Conservation land purchases could help offset Santa Rosa County flooding | Guestview

I grew up in Lake County, Illinois, surrounded by neighborhood parks and county forest preserves. The Lake County Forest Preserve District purchased as much property (that was prone to flooding) as they could along the banks of the Des Plaines River and returned it to a wetland wonderland complete with multi-use trails. As an adult, I gladly paid a yearly fee for access to the preserves so I could ride my horse through the woods and along the river. It was heaven on Earth and I thought that every county embraced their wetlands the way Lake County did.

That was until we moved to Santa Rosa County, Florida, in 2008. First, I was confused because our address was Gulf Breeze and it wasn’t until later that I found out that we didn’t live in “proper” but in the midway area and that we were not part of “Tree City” Gulf Breeze but governed by the Board of County Commissioners.

When a rezoning request was filed in 2014 to increase zoning for a new development, I joined a group of like-minded neighbors and fought the request. The development went in, but not at the increased density. After that I started paying more attention. I was at a county meeting one night when Don Richards spoke. He said that all the “high and dry” property had been developed years ago on this south-end peninsula and what was left were wetlands. As time went by, I was shocked to see so many of the wetlands along this narrow peninsula clear-cut, filled in and developed (or as we now call it fill-n-build).

Also, April 2014 was the big rain event. It caused flooding damage to so many residents of the Ranchettes neighborhood. At another County meeting in 2019, Mr. Rios, who owned 70+ acres between the Ranchettes and Whisper Bay, offered to sell his property to the county while they were trying to figure out a “fix” for the Ranchettes’ flooding problems. Commissioner Bob Cole said "why would we be interested in that property – it’s all wetlands?" My thought was – that’s exactly why you should be interested. Protect the wetlands and in turn they will protect the residents.

At a BOCC meeting on June 10, Karena Stellar, who lives next-door to the future Rosemary Sound development on the south side of Highway 98, told the BOCC about recent flooding to her backyard. She was afraid that as they develop Rosemary Sound, the flooding of her property may increase. It was suggested that “maybe” when they put Rosemary Sound in, it will help correct her drainage problems, which may have existed from the time her development originally went in.

It boggles my mind that “more development” will help reduce flooding issues on this narrow peninsula − this narrow peninsula that in some places is only 1-mile wide with East Bay to the north and the Santa Rosa Sound to the south, two water bodies that are slowly being destroyed by the stormwater runoff from these developments.

There are 10 residential developments going in within a 5-mile stretch of the narrow peninsula (the midway area), I’m not even counting the commercial developments. This will add more than 1,100 more homes, resulting in a loss of trees, loss of wetlands, loss of habitat but an increase in traffic, flooding and stormwater runoff into our waterways.

The BOCC recently approved 545 acres for preservation in Navarre and 429 acres in Pace near Whiting Field. That is a good start - but it should be just the beginning and not the end game of conservation and preservation (in perpetuity) of our precious wetlands and woodlands, especially in the narrowest part of the south-end peninsula.

Below are parcels that Save Our Soundside (SOS) has suggested the county consider for conservation/preservation for perpetuity in the midway area. Some of them are mostly wetlands, some are areas frequented by black bears; some of them, when linked together, could become a wildlife corridor where animals could move through safely. All of these could prevent future flooding for existing residents:

• Frew Property at the east end of Soundside Drive
• Barbarosa "Park"
• Santa Rosa Shores "Park"
• Taub Property off of Little Duck Circle
• Medve Property north of the Soundside Foundation Preserve
• The Soundside Foundation Preserve
• The old "Rodamaker Landfill site"
• The Rios Property located near Whisper Bay/the Ranchettes
• Seven parcels on Ocean Breeze that were a part of the Nature's Cove conservation easement
• Two parcels marked as "Conservation Easements" near Forest Bay Subdivision and Sailfish Point

Elizabeth Pavelick is the media and technical coordinator for Save Our Soundside, which has been working since 2018 to protect the community and environment from the adverse impacts of overdevelopment.