As OLF-8 Charette Process Begins--What Do Voters County-Wide Want from the OLF-8 Property?

According to a recent county-wide poll--citizens prefer job-creation at the County's OLF 8 property over Mixed-Use or residential construction--by a greater than 2 to 1 majority!

DPZ Design, a planning firm from Miami, has been brought in to create a master plan for the county's 536 acre OLF-8 property in Beulah.  This firm will be having public input sessions online beginning this week--and citizens are encouraged to participate in these online sessions.  Citizens can register and participate in this process by visiting www.myolf8.com  

The OLF-8 Property in Beulah was acquired by the county from the Department of Defense for the express purpose of job creation.

The county has submitted a preliminary application with Triumph Gulf Coast (The entity distributing $1.5 Billion in BP Oil Spill Funds for economic and environmental remediation) which may lead to a $30 Million Dollar award for the county if we can create a minimum of 1000 good-wage paying jobs with this property.

Once the county's acquisition of this property--initially considered a "long shot" by many naysayers--appeared inevitable--a segment of individuals began attacking the original plan to create high-tech, high paying jobs with this property.  These individuals actively sought support for scrapping the county's initial jobs plan and instead lobbied heavily that the county create a mixed use development with shops, retail, parks, and residential construction instead--none of which would qualify for Triumph Gulf Coast funding. These individuals sought to create division and linked arms with the local press and some powerful downtown special interests to downplay the importance of maintaining the fidelity of the original purpose of this land acquisition. They attempted to sow discontent among residents, they sought to discredit me and run me down by utilizing the press locally to ridicule the jobs creation project.

I have remained steadfast in my belief in keeping the integrity of the original project intact; I have stated and I strongly believe that we need to create jobs with this property and to go after our Triumph Gulf Coast Grant.  I believe we do not need to build any more residential units on this property----as the private sector is building plenty of houses, apartments, condominiums, and hotel rooms in close proximity already-and we in government don't need to compete with the private residential development community locally. Most residents in Beulah with whom I have spoken agree that we don't need to build residential housing on the OLF-8 field.Like me, many of these local Beulah residents believe we have too much residential construction out here already--outpacing our infrastructure's ability to keep up!

I do believe there is room for compromise, though; I believe we can have some limited retail and quality of life amenities along the frontage of this property on 9-Mile Road, which will generate revenue for the county and provide services for nearby residents like me.  I believe a world-class biking/walking trail could be built circling this property for citizens' use, winding through the unbuildable wetlands on the property.  There is room for some additional amenities for the Beulah community--and I'd like to see this as well.  

But the thrust of the property should be used for job creation in order to stick with the integrity of the project and the expenditure of county funds to acquire this property.

Otherwise--this will go down in history as one giant "bait and switch" job on the citizens county-wide who supported funding this project for jobs creation!  That can't happen....

A survey of nearly 700 registered voters county wide which was recently conducted (after the August 18th Primary Election which I won) clearly illustrates that a majority of these county stakeholders support jobs on this property over mixed-use development.  From the survey's narrative:

 "57% think the land, identified as OLF 8, should be used for manufacturing and industrial.  This is opposed to the 25% thinking the land should be used for mixed used (residential, retail and restaurants). 

Additionally, 62% says Escambia County needs more high wage jobs, identified at $48,000 a year or more.  When it comes to high wage manufacturing or information technology jobs, 85.2% wanted more of those.  And finally, when it came to attracting Space Force, or more military operations type of employment, 80.9% supported that as well. 

When looking at the county districts, the 2 districts most effected [SIC] by OLF 8 were the 2 that were most wanting manufacturing over mixed use.  District 1 had 23.7% for mixed use and 60.9% for industry.  The rest being undecided.  When you look at District 5, we also saw 23.1% for mixed use and 59.4% for industry use; of that property."  

See the complete survey with results here

Read all about the long, drawn-out history of the OLF 8 property acquisition here