NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING You are hereby notified that the Walton County Tourist Development Council will hold a special meeting on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 9:00 AM in the South Walton Courthouse Annex Board Room, located at 31 Coastal Centre Boulevard, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the purchase of properties located on Highway 331 South for a new TDC facility. Two or more Walton County elected or appointed officials may attend. This meeting is open to the public. For additional information regarding Walton County TDC meetings, please contact Lisa Foster at 850-267-1216 or Lisa@visitsouthwalton.com< mailto:Lisa@visitsouthwalton.com>. Walton County adheres to the Americans with Disabilities Act and will make reasonable modifications for access to the meetings upon request. Please call (850) 892-8110 to make a request. For the hearing impaired, please call 1-800-955-8771 (TDD), 1-800-955-8770 (VOICE). Requests must be received at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting to allow time to provide the requested services. At your service, Louis E. Svehla Public Information Manager Walton Board of County Commissioners 76 North 6th Street DeFuniak Springs, FL 32435 Phone: 850-892-8155 x1010 Cell: 850-333-6404 Email: svelouis@co.walton.fl.us
The TDC has already ruined our area by over-advertising so why create more traffic and over-crowding of the small public beaches we do have by providing a new building. WASTE of our funds
Mostly because of parking. The current building is leased from the DEP and has no room to expand parking due to a pond under the building. Between employees, visitors, meeting attendees, and perhaps some other issues I'm unaware of, they simply do not have enough parking to handle TDC business. Most TDC meetings (even committee meetings) are now held at the South Walton Annex for this reason. Another reason is that visitors to Walton County who arrive via 331 or from the west do not have easy access to the visitor center. Good news is that, in addition to marketing, TDC funds can now be used more extensively than previously allowed, even for infrastructure to various extents as long as it benefits tourists, too.
I believe that the property has to either be turned back into its native state before the building or the DEP may elect to keep it for themselves or lease it to some other state agency. There may be other options as well, but those are some that were mentioned in an article I read. With all the DEP work in this area, it might be nice to have a local location. Maybe they could share with some other agencies that have a good bit of work in South Walton. I guess we'll find out!