In August, members of the Walton County Board of County Commissioners and the Walton County Beach Operations and Tourism departments gathered to officially break ground on the Seagrove Regional Beach Access located at 3910 E. Co. Hwy. 30A.
The project will be the 10th regional beach access in the county when complete next summer, but the development comes with challenges. According to Beach Operations Director Brian Kellenberger, a drainage creek runs directly through the middle of the property draining an approximately 150-acre water basin.
“This is an extremely difficult piece of property to develop. Most property that’s still available on 30A has that common denominator,” said Kellenberger. “[It] took our engineers a lot of doing to figure out – one, how to contain water that we are going to develop on our property, but also how to manage the off-site water that has come onto the property.”
The project includes parking with dedicated spaces for standard vehicles, ADA, bicycles, a 1,011-square-foot restroom facility, handicap-accessible dune walkover and connectivity to the multi-use path.
“In 2016 when I ran for office, right after I got elected, the board instructed the TDC to start buying as much beachfront property as they could. Again in 2018, Mr. Glidewell joined the board, and he was able to tell them to keep buying beach access. Every time we told Brian, his eyes lit up,” said District 5 Commissioner Tony Anderson. “He’s bought us wonderful properties. The TDC staff has put up a lot of work for this, and with our partners for this job it’s going to be a beautiful access.”
The properties were purchased and will be maintained using Tourist Development Tax, a 5 percent tax collected on short-term rentals in south Walton County. Residents do not pay the bed tax unless they are taking a “staycation” in a local rental property or accommodation.
More information about these and other Beach Operations projects is available at WaltonCountyFLTourism.com/Projects. More information about beach and bay accesses is available at VisitSouthWalton.com/Beach-Bay-Access-Locations.
