County Wants State Park Land at Topsail for Beach Access

[Truman]

You are hereby notified of a Public Workshop to be held on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 6:00 PM or soon thereafter, to present and discuss proposed new beach accesses including one at Topsail State Park.
The meeting will be held at the South Walton Courthouse Annex located at 31 Coastal Centre Blvd., Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

Please be advised two or more Commissioners may attend this meeting.

Please be governed accordingly.

At your service,

Louis E. Svehla
Public Information Manager
Walton Board of County Commissioners

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Let's leave the State parks alone!

 

[Matt J]

No! This is the most asinine thing the county has come up with in a while.

 

[SkinShark]

Why are we even discussing this? Let's use the money being spent on talking about it on our schools. Waste of time. Leave our beautiful parks alone!

 

[Bob Wells]

Totally different entity that is doing this. School Board deals with schools and taxes to pay for it. This is the Board of County Commissioners

 

[DaleDalbey]

Topsail and the state EPA have given blessing to the walkover. It will be paid for with TDC money, not county funds. The western end of 30a has dangerous traffic and parking issues because we don't have enough access points to our beaches. Why does everyone immediately assume that a walkover will lead to Armageddon without stating facts, but only histrionics?

 

[Truman]

Topsail and the state EPA have given blessing to the walkover. It will be paid for with TDC money, not county funds. The western end of 30a has dangerous traffic and parking issues because we don't have enough access points to our beaches. Why does everyone immediately assume that a walkover will lead to Armageddon without stating facts, but only histrionics?

Inside word is that EPA doesn't like it. Fortunately most of us want to protect our public lands. The TDC has no business on state property.

Topsail has lots of parking and great facilities.

Dangerous traffic? Histrionics? What are you talking about?

 

[m1a1mg]

The Dune Allen Beach Access is an accident waiting to happen. I always drive very slowly by there. Had a woman with a small child walk out from between cars a few days ago right into traffic. Had I been doing 35, it would have been very bad.

 

[DaleDalbey]

Inside word is that EPA doesn't like it. Fortunately most of us want to protect our public lands. The TDC has no business on state property. Topsail has lots of parking and great facilities. Dangerous traffic? Histrionics? What are you talking about?

Inside word? What are you talking about? Do tell. Sounds like juicy gossip from someone "in the know".

 

[rblessed1031]

I am curious as to who at the EPA or the park has given their blessing for this? I think they are pretty protective of the ecosystem that is onsite and am not sure that they would be giving their blessing to anything without a thorough investigation.

The park does have plenty of parking and would venture to guess that they would be willing to work with the TDC or any other entity in order to accommodate day use visitors. I think that should be a solution investigated before money is spent on a walkover. Makes me wonder if there aren't a group of homeowners who would benefit financially if there was a walkover that connected to their subdivision and if that may or may not be the driving factor behind this?

 

[Jdarg]

There are a lot of problems with this plan, including that the access would be in Beachview Heights, which has private roads. So there basically would be an access through state park land with crappy to no parking options, and would really only benefit the people in Beachview Heights, and oh yeah, Cypress Dunes, which is next door. I suppose if you live in Cypress Dunes, this would be great news- the TDC will be building a beach access for you and boom! Up go your property values! Sets a bad precedent.

This is a bad option for the environment and our community. There are other options that need a closer look.