The "Walton Dunes Parking Parcel" is an Outrage
There’s a reason the "Walton Dunes" conceptual drawing shows the parking area only, as opposed to the conceptual drawings for Montigo Access and Santa Clara Access, which both show the surrounding areas. The planned parking for Walton Dunes takes a narrow, dead-end neighborhood street (Beachfront Trail) and turns it into a parking lot (see image below). It will make it necessary for all of the property owners and visitors to the east of the parking lot, to maneuver through a congested parking lot in order to access their property. Where else in this county, state, or country is a property owner required to drive through a public parking lot in order to reach their property? This beach access is classified as a “neighborhood” beach access, not a regional access for good reason. The congestion and hazardous conditions of this planned parking lot is an accident waiting to happen.
Cars backing in and out, adults and children loaded down with beach chairs etc. walking in the street in order to reach the beach access, which is at the far west end of the parking lot, all the while traffic is attempting to use this street as the only egress and ingress to the properties on the east side of the parking lot. The design forces pedestrians to walk down the street – since there are no sidewalks and since there are no plans to provide sidewalks– in order to reach the beach access.
Beachfront Trail has no bike lanes. Bicycles must share the road with the motorized traffic. The conceptual design invites bicycle traffic to the beach access with a specifically designated bicycle parking area, but the parking space arrangement for cars and trucks makes it even more dangerous for those on bicycles to get to the designated bicycle parking area.
Beachfront Trail is a narrow, dead end, neighborhood street. The minimum street width is supposed to be 20 feet, but the accumulation of sand along the pavement edges makes it much smaller. The County has provided no place to turn around a car or a truck on Beachfront Trail. Turning a vehicle around on this street creates a major safety issue already – not only for the vehicles but also for pedestrians and bike riders. Bringing more traffic onto the street while, at the same time, blocking access to the road shoulders for pedestrians and bicycles will only worsen the problem.
The right of way along this east/west section of Beachfront Trail is only 50 feet wide. It is 17 feet to the north of the east-west property lines and 35 feet to the south of the property line, BUT the street is not positioned such that it is centered on the property lines.
If the 47 parking spaces are constructed as shown on the conceptual design, they will be shorter than the minimum size required and the parked vehicles will also extend into the driving lanes. This situation will worsen progressively as sand accumulates along the edges of the pavement. The street must be a minimum width of 20 feet. That width leaves only 30 feet of right of way width available for the perpendicular parking – or 15 feet north of the driving lanes and 15 feet south of the driving lanes. A 2012 Volkswagen Jetta is 15 feet 2 inches in length. Two 2012 Ford F150 short bed pickup trucks – just a basic pickup, is 18 feet in length and SUV’s are often much longer. If two Ford pickups parked across the street from one another, the street would be only 14 feet in width. Waste Management trucks, CHELCO trucks, regional utility trucks, all types of emergency vehicles (fire trucks) would have a difficult time driving down the street and may not be able to turn the 90 degree corner at the west end of the parcel. It would be very difficult for two vehicles, traveling in opposite directions, to pass each other in a space of just 14 feet.
The coastal barrier dunes provide protection for our neighborhood from the wave action and storm surge that we have seen all too often in recent years. These dunes must be preserved and protected.
The conceptual drawing is a bit misleading because it does not provide any reference to site elevation. Because of a failure by the County to serve as a proper steward of the site since they leased it in 1998, the dunes on this parcel are much smaller than the dunes on adjacent property and the dunes on the site do not extend as far seaward as on the adjacent property. The dunes are closer to the road and the tops of these dunes are one to three feet above the elevation of the road. To construct the project, it will be necessary to flatten the dunes and build on top of them.
The natural habitats of the sea turtle and of the nesting snowy plover that exist on the site will have to be flattened and otherwise destroyed.
Lowering the site elevation below the level of the elevation of nearby properties will expose all nearby property owners to storm surge and wave action. This will be particularly destructive to the 14 Townhomes located just 100 yards to the north of the planned parking lot.
The property values surrounding this parking site will surely be diminished. Would you want to live in a townhome that has a parking lot sitting in your front yard? Would you want to live in a home that requires you to drive through a congested public parking lot in order to access your property? Lower property values = lower property taxes. In the same vein, what tourist would want to rent a townhome and look at a parking lot while sitting on their deck? What tourist would want to rent a property and have to drive through a congested parking lot each day? Lower rental rates = lower bed tax dollars.
With 47 parking spaces, three people per vehicle are another 144 people on this section of beach. During peak season, an average of 4 per vehicle is not unreasonable, which means an additional 188 people on this section of beach. This section is already crowded from the many condo’s townhomes and private homes in the immediate surrounding area and cannot accommodate another 144-188 people.
The residents and tourists that have bought property in this area or that come back year after year have done so because of the appeal of being a quiet residential neighborhood. Walton County and the TDC are attempting to turn this area into a congested mess, without the slightest understanding of the reason tourists come to the Beaches of South Walton. Joni Mitchell certainly had foresight when she sang “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.
The following diagram shows the proposed parking lot, as it would appear, if completed.
