4 hotels (300 rooms) potentially built in SoWal with no beach access

[seacrestkristi]

Emailing them and asking them for no more high density developments in Sowal-:scratch: is that fully baked or not cuz that's what I was thinkin'? ;-)

 

[Beach Runner]

Emailing them and asking them for no more high density developments in Sowal-:scratch: is that fully baked or not cuz that's what I was thinkin'? ;-)

 

[NotDeadYet]

The problem here is VMU and how the allowable densities are calculated. That is what the whole Grayton Grand fight was about. The county could have fixed this problem years ago but they chose not to.
Again and again you will hear the planning commission and the BCC say they have nothing in the codes that will let them turn down a proposed development that meets the allowable density. But they haven't fixed the codes.

 

[beachmouse]

In fact, for people who cannot afford a week's stay in a house, a few hotels might be a good thing, especially off-beach hotels which could provide less expensive rooms than beach hotels.

I see it not so much as people who can't afford a week, but for people who have a reason to only be down here for 2-3 nights. Seems like there have been a fair number of posts over the years here from people who are looking to only come down for a weekend and not a full week.

The numbers I've heard from Destin always seem to say that if you're going to be down here for a week, a Saturday to Saturday condo rental for a midlevel two bedroom condo seems to end up roughly the same price as the Destin Holiday Inn.

 

[Smiling JOe]

NotDeadYet hits it. The property of Pastels Conceptual PUD is already zoned VMU, unlike many other projects which come about wanting to change residential into high density. Personally, I don't have a problem with high density as long as much land is set aside around the high density as a conservation space, not allowing construction. Using Seaside as an example, it not an example of good planning in my opinion, as it has extremely limited amounts of open greenspace/conservation land, within the development. The VMU is a category which attempts to handle light commercial (South Walton has no commercial category for land), which in theory keeps people in one neighborhood from having to leave the area for shopping needs. Even though hotels are allowed, I think they go against the intention of the VMU, unless the property is in close proximity to the beach.

 

[wrobert]

No, I am not "against any more developement that could lead to more people going to the beach in south Walton county." What I'm against is the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners conveniently forgetting about our need for parking at Public Beach Accesses and forgetting that we, the County, should be thinking about some system of public transportation prior to approving new off-beach developments. You need to keep in mind that the existing lots of record in SoWal are not even close to being built out. Once these get built.

I do a lot of reading of newspapers from around the State of Florida. I do not recall ever coming across anything in which the amount of or use of public access facilities came into play when deciding rather or not someone could develop their property. It would seem to me that particular line of thinking could have some far reaching effects on future growth. For example, not allowing growth because our hospital is already at capacity? Where would this sort of thing end?

I do believe that there is a problem luring tourists to an area and not having an overwhelming abundance of places for them to go. But since they are being lured here with their own dollars, that problems would seem to fix itself eventually. Just a thought.

So would you be for the Hometown Democracy amendment?

 

[wrobert]

WaltonGOP, I just read the link provided, and see that the unscientific survey taken by the group was conducted by going to the parking lot only once a day anytime between 11am and 1130am. That is hardly evidence for actual usage. As for keeping taxes and wasteful spending down, I'm all for it, if safety and services are not sacrificed. If the County spends only $200 per day to try and create a safer parking place, that is much cheaper than the cost of one life which may be saved by doing so. Get the WCTA to get real stats on peak usage, because that is really what matters, and I'll take another look. ;-)

One other note regarding the WCTA link, you should probably inform the person in charge of it that they are in copy write violation, using the phrase, "We report, you decide," which belongs to Fox News.

I realize it is an unscientific study. The guy that did it lives up the street and I think he walks by the park every day. But 11:30 is a pretty busy time for people going to the beach. Not like they are going to get in their cars and go to McDonalds and come back. Especially since we do not have drive-thru windows in that area.

You mention that $200 a day is a good deal. Since you think that is a good deal it makes me think that you have a definition of a bad deal in your mind, so at what price do we cross the line? If it is high enough, maybe the county should purchase the property and put in a multi-level parking lot.

If you go back to the WCTA home page, there is a link to their contact page. I am sure they would appreciate you letting them know the situation. If not Fox will certainly get with them one day.

 

[wrobert]

Don't we have enough hotel rooms in Destin?

How do you define enough? Personally, I think that is a market decision. I would not want to build another one in an area that was only at 50% utilization. But others may.

 

[SHELLY]

Is this planning on being one of those Condo-tel things?


.

 

[wrobert]

Let me further clarify and state that I'm not against hotel rooms in SoWal (east of Sandestin). In fact, for people who cannot afford a week's stay in a house, a few hotels might be a good thing, especially off-beach hotels which could provide less expensive rooms than beach hotels. >>> Beach parking needs to be considered as much a part of infrastructure as the parking lot at the off beach hotels.

And that is a great idea. So now, how do we decide how many beach parking spaces are we to have for how many hotel rooms? We certainly would also have to consider that cheaper rooms would cause some people that would normally use the beach hotels to shift to the off beach hotels. Unless those prices came down to match, which would then lead to an increase in tourism and further reduce parking.

I am not trying to be contrary, I am just trying to understand how a county commissioner is suppose to make these decisions. What should they be based upon.