From Walton Sun The Scenic 30A Corridor Advocacy Group plans to showcase the county road?s assets to state officials on Oct. 27. At a meeting in the Tourism Development Council?s office CAG outlined the 19-mile tour and what resources will be highlighted. ?Intrinsic resources would be cultural, educational, recreational, archeological, historic and scenic, some of the top stops will have multiple intrinsic resources,? Claire Bannerman, CAG coordinator said. ?The parks will have of course educational, recreational and historical. We are having presenters from the community at each of the stops. ?For example at Rosemary Beach when they stop for breakfast that morning Randy Harelson is on the list to do a little native plant talk for the SHAC members so they are familiar with the native planting along the coastal roads.? The tour starts at 8:45 a.m. and lasts until 5 p.m. SHAC members will see beaches, dune lakes, commercial properties and architectural sites. ?One big positive for us is that our road runs alongside the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and that is very unique to the scenic highway system,? Bannerman said. A scenic highway designation will allow for grant money to help safe guard the road for the future, according to Bannerman. ?A scenic highway designation will give us that opportunity to get federal funding for signage and waste removal and lighting,? Bannerman said. Commissioner Cindy Meadows agreed with Bannerman. ?There are all kinds of things you can use that money for-signage, bike paths, educational centers, kiosks-and there are a number of things you can use that money on,? Meadows said. ?Then of course the added plus that we can advertise that we are a Florida scenic highway.? DeFuniak Street, Hotz Avenue, County Roads 395, 283 and 83 will all be included in the scenic highway corridor. According to the Florida Department of Transportation?s Web site, a highway has to go through three phases before it is granted scenic status. The first is the eligibility phase, CAG develops supporting documentation and FDOT decides on eligibility. The designation phase comes next. CAG develops a Corridor Management Plan and FDOT decides whether to grant designation. Implementation is the final phase when the Corridor Management Plan is implemented and the highway gets scenic status. After the SHAC tour, it will take about a week to process its findings and FDOT will grant or deny scenic designation. If granted approval, it will take about another year to fully become a scenic highway. It usually takes four to five years to get scenic status and 30A is in the eligibility phase, Bannerman said. The purpose of the Florida Scenic Highways program is to ?preserve, enhance and maintain significant Florida resources,? according to FDOT?s Web site said.
