Naturewalk at Seagrove

[Smiling JOe]

A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale, really cheap. Actually, I will pay someone to haul them off from Walton County if you promise they want step foot back into Walton County politricks.

Thank God for Cindy Meadows and Sara Commander, but tonight, Walton County was one vote short. Based on the precedence set tonight at the WalCo Annex, anyone can do what ever the hell they want to when it comes to developing property, because the BCC relies upon the Planning Staff and the Planning Staff says that they rely on the applicant (developer).

A few people hired some very impressive lawyers (you know how much I hate lawyers, but I would welcome Mike Burke to represent me regarding real estate ) who ripped a new @$$ into the County Planner in charge of this NatureWalk Beach Club project. He ran Planner Tim Brown through the ringer, poking many holes in Mr. Brown's reasoning, showing numerous ways how this proposal for the Beach Club is not allowed based on the Walton County Comp Plan and based on Non-conforming use. Commissioners Pridgen and Jones voted in favor of Comm Brannon's motion. Commissioner Jones even had the audacity to state that he was voting based on evidence presented and the recommendation of the Staff. As a reminder, the Staff Planner, Tim Brown, contradicted his statements, and gave testimony that the project exceeded things like density, and allowable footprint.

Under the Non-conforming issue, a building can not be expanded or it loses its non-conforming use. This Beach Club will triple the square footage of the existing buildings.

I won't go into the details, but know that some of the Walton County Commissioners are not listening to the evidence given and they are basing their votes on something out of this world. I guess it would help if the Commissioners were required to actually remain in the room during the time when evidence and testimony is given.

A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale, really cheap. Remember it!

 

[John R]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

I must agree with Smiling JOe. Commissioner Meadows publically stated the nature walk issue was a trainwreck that she was pretty bummed out that staff had put them in the position of presiding over.

staff clearly stated that they had nothing on the books to be able to deal with just this scenario(and have been asking for it for forever) so the burden of proof was on the applicant's attorney to prove compatibility. we'll when you have no backup, the burden of proof get quite easy to provide, just say so. exactly what george miller did. so, he's right. ridiculous.

Commander, held up an inch thick stack of correspondance from people in the neighborhood opposing this debacle and stated she couldn't support it. Meadows stated that it was totally not what the neighborhood was about, but the boys just railroaded it through. It seems that big developemnet just gets it's way in Walton County. want to build something where you will have to get squeezed for a while, but know it will go through anyway? Just step right up to 30A, and our BCC will give you a green light. An amazing piece of embarassing history I witnessed tonight.

If this continues, look out, the entire beachfront is going to be bought up by developers for private use, 3x the density.

 

[Jdarg]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

Oh man.....

 

[Bobby J]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

Can you imagine the mess when construction begins!!!!!

 

[mf]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

since you can't see my face, imagine the look of shock when i learned that local govt was made up of people who are either incompetent or corrupt. combine that with some of the most criminal and unethical business people i've ever encountered in my life and well..i wish i was surprised.

hahahaha! yeah...you know you're jaded when you can manage a poker face while reading SJ's article.

 

[seagrover]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

And for those of us behind Cindy Meadows and Sara Commander and opposed to the others, it is up to us Walton County voters to make sure these names are remembered at the voting boxes this next time!!!

I live off 30-a & Andalusia and can't imagine what a mess this is going to bring to our area!!! The traffic has been horrible just for Spring Break this year - the worst is yet to come - thanks guys - we will remember this!!!

 

[Busta Hustle]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

Good morning boys and girls. Do you think maybe we need more transparency in our local government? One place we should start is on the county web site. Counties around us have public records of all development orders approved and under review as well as permits approved and pulled or pending. I would love to know with all the rubber stamped approvals of new developments as well as neighborhood infills just how many toilets will be flushing into our waste water plant if they were all built out. I've been to commisioner meetings and heard Anita Page explain what the laws on the books mean only to have it thrown back as "too vague". There may not be enough impact fees in the world to clean up the potential mess we are allowing to this fragile environment.

 

[Paula]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

Let's get some of our community/environment minded SoWallers to run for local office. I think some of the people on this board would be wonderful representatives of the community/environment. Unfortunately, I can't vote in SoWal, but I would certainly add whatever kind of support I can since I'm a property owner and expect that we'll spend more and more time there in the years to come.

 

[Beachlover2]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

Good morning boys and girls. Do you think maybe we need more transparency in our local government? One place we should start is on the county web site. Counties around us have public records of all development orders approved and under review as well as permits approved and pulled or pending. I would love to know with all the rubber stamped approvals of new developments as well as neighborhood infills just how many toilets will be flushing into our waste water plant if they were all built out. I've been to commisioner meetings and heard Anita Page explain what the laws on the books mean only to have it thrown back as "too vague". There may not be enough impact fees in the world to clean up the potential mess we are allowing to this fragile environment.

Tangent - is this the Anita Page that sailed across the Atlantic alone in a J Boat

 

[rapunzel]

Re: A few Walton County Commissioners For Sale

They say all local politics is name recognition...I think I should run for one of those other posts and ride Sara's coattails, no?

The thing is...we used to have only one decent commissioner (Meadows), and now we have Comander. Things are improving. When is the next election?