NY Times "Escape" Section on Seaside

[Camp Creek Kid]

You are right, Seaside is not alone. Seaside was designed 25 or so years ago without the knowlege that the world would be filled with Hummers and Suburbans. There are many neighborhoods that are composed entirely of single family, detached structures, that are legally considered condos. They are designed with narrower streets than are normally deemed acceptable for the sole purpose of increasing density. This is done today with the knowlege that the visitors will be arriving in Hummers. If I'm not mistaken, Camp Creek Cottages is one of these. This, not Seaside, is a true definition of poor planning. If you own there or somewhere like there and wonder why you don't own the land under your house, its so the developer could pack more homes into the neighborhood.

The Cottages at Camp Creek does not have narrow streets. The road is a regular 20' wide road and there is ample parking for 2 vehicles per house with extra overflow parking available. Rosemary Beach has narrower streets than the cottages. The width of the street has nothing to do with the density of the development. A narrow 12' road would not have allowed increased density.

The Cottages at Camp Creek is a land condominium meaning that all of the land is held in common, EXCEPT for the land under the homes. You are greatly mistaken because home owners DO own the land under their homes as well as a share of all common areas. Home owners also control the portion of the common area that surrounds their homes. A main purpose of having a land condomimium as opposed to a conventional single family development was to control and preserve the natural vegetation of the property.

I take personal offense at you calling these cottages poor planning. Check your facts before you post.

 

[Travel2Much]

Actually, I was going to call the Cottages of Camp Creek an example of very good, innovative planning. The way I understand it, the cars are out of view when using your house, since the houses look out over that pool area, right? Your "outdoor living space" doesn't front the street or a parking area or something that can be coopted as a parking area.

Never been in one so I don't know.

 

[Camp Creek Kid]

Actually, I was going to call the Cottages of Camp Creek an example of very good, innovative planning. The way I understand it, the cars are out of view when using your house, since the houses look out over that pool area, right? Your "outdoor living space" doesn't front the street or a parking area or something that can be coopted as a parking area.

Never been in one so I don't know.

Exactly. The smaller cottages surround a common area that has a large pool area and native preserved vegetation. The back of the houses face the road and and parking areas. There are 6 larger homes along 30A that aren't around the pool, but have gulf views (parking is also in the back) and six larger homes in the back of the development where the front of the homes do face the parking, but the back of the homes back up to Camp Creek Golf Course (and have views of the golf course and the gulf). There is also a deeded beach access that home owners/guests WALK to.

 

[Paula]

I LOVE the Cottages at Camp Creek. We bought into the community in 2003. What I like about it is that it seems to me to be high-quality, lovely, yet unpretentious coastal living. The community is a simple design (about 30+ one story pastel colored beach cottages with porches surrounding a pool and natural vegetation with about 6 larger houses in the front and about 6 in the back). So far, not much building on either side of the community (there are individual homes rather than developments I think on either side of us) with Camp Creek Golf Course in back. The community is set back a bit from the road, and I like looking at the natural vegetation when I drive into the community. There is only a small street sign, so the community doesn't draw attention to itself. I like a community of one-story cottages because when we sit in the hot tub or float in the pool at night we get a great view of the stars (rather than looking at 2 to 3 story buildings). When you sit on your porch, you see the pool or the natural vegetation (and sometimes you see the neighbors next to you sitting on their porch). Parking is not allowed on the street -- there's only one street. You have to park in the 2 parking spots that come with your cottage or in the small parking area in the front of the community. I can hold my breath and get from our porch to the pool and can be at the beach across the street in about 4 minutes. Whenever I go there, I know I'll see at least 2 - 3 other families I've come to know so it has a bit of a neighborhood feeling even though probably half of the places are rentals (including our's). Even the people renting are friendly and we've gotten to know a few of the return renters as well. I think this is a case of a simple, well-thought-out coastal community design -- at least it meets my needs (which tend to be simple and focused on relaxing with family and friends, reading, dining well either out or at home, going for walks, and going to the beach/pool/hot tub).

We are about 1/2 mile from Alys Beach, and I enjoy going to the coffee shop and over time will enjoy the other good things available at Alys Beach (though I don't know what that will be -- shops? theatre? groceries? restaurants? outdoor movies and music?).

 

[aquaticbiology]

>The answer to the parking problem is so very simple--a 26 story high-rise >parking garage...problem solved.

why don't you just park them on the @#$%^& beach!

I'd personally love to see a revival of the 80's highly-inappropriate, offensive and, in the end, expensive (to the county anyway), 'GO HOME' grassroots anti-tourist campaign. The ads on positively bashed the poor or really stupid tourists. $23 was the level set for vagrancy and the ad said 'Not enough money to stay the night - GO HOME!', , and the other one I remember was like some guy dropping trash on the beach - 'If you can't follow the simplest rules - GO HOME!'.

I say lets print up some stickers, pick the worst offenders and 'stick it to them' - GO HOME!

Todays youth will all want one for themselves though 'Look what I got in Seaside! (Yuk Yuk)'

 

[Beach Runner]

On the neighborhood parking issue, the rule in our neighborhood is that you can only have as many cars as there are parking spots on your own property - absolutely no overnight parking on the street. That avoids the visual clutter of automobiles.

As far as parking at Seaside goes, adding a multi-level parking garage will only increase the traffic in the area. In my opinion, if people not staying at Seaside get tired of driving around for 30 minutes looking for a parking spot, they'll go elsewhere. It's not like Seaside appears to be hurting for any business during those times of the year in which parking becomes a problem. Seaside needs to get more militant about ticketing (or towing) cars of non-guests parking in front of a cottage that they are not renting. That would help with the visual clutter of wall-to-wall cars there.

Just a suggestion. I don't live there, so I'm probably totally wrong.

 

[gsigman]

Do not get me started on those traffic lights at Rosemary Beach!!!

 

[Camp Creek Kid]

Do not get me started on those traffic lights at Rosemary Beach!!!

The traffic lights are MUCH better than the stop signs where. Most of the time the lights on 30A are green and you don't have to stop at all.

 

[Santiago]

The Cottages at Camp Creek does not have narrow streets. The road is a regular 20' wide road and there is ample parking for 2 vehicles per house with extra overflow parking available. Rosemary Beach has narrower streets than the cottages. The width of the street has nothing to do with the density of the development. A narrow 12' road would not have allowed increased density.

The Cottages at Camp Creek is a land condominium meaning that all of the land is held in common, EXCEPT for the land under the homes. You are greatly mistaken because home owners DO own the land under their homes as well as a share of all common areas. Home owners also control the portion of the common area that surrounds their homes. A main purpose of having a land condomimium as opposed to a conventional single family development was to control and preserve the natural vegetation of the property.

I take personal offense at you calling these cottages poor planning. Check your facts before you post.

I may have jumped the gun referencing the property under the houses. I certainly did not mean to offend you. Before you knew that Camp Creek Cottages existed, I heard first hand from the developer that the purpose for the condos was a density issue. This is a fact as far as I am concerned. Apparently this method satisfied the developer and the purchaser and I think that's great. I retract my "poor planning" comment and stand corrected.

 

[Camp Creek Kid]

I may have jumped the gun referencing the property under the houses. I certainly did not mean to offend you. Before you knew that Camp Creek Cottages existed, I heard first hand from the developer that the purpose for the condos was a density issue. This is a fact as far as I am concerned. Apparently this method satisfied the developer and the purchaser and I think that's great. I retract my "poor planning" comment and stand corrected.

Its all good. However, be careful in the assumptions that you make. I quite possibly know more about the Cottages at Camp Creek than you realize. Perhaps I knew "first hand from the developer" of the development plan long before he ever spoke to you about the project.

By-the-way, the Cottages at Camp Creek is not at the maximum density that it is zoned for. The "facts" that you speak of are not accurate. The land condo designation has to do with water retention issues and vegetation conservation while obtaining a certain density. It wasn't specifically to cram as many units on the property as possible, as you infer in your posts.

While the project was going through the approval process, several citizens and community groups complemented the developer for his creative plan and his attention to conservation and community concerns. The cottages has maintained its 51% native vegetation conservation.

I'm fine if you don't like the project. However, please make sure that your "facts" are accurate before you post them publically.