Seacrest Question

[Ohio Girl]

I'm kind of embarrassed to ask this question since we own a home in Seacrest, but I have always been under the impression that Seacrest is west of Alys Beach, however signs along 30A show the following direction: Watersound, Alys, Seacrest, Rosemary. I have also seen this order in vacation brochures/maps. Seacrest Beach, a development, is between Alys and Rosemary but shouldn't the Walton County dept responsible for signage know this? Or am I missing something?\

 

[tsutcli]

Don't be embarrassed, this has been a problem ever since Doodle Harris built Seacrest Beach. People at the County level who should know better continue to ignore that Seacrest is the traditional unincorporated area along 30a starting on the West side of Camp Creek Lake and continuing down to Inlet Beach. All the communities along that route(I live in Seabreeze, a development in Seacrest) are just that, developments within Seacrest. Back in the day before the "Big Blue Sign" fiasco(now painted brown) which perpetrated, and continues to perpetrate, this mistake there were the original brown wooden signs along 30a which defined Seacrest. I doubt this will ever be resolved as this would mean replacing some of these signs which the County will never do ( I wish they would bring back the old, rustic wooden signs as they fit this area better ).

 

[Beach Runner]

I have always thought that Seacrest started at Camp Creek Lake on the west and ended at Rosemary on the east. But then Alys plopped down in the middle of Seacrest. So I dunno. We owned in Seagrove for 10 years. Where does Seagrove begin and end? Is Watersound in Seagrove? Or does Seagrove end on the east at Lakewood Drive? I really don't know. There are geographical places and then there are real estate developments. I don't know if the real estate developments are geographical entities on their own or if they lie within the old geographical entities.

So Ohio Girl, it's not a dumb question.

 

[Ohio Girl]

Thanks for the info. Seems to me that if someone is new to the area and they're looking for Seacrest, following the Walton Co signs will be useless.

 

[Kurt]

Things change. Seacrest Beach is a development within Seacrest. Alys Beach, Rosemary Beach, and Inlet Beach are considered "beach neighborhoods" - just like Seacrest.

The map below is currently how the county defines Seacrest.
http://sowal.com/towns/seacrest

But you can see that whoever drew the eastern boundary missed the mark a bit and made part of Seacrest Beach part of Rosemary Beach, as well as Water's Edge, on the western side of Rosemary Beach south of Scenic 30A.

Expect confusion to remain with us.

 

[Beachberbs]

It's confusing because we live in Seacrest but have a PCB mailing address.

 

[Beach Runner]

Okay, so Kurt, what are the boundaries of Seagrove?

I can answer the question about Watersound. We have two addresses. Our 911 and home address is Santa Rosa Beach FL 32459, but our mailing address is a P.O. box in Watersound FL 32413. Very confusing.

Also the phone number. We were originally assigned a 267 number by Verizon. But I couldn't make a call. It turns out that they assigned us a number "outside their grid." Now we have a 534 number.

 

[tsutcli]

Kurt, things change only by people who don't know. Yes you are correct when you say Seacrest Beach is a neighborhood within Seacrest. I knew as soon as that development was named it would create a big problem within the town of Seacrest. Then when the county came along and "branded" all the communities with the word beach on those big blue signs you had Seacrest Beach within Seacrest Beach and what a nightmare that was! I live in Seacrest and no one knew where I lived!!! Alys Beach, Rosemary Beach and Inlet beach are certainly "beach neighborhoods" but they are within the town of Seacrest. I have been a property owner in Seacrest for over 20 years and that's the way it has always been. So often the people our county brings in to do the marketing and draw the maps don't even live here or know this area. And to confuse things more our official post office is in Panama City Beach so that's our zip but we are not in Bay County, we are in Walton. That is exactly why Rosemary has their own Post Office because they did not want to have a Panama City Beach address.

 

[Beach Runner]

I hear ya, tsutcli.

 

[Camp Creek Kid]

It's confusing because we live in Seacrest but have a PCB mailing address.

We have started using "Seacrest, FL" as our mailing address instead of Panama City Beach. It is not because I'm a snob. There is actually a street in Carillon with a similar name as our street (different counties, but same zip code) and our mail, FedEx, UPS keep getting misdirected. Since we started using "Seacrest" we haven't had any problems. As long as the zip code is correct, the city name doesn't really matter and it is much less confusing for everyone.