for specific purposes within the area collected.
For the south Walton County TIF, those purposes, according to the BCC approval, are improvements to public infrastructure and other capital projects. The TIF account for U.S. 331 north of the bay is, according to the approved ordinance, to fund infrastructure in that TIF area, including construction of water and wastewater facilities along U.S. 331.
The BCC has the ability to set the amount collected from the incremental increase at any value up to 100 percent. This amount was not set as part of the approval of the ordinances. Plans were for the percentage amount to be set as part of resolutions to come before the BCC later in public session.
The commissioners also approved an amendment related to a previously-approved development, the Forest View Village Planned Unit Development (PUD), which has not been constructed. This is the planned development off the east end of U.S. 98 from which property was purchased by the county for the South Walton Sports Park and by the Walton County School Board for a school site.
A total of 288 multifamily units, 180,000 square feet of general commercial, and 127 hotel units were proposed for the remaining 43.24 acres. A list of deviations was proposed as part of the amendment, involving landscaping, parking requirements, and access points. Also requested was that future facets of the project be allowed to undergo minor development review by county staff/the Walton County Technical Review Committee rather than major development review by the Walton County Planning Commission and BCC.
On a motion by District 2 Commissioner Cecilia Jones, the amendment was approved in a split vote, along with all requested deviations except for the latter request, which was not included in the approval.
