it's a new day. i doubt sandestin will be the last.
[URL="http://www.waltonsun.com/present/driftwood.html"]http://www.waltonsun.com/present/driftwood.html[/URL]
Will be the last what?
The ultimate point of this is that the residents of Driftwood Estates want to "break through" the Sandestin gates for access in and out of their neighborhood.
They have been fighting for this with Sandestin for a long time. Obviously, the gated community of Sandestin does not want or need the added congestion from the residents of Driftwood Estates.
This is mainly an issue with the development of Driftwood Estates and NOT Sandestin. This is why the the county has stopped development at Driftwood Estates (again) and NOT Sandestin.
The original DRI included Driftwood Estates because Sandestin owned this property at the time of filing. When Sandestin sold the Driftwood parcel to another developer, the responsibility for properly insuring drainage for the Driftwood Estates parcel passed to the Driftwood developer. Sandestin has been in compliance with the drainage requirements for its development and does not have a similar drainage problem. This is why the approximately $3 million cost of improving Driftwood Estates drainage is the responsibility of the Driftwood Estates developer and not Sandestin(there doesn't seem to be too much dispute about this).
The alternate access road to Driftwood Estates (via Sandestin) is a seperate issue. Once Driftwood Estates solves its drainage problem, the safety aspects related to flooding roads in Driftwood Estates would seem to be solved, thus becoming a non-issue.
Concerning allowing access to Sandestin roads to Driftwood residents, it should be remembered that maintenance of these roads (along with Security, access gates, etc.) is paid for by Sandestin residents (and not Walton County). If its ultimately agreed to allow Driftwood owners access to these roads, then they will have to pay for them (just as Sandestin owners do now) via increased Driftwood Estates Homeowner assessments.
while sandestin sold driftwood, they never altered the dri plan approved by the state. while you can cajole the county. you can't mess with the state. sandestin should have proceeded in good faith before the sale altering their dri with the state, they declined to act responsibly.
Even if the DRI had been updated at the time of the sale, it would still be the responsibility of the Driftwood developer and Walton County (and not Sandestin) to make sure that a proper drainage infrastructure is implemented for the size of the DRIFTWOOD development..... with or without the updated paperwork being in place with the state at the time of the sale.
i'm afraid not. if you actually read the paperwork, sandestin still has responsibility to provide an additional evacuation route regardless of who they sold driftwood to because of the submitted development plans.