DeFuniak Street in Grayton
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Don't know how I missed this post. However, I don't know what is planned with that property. I thought the owner was trying to have the property rezoned as commercial, but I am not positive. You can call the planning Dpt and they can tell you.
Good or Bad? You decide. Since I initiated the post on this parcel, I thought I'd provide an update. I came upon this in the Beach Breeze/Defuniak Herald. I have not seen the plans so have no strong opinion, other than thinking that "Residential Preservation Area" sounds better than "Infill".
BCC Meeting at 5:00pm at South Walton Courthouse Annex.
"SSA-06-10 Bradley Jones is requesting a Small Scale Amendment to change .25+/- acres in Walton County south of the Chocktawhatchee Bay on parcel(s) identified as 08-3S-19-25200-00A-0011 from Residential Preservation Area to Infill. The property is located in Grayton on the east side of DeFuniak Street, approximately 1/4 mile south of CR 30A."
http://64.234.218.210/cgi-bin/walton_alsearch.cgi
BCC Meeting at 5:00pm at South Walton Courthouse Annex.
"SSA-06-10 Bradley Jones is requesting a Small Scale Amendment to change .25+/- acres in Walton County south of the Chocktawhatchee Bay on parcel(s) identified as 08-3S-19-25200-00A-0011 from Residential Preservation Area to Infill. The property is located in Grayton on the east side of DeFuniak Street, approximately 1/4 mile south of CR 30A."
http://64.234.218.210/cgi-bin/walton_alsearch.cgi
John said:
From 1995 Article:
Commissioners discuss infill land use
By TIANA LARSEN A lengthy discussion about the problematic land use district "infill" dominated much of the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) land use meeting on April 5.
Infill is a category that is only available in south Walton. Projects at sites in this land use district may develop at eight units per acre, if public water and sewer are available.
With south Walton property now at record values and with recent high demand in the real estate market, a record number of requests for changes to a higher density have been received by the county planning department.
If a property is 10 acres or less in size, a small scale amendment is the process by which a change can be made. Small scale amendments must be approved by the BCC, and under state law, only 80 acres per year can be changed using this procedure.
This year the applications for small scale amendments totaled 175 acres, so in January the planning department held a lottery to prioritize 80 acres worth of applications.
Infill is by far the most commonly requested new land use category. In March the planning commission heard the first of the small scale amendments and forwarded them on to the BCC for final approval or disapproval.
The remainder of the small scale amendments that were not chosen in the lottery have been added on to the large scale amendment currently being heard by the planning commission. (See related story, Large Crowd Speaks out On Growth.)
Of the six amendments heard by the BCC, five requested a change to infill, with the sixth requesting a change to village mixed use.
The county has made an attempt to write a new ordinance that would allow flexibility in the number of units allowed in the infill category, but after being sent back to the drawing board on March 1, the BCC continued the ordinance again at their April 5 meeting.
The proposed change would allow 2,3,4,5,6,7, or 8 units per acre, depending on criteria such as environmental factors and compatibility of adjacent uses. The new ordinance would only apply to properties that change to infill from another category, and the density would be assigned at the time of the amendment. Land currently mapped as infill would remain at eight units per acre.
In March, the BCC got stuck on whether to look at abutting, adjacent or neighboring properties within some undefined distance when considering what the appropriate density would be for a particular property, and what would be the criteria for choosing a density.
While the ordinance is being debated, citizens concerned with preserving their neighborhoods are asking whether the ordinance, if passed, will apply to the flood of amendments working their way through the system.
A large scale amendment also in the works contains another thirty requests for land use changes; twenty of these are requesting infill.
Local citizen Alan Ficarra asked the BCC for assurances that those amendments, if passed, would be subject to the proposed ordinance containing lower densities, but county legal staff expressed concerns about implementation.
Two of the amendments considered by the BCC were debated at length. A request to change 0.677 acres on Nuit Lane from residential preservation to infill was opposed by District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows, who represents the district where the site is located.
Meadows thought it was spot zoning to up the density in an area surrounded by residential preservation (two units per acre or one dwelling per lot of record.) She wanted to continue the amendment until the new infill categories are in place, but was outvoted.
"We may never pass an ordinance," remarked Commissioner Larry Jones. "I think it is unfair to the applicant," said Commissioner Ro Cuchens. A motion to approve the amendment passed 4-1, with Meadows voting nay.
Another proposed amendment to infill on an acre on Thompson Road also currently designated residential preservation was voted down by the BCC, who supported a staff recommendation for denial based on a number of factors, including wet soils and an incomplete traffic study.
In other business at the meeting, the former Echols Auto site in Inlet Beach was amended from light industrial to infill. Five acres on the corner of Chat Holley and JD Miller Road was changed to infill to accommodate a townhome project. A site on U.S.331 was also approved as infill. A site on U.S.98 near Moll Drive, proposing to change to village mixed use, was denied based on a rule in the comprehensive plan limiting the size of mixed use centers.
Some development proposals also got a green light from the BCC, including South Walton Lutheran Church, to be built on the west side of CR-393 near Ridge Road in Santa Rosa Beach, and The Havens, a 28-townhome project on U.S.98, west of Sugar Drive.