A Burger King and a Bunch of Ugly Buildings!

The Board of County Commissioners will discuss several topics at tomorrow's Committee of the Whole Meeting.  Two that are of particular interest to me are the Beach Access issue and the issue of finalizing the language for master planning OLF 8 in Beulah.

We have talked a lot about OLF 8 on this blog.  It is important-- and however that property is developed-- there will be impacts on nearby residents like me (I live right across the street, where I've owned a home for nearly 15 years).

It has been astonishing to watch how--as we have come closer and closer to acquiring this property--opinion about using this property to generate jobs has been pushed further and further from the forefront.  It's almost as if, in some strange way, these these items are inversely proportional.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a well-known community leader that lives in Beulah.  This individual has had a stellar career, and he is actively involved in business development.  So I asked him his opinion about why, suddenly, everyone is running away from the original plan of building good jobs with this property.

"Where are the renderings, where are the drawings" he said.  "I support whatever happens out there, but I want to see what we're talking about---right now all I have heard is it will be a Burger King and a bunch of Ugly Buildings."

"You know I'd never support that, right, because I live right across the street like you do?" I told him

He went on to discuss the fact that he wears multiple hats and his opinion on the project hasn't really changed but he has to be careful about what he says publicly about the project.  I get that, to a point.

But I also think there comes a point when something that was proposed and submitted as one thing is being pulled in opposite directions due to some strong special interests that want something different--something has to give.  At some point, if we whittle that RFP down to the point where the planner is told "Do whatever you want--do not focus on creating jobs at all" --then we will get a plan that resembles nothing close to what was initially proposed.  And at that point, our $30 Million Dollar Triumph grant will evanesce and that money will go to some other community in the panhandle.

Maybe that's what the special interests wanted all along......

For my part and my vote, and I have not wavered, I want to recoup as much of the county's LOST funds as possible by re-zoning (HCLI) the frontage acreage on 9-Mile Road--as suggested in our Brantley Appraisal. I do not support any more residential construction in the area or on this property (there are 1,200 condos, apartments, and homes currently under construction within walking distance from NFCU already--and our infrastructure can't take much more!)--however I will look at what our planner comes up with if this is what he/she honestly, independently believes is needed.   I do want to see some restaurants developed there for the community, an urgent care facility, and perhaps a postal annex store. I'd like to set aside space for future use for a second elementary school that Beulah desperately needs.  I want a world-class biking, hiking, walking trail all around this property for use by citizens, and a regional park with amenities for residents. We could use some of the triumph money to make a regional stormwater basin and we could enhance Frank Reeder Road to Beulah Road on the North side of this OLF 8 property if we can secure our Triumph grant money.   Also, set back from the road, in the interior of the parcel, I want to see us set aside space for us to create a minimum of 700 more good jobs so that we can stay in the running for as much as $30 Million from Triumph Gulf Coast--this is a fair compromise that gives everyone something from this property, and this is what I support.  This is what I will say at tomorrow's meeting, because it will not be, and never was going to be, just a "Burger King and a bunch of Ugly Buildings"