'We can't build a Disney World': Walton finally taking swing at future of Golf Garden property

Jim Thompson, Northwest Florida Daily News
·3 min read

MIRAMAR BEACH — Residents of Miramar Beach, particularly those living in residential areas around the back side of the Golf Garden on U.S. Highway 98, will soon get a chance to weigh in on what they want Walton County officials to do with the northernmost 10 acres of the property.

At their Tuesday meeting, the Board of County Commissioners directed the staff to hold public workshops on the property and submit a report to the commission within 60 days with a plan for the tract.

No schedule for the workshops was set.

How it started (from 2019): Walton eyes Golf Garden purchase

The county purchased the acreage on the back side of the Golf Garden two years ago for $2.7 million. Since then, the county has been leasing the acreage back to the Golf Garden for $1,000 per month to allow the business to remain open.

In the meantime, there has been little to no public discourse regarding the future of the land, even as plans for Botanic Miramar, a proposed 321-apartment mixed-use development with an extensive commercial and retail component on the front 25 acres of the Golf Garden property, have been moving forward.

Young people practiced their swings at the Golf Garden on U.S. Highway 98 in Miramar Beach. Walton County purchased part of the Golf Garden acreage two years ago, and will soon host public workshops to get input on what to do with the acreage.
Young people practiced their swings at the Golf Garden on U.S. Highway 98 in Miramar Beach. Walton County purchased part of the Golf Garden acreage two years ago, and will soon host public workshops to get input on what to do with the acreage.

The county had the option of purchasing the entire 35-acre tract, but opted against doing so and instead used county preservation funds to buy the back 10 acres. The use of preservation funds limits what can be done with the property.

"We can't build a Disney World out there," County Commissioner Danny Glidewell said Tuesday.

Limits on the tract have appeared to suit area residents, whose prevailing sentiment regarding the acreage in the limited discussion has been to use it as green space.

Related: 'If you don't fix it now, we're screwed': County faces criticism in Miramar Beach

Calls for leaving the tract largely undeveloped have increased in recent months, as Miramar Beach residents have seen a proliferation of development — in addition to Botanic Miramar, there are new hotels and condominiums slated for the immediate area — coming into their neighborhoods.

Among the most outspoken has been Lori Echols, who lives along Choctawhatchee Bay immediately east of the Golf Garden. In Tuesday's comments to commissioners, Echols expressed concern that the county would end up using the 10-acre parcel for stormwater control, a potential eventuality that she blamed on the Botanic Miramar project, which will soon be coming to the County Commission for a decision on whether it can move forward.

Officials indicated Tuesday that the county might consider using part of the tract for stormwater control, given flooding issues on nearby streets that also have been a focus of neighborhood concern.

"I just am saying, 'build (a) park'," that would in large part, leave the 10-acre tract "as it is," Echols said. Echols also urged commissioners to get the acreage open to the public as soon as possible, suggesting that there was little need to do much to the land.

"There is plenty of access to get to that green space," Echols said, urging the county "to just mow it right now."

Glidewell acknowledged that the county has been slow to act on the Golf Garden tract, saying that the government was "remiss in not holding these public workshops two years ago."

He blamed the COVID-19 pandemic, along with anticipation that the developers of Botanic Miramar would move more quickly on their portion of the property for the delay.

"We have sat on it way too long," said Glidewell, who added that he and his commission colleagues "need to have the input of the neighborhood. We need to know what they want."

Commissioners eventually voted unanimously to continue leasing the acreage to the Golf Garden beyond the Feb. 14 expiration of the current lease. However, they also made it clear that they would, likely sooner rather than later, exercise their option to terminate the lease with 30 days' notice.

But commissioners suggested that they would provide the Golf Garden with a longer notice, perhaps as much as 90 days, to allow its employees to find other work.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Walton County planning future of Golf Garden property in Miramar Beach