Here is an opinion article posted on Facebook.
“They” say Shite’ rolls down hill, and most engineers will agree that it will also float down a stream. Well, the politics of a Shite’ river in the estuaries of Walton county corruption are slowing marching towards a crab island near you. A brief history lesson is required.
Long before Leonard Destin and others ever knew where the light sand island that lay along the river of the local native americans was. When the choctawhatchee river and the creeks of Alaqua and Bunker had no names, the waters from the north flowed through what is now Walton County and exited in the general vicinity of east pass in Modern day Destin and Okaloosa County. (Give or take a half mile) This fact remains true today and herein lies the problem. This whole area is having water quality issues. From the run off into the coastal dune lakes, to the fecal counts on crab island, we have to admit man and development are having impacts.
It is foolish to scream stop all development, but we must be responsible about it. Standards that are agreed upon for development orders must be enforced or the effort winds up being futile.
On November 7th at 1 PM, while most are at work that are affected by it and without any input from Okaloosa County or its County Commission, the Walton County BCC will give permission to settle a property dispute by ignoring the gorilla in the room.(The BCC is deciding to waive written property notice on this one.)
The Sandestin DRI has been in dispute since about 2004 when it (the developer) just quit filing reports about its compliance with its state level development order (DRI). Residents all threatened to sue, the big corporation runs and dumps property to a local and the lawsuits have flown. Now the current Walton county BCC is ready to do anything to make their 10 million dollar “whoops” go away. The developer and some home owners have come to some agreement and the BCC is ready to rubber stamp it and ask the state to bless it.
But that’s not governments job now is it? Its job, is the fair enforcement of the adopted laws and standards, not if two private groups lawyers have resolved their issues. Sandestin is a regional issue development order and by definition the two (it has three) things it must consider that affect Okaloosa County are traffic impacts on US 98 and Storm water retention and water quality.
Well, Walton county has admitted it has been way overdue a comprehensive traffic study since 2012 on whether or not current infrastructure and US 98 are saturated at its current design. It’s the current developers contention that that was all taken into account with the master traffic study done when it was applied for in 1974!! I mean really????, could anybody have seen this place and its current problems in 1974? Of course they couldn’t, only Peach Creek and Seagrove were in South Walton in 1974. Grayton was an old homestead mostly then.
So blindly and at all our peril, the Walton BCC who were completely supported by this developer and who voted yes last time, will give the final go ahead and ask the state to bless it.
Well folks, unfortunately traffic isn’t the gorilla believe it or not as we would all disagree who drive here in summer. The gorilla is the unseen impact of non- enforcement of stormwater requirements. Because since the early nineties, Sandestin was the cash cow that brought South Walton to prominence and helped feed the “Seaside boom” that became 30A.
Sandestin is the largest violator of untreated runoff and unenforced retention requirements of the state issued development order on the whole Choctawhatchee bay if the state numbers, a special magistrate and engineering expert on stormwater are right. The developer refuses to discuss anything about stormwater in public, while the county ignores the information laid before it. Since 2007, when the county was reminded of the retention/ requirement not to dump water untreated directly into the bay by the State of Florida. They have yet to comply or fully answer taking the sole word of the now county engineer that once worked for the developer on the project. Walton County was confident the state was wrong so they smugly ordered a study on the two largest neighborhoods in Sandestin and were shocked to find that in the initial report, the evaluated standards were about 80 and 83% non- compliant and the traffic situation was called dangerous by Walton County internal applications for grants.
Walton BCC has refused for 18 months to put the report by Dr. Henry Harper on the agenda and no word on the second part. So from the 36 inch concrete pipes next to multimillion dollar homes that flow out along four mile point from its beginning in horseshoe bayou comes the runoff. It is filled with the fertilizers and daily human waste from a high impact development. Restaurants, Golf courses and pressure washing run to drainage with lakes not big enough to filter all of it before expelling it into the bay. So where the lakes should be expanded for stormwater, hundreds of new units and further impacts on traffic and water quality will now go. Go, just like the elwye and herring that used to circle the flats have gone. Now a dark algae that can be seen from google earth eats their oxygen and they go elsewhere now. Yes folks Shite’ flows down a river and from Sandestin with love, it’s on its way to a crab island near you. It’s already killed 4 mile point from what it once was, don’t say we didn’t warn ya……
“They” say Shite’ rolls down hill, and most engineers will agree that it will also float down a stream. Well, the politics of a Shite’ river in the estuaries of Walton county corruption are slowing marching towards a crab island near you. A brief history lesson is required.
Long before Leonard Destin and others ever knew where the light sand island that lay along the river of the local native americans was. When the choctawhatchee river and the creeks of Alaqua and Bunker had no names, the waters from the north flowed through what is now Walton County and exited in the general vicinity of east pass in Modern day Destin and Okaloosa County. (Give or take a half mile) This fact remains true today and herein lies the problem. This whole area is having water quality issues. From the run off into the coastal dune lakes, to the fecal counts on crab island, we have to admit man and development are having impacts.
It is foolish to scream stop all development, but we must be responsible about it. Standards that are agreed upon for development orders must be enforced or the effort winds up being futile.
On November 7th at 1 PM, while most are at work that are affected by it and without any input from Okaloosa County or its County Commission, the Walton County BCC will give permission to settle a property dispute by ignoring the gorilla in the room.(The BCC is deciding to waive written property notice on this one.)
The Sandestin DRI has been in dispute since about 2004 when it (the developer) just quit filing reports about its compliance with its state level development order (DRI). Residents all threatened to sue, the big corporation runs and dumps property to a local and the lawsuits have flown. Now the current Walton county BCC is ready to do anything to make their 10 million dollar “whoops” go away. The developer and some home owners have come to some agreement and the BCC is ready to rubber stamp it and ask the state to bless it.
But that’s not governments job now is it? Its job, is the fair enforcement of the adopted laws and standards, not if two private groups lawyers have resolved their issues. Sandestin is a regional issue development order and by definition the two (it has three) things it must consider that affect Okaloosa County are traffic impacts on US 98 and Storm water retention and water quality.
Well, Walton county has admitted it has been way overdue a comprehensive traffic study since 2012 on whether or not current infrastructure and US 98 are saturated at its current design. It’s the current developers contention that that was all taken into account with the master traffic study done when it was applied for in 1974!! I mean really????, could anybody have seen this place and its current problems in 1974? Of course they couldn’t, only Peach Creek and Seagrove were in South Walton in 1974. Grayton was an old homestead mostly then.
So blindly and at all our peril, the Walton BCC who were completely supported by this developer and who voted yes last time, will give the final go ahead and ask the state to bless it.
Well folks, unfortunately traffic isn’t the gorilla believe it or not as we would all disagree who drive here in summer. The gorilla is the unseen impact of non- enforcement of stormwater requirements. Because since the early nineties, Sandestin was the cash cow that brought South Walton to prominence and helped feed the “Seaside boom” that became 30A.
Sandestin is the largest violator of untreated runoff and unenforced retention requirements of the state issued development order on the whole Choctawhatchee bay if the state numbers, a special magistrate and engineering expert on stormwater are right. The developer refuses to discuss anything about stormwater in public, while the county ignores the information laid before it. Since 2007, when the county was reminded of the retention/ requirement not to dump water untreated directly into the bay by the State of Florida. They have yet to comply or fully answer taking the sole word of the now county engineer that once worked for the developer on the project. Walton County was confident the state was wrong so they smugly ordered a study on the two largest neighborhoods in Sandestin and were shocked to find that in the initial report, the evaluated standards were about 80 and 83% non- compliant and the traffic situation was called dangerous by Walton County internal applications for grants.
Walton BCC has refused for 18 months to put the report by Dr. Henry Harper on the agenda and no word on the second part. So from the 36 inch concrete pipes next to multimillion dollar homes that flow out along four mile point from its beginning in horseshoe bayou comes the runoff. It is filled with the fertilizers and daily human waste from a high impact development. Restaurants, Golf courses and pressure washing run to drainage with lakes not big enough to filter all of it before expelling it into the bay. So where the lakes should be expanded for stormwater, hundreds of new units and further impacts on traffic and water quality will now go. Go, just like the elwye and herring that used to circle the flats have gone. Now a dark algae that can be seen from google earth eats their oxygen and they go elsewhere now. Yes folks Shite’ flows down a river and from Sandestin with love, it’s on its way to a crab island near you. It’s already killed 4 mile point from what it once was, don’t say we didn’t warn ya……
