By DOTTY NIST
No public hearings will be required for The Sandbar, a large apartment/hotel/bank development proposed for the south side of U.S. 98 in Santa Rosa Beach. This was one of a number of projects coming before the Walton County Technical Review Committee (TRC) at its Dec. 20 regular meeting at Freeport Commons.
The Sandbar, Walton County’s first Live Local Act project
The Sandbar is a request on behalf of Hwy98Sugar, L.L.C., for a development consisting of 330 multi-family units (40 percent of those income restricted/affordable), 15,000 square feet of commercial retail, a 3,700-square-foot financial institution, a 56,000-square-foot hotel, two clubhouses 4,668 square feet and 1,571 square feet in size, amenities and infrastructure.
This major development is proposed for 30.35 acres on the south side of U.S. 98 east of Sugar Drive and west of Thompson Road in Santa Rosa Beach. The property is in Conservation Residential and Mixed Use future land use areas and is in Conservation Residential 2:1 (two units per acres) and Village Mixed Use zoning districts.
Introducing the project, Stephen Schoen of Walton County Planning and Development Services commented that this is the first Live Local Act project that has been applied for in Walton County.
Also known as Senate Bill 102, the Live Local Act was approved by the Florida Legislature in the 2023 session, was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in March 2023, and took effect on July 1, 2023. The law was aimed at incentivizing developers to produce affordable housing and at streamlining governmental approval of affordable housing projects.
Schoen indicated that projects must meet specific criteria in order to be approved in the process by which the subject project was being reviewed at the meeting, which is to be through administrative approval (by staff) rather than the project being required to undergo public hearings by the Walton County Planning Commission and Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) and a final determination by the BCC. The latter is the process normally required for major development projects such as The Sandbar.
With planning staff facing this situation, Schoen continued, “We always do an excellent job in review, but we have been very careful in our review, and we spent a lot of time working with the applicant to ensure compliance and consistency with the land development code and comprehensive plan to get to this point.”
He noted that, based on his initial review of the submittals, the proposal appeared to have satisfied all planning reviewer comments. Schoen said that the fact of a resubmittal by the applicants having taken place very recently had lent to “not providing enough time or sufficient time for environmental review,” although the county’s floodplain manager was present and had reviewed that recent documentation.
Asked to address reviewer comments on the project by the county’s environmental planner, Schoen said there had been six outstanding comments ...
