By DOTTY NIST
The Walton County Technical Review Committee (TRC) has voted to continue a large beach store proposed for Inlet Beach and a rezoning proposed for property on Chat Holley Road for a month. The TRC advanced 10 other projects on their April 3 meeting agenda in the county approval process.
The meeting was held at Freeport Commons.
30 Surf Club proposed for Inlet Beach
30A Surf Club is a major development request on behalf of 1000 Highway 98 East Corp for approval to construct 11.468 square feet of commercial space on 0.75 acres at the southwest corner of U.S. 98 and CR-30A in Inlet Beach.
The property is in a Mixed Use future land use area and a Village Mixed Use zoning district.
Tim Brown of Walton County Planning and Development Services introduced the project. He explained this was deemed a major development because the proposal called for amending the master plan for the development containing the parcel.
Brown said the subject location had previously been identified for restaurant use rather than retail use as was proposed. He listed a number of reviewer comments that had not been received and spoke of some comments remaining to be addressed by the applicants.
Brown said some reviewer comments had identified problems with the proposal, including that the building shown in the plans did not meet setback requirements for the lot. A scenic corridor-related comment, he added, had been that the building exceeded the allowable width for the U.S. 98 Scenic Corridor on which the parcel is located.
The parcel is part of a development that the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had approved in March 2013 under the name of Inn at the Gulf. The approval had been for a 14,338-square foot, 125-room limited lodging development and restaurant on 5.74 acres.
The subject property had sold to the current owners, the applicants, in early 2024.
Mac Carpenter, county planning and development services director, said, “I’ve got a number of questions about this particular development. I would like to ask that the realtor that sold this particular parcel send in a letter of support for the project; it will be the only one I received.”
Brown acknowledged having received a number of emails from the public about the project, approximately 25 since the committee’s packet for the meeting was prepared. He had printed out copies of the emails for the committee members and handed them out. These were entered into the record.
Carpenter stated that the current application “does not resemble” the project that the applicants had described at the pre-application meeting with planning staff. “The building is way too big; we’ve got setback issues,” he said, adding, “It’s going to require a complete redesign.”
Carpenter spoke of concerns related to comments received and also about consistency of the project with the original development plan that had been approved and with the Inlet Beach Neighborhood Plan.
“We’re more than doubling the size of the building;” he said of the plans presented, “I think that’s significant.” Carpenter called for continuing the request to the May 1 TRC meeting.
Representing the applicants, engineer Robert Carroll said, “You’ve made a recommendation, so we’ll take that time between now and then to meet with staff and go over it with the architectural team and get it planned out prior to the next TRC meeting.”
There was a motion to continue the request to the May 1 TRC meeting, and the motion was seconded and approved.
Inlet Beach resident Rich Jaffe came forward saying that he had hoped to be able to speak on the project.
Renee Bradley, TRC chair, noted that as a major development the project would be reviewed by the Walton County Planning Commission and the BCC, at which time public comments would be taken. She assured Jaffe that the committee had all the written comments from the public and that those had been made part of the record.
The registered agent for the applicant company and the officers are the same as those for Alvin’s Stores, Incorporated, which operates 15+ Alvin’s Island stores at beach locations in the state offering beachwear, souvenirs, jewelry, accessories, and other merchandise.
Jaffe said he had been hoping to get one question answered, that being whether what was being proposed was putting an Alvin’s Island store on the property. He assured the committee that, if so, “this issue will have a dramatic following.”
“I’m not sure it fits in any way, shape or form in the way it’s being projected,” Jaffe said of the request.
“I will echo your comments,” Carpenter said. He said that the store was not being presented as that particular brand but that “it resembles that use.”
Carpenter added that, where stores of this type have previously been approved in Walton County, “our experience is what we’re told at the development review stage is not borne out after the development is built.”
“We’re not going down that road again,” Carpenter emphasized.
