Preserve Navarre organization to keep busy despite vote results

NAVARRE, Fla. ( WKRG ) — Organizers of Preserve Navarre say they’re tabling plans for the future City of Navarre Beach for now, but that could one day change.

Last Saturday, a straw vote was held to gauge citizens’ interest in becoming a city. The results came in and showed that 42% of voters were in favor of that idea while 58% of voters were not.

“Because it was less than 50 that means we’re gonna let it just sit,” Wes Siler, Director of Preserve Navarre said. “That means we’re going to not move forward with the process, at least for now, because we’re not going to give the citizens a city they don’t want.”

Siler says the group wanted to bring ‘home rule’ to their rapidly growing community.

“As opposed to what we have now which is people up at the county, it takes us an hour to drive up there and, you’re trying to explain issues to people who don’t live in Navarre and then they make the planning and the zoning decisions that affect us,” Siler said.

However, some were worried about paying more taxes if Navarre became a city.

Despite the vote, the nonprofit organization will keep busy. They’re planning events to celebrate Navarre and its history.

“Navarre is an incredible community. Veterans, war heroes, scholars, writers, athletes, so many really amazing people and we have several projects coming up to celebrate those folks,” Siler said.

However, if the majority interest in becoming a city ever sparks, they’ll be ready to go.

“We’re going to keep our website up, we’re going to keep all of our documents ready, if there’s ever a situation where it’s clear that majority feels differently then we would move forward,” Siler said.

Siler said they will continue to voice their concerns over issues in their community to the county.

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