No bathrooms. No parking. So for now, commissioners say no vending on new Walton County beach

SANTA ROSA BEACH — For at least the spring break and possibly deeper into the tourist season, no vending of beach umbrellas, chairs and other beach equipment will be allowed on the county's newest section of public beach, a 3-acre parcel with 500 feet of frontage on the Gulf of Mexico.

Beachgoers will be welcome to use the new beach, but as a result of the Walton County Commission's unanimous Tuesday decision, they will have to bring chairs, umbrellas and other beach items with them.

"All we're saying is we're not going to let the vendors down there," Commissioner Danny Glidewell said prior to the commission's vote.

But in tandem with that decision, commissioners left no doubt Tuesday that the new public beach eventually will be incorporated into the county's managed vendor program, which regulates on-beach vending of chairs, umbrellas, kayaks and other beach equipment.

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The county bought the formerly privately held parcel at the end of San Roy Road — just east of Seagrove Beach off County Highway 30A — last month for $9.5 million.

The purchase came at the end of lengthy negotiations that initially had the county and the landowner, Peter Russell, far apart, with the county's appraisal of the property at $6 million and Russell's appraisal at $18 million.

The commission's decision not to allow vending on the tract was based largely on the fact that no provisions have yet been made on the tract for parking, public restrooms and other amenities.

To that end, county staff members will host public workshops in which they will work with vendors and residents to collect comments on bringing vending to the new beach parcel and report their findings back to the commission. No dates for any workshops were discussed at Tuesday's commission meeting.

"The parcel we just bought, we haven't owned a month," Glidewell, a vocal proponent of keeping vending off the new beach for at least the immediate future, told fellow commissioners.

Arguing against including the tract in the county's managed vendor program, which regulates on-beach vending, Glidewell contended that the newly purchased beach doesn't have the infrastructure to support vending and the people it would bring to the beach.

"It doesn't have any bathrooms. It doesn't have any parking," Glidewell said, "and I think we should give Mr. Kellenberger (Brian Kellenberger, director of beach operations for the Walton County Tourist Development Council, which funded the beach purchase) at least a year to fix those issues before we include it in a program that's been successful, but I just don't think that parcel's ready yet.

"We don't even have any conceptual drawings," Glidewell added. "We are way, way at the beginning of this process."

But he continued, "I think it should be clear that we intend to include that parcel in the managed vendor program" once the TDC has it ready for an influx of visitors. Moving too quickly could bring blocked roads and other problems to neighborhoods near the new public beach, Gildewell suggested. .

"We need to figure out those things. A little planning won't hurt."

Glidewell got some pushback from Commissioner Tony Anderson, whose district includes most of the county's 26 miles of public and private beaches. While Anderson ultimately voted in favor of not having vending on the new beach, he did note that it will certainly and immediately attract visitors staying in nearby rental accommodations.

"I think we need to have vending there," said Anderson, who urged the commission to address the issue before spring break.

"You remember when we first started talking about buying this," Anderson said. "We had a bunch of people (who own or operate short-term vacation rental properties in the area) come here and say 'That's going to be where our rentals (guests) go.' Well, wherever the rentals are going, we're going to need vendors because they're not going to bring their own chairs."

But Glidewell pointed out that "if we (the county) hadn't bought it, they wouldn't have anybody (vacation-rental guests) down there because it would be private property. ... We need to have bathrooms and parking."

Prior to their vote, commissioners heard from two nearby property owners.

Brian Greenwald thanked the commissioners for making the beach purchase, and said people who have already booked properties for the upcoming tourist season are under the assumption that vending will be available.

Greenwald asked — unsuccessfully, as things turned out — if commissioners are "trying to figure things out if there's any way that we could have a private beach vendor out there to help some of our guests that already have bookings ... that would really help us out."

Robert Rendzio, president of the owners' association for Beachside Villas, a short-term vacation rental development less than a quarter-mile from the new beach, also spoke.

"People are going to migrate to this beach with or without the vending in place," Rendzio said.

He was worried that no vending arrangements would be in place at any point in the upcoming tourist season, telling commissioners, "I ask that we not wait until 2023, when everything is 'perfect', because nothing is ever perfect."

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Walton County delays implementing chair, umbrella vending on beach