On Tuesday, the County Commission approved paying up to $575,000 to buy five vacant residential lots and two stormwater lots, totaling about 6.4 acres, on Shoal River Drive for the future park.
The overall park site is on a part of the now-defunct Shoal River Country Club property located southeast of the Live Oak Church Road-Shoal River Drive intersection. It’s also a quarter mile east and upriver from the Cox Bridge and the county-managed Shoal River Wayside Park.
Most of the Patriot Park site consists of 165 acres of land – mainly lowlands – that Patriot Ridge LLC donated to the county in January 2024.
The LLC is the developer of the huge Patriot Ridge subdivision between Airman’s Memorial Road and Shoal River Drive. The land donation helped the company satisfy concurrency requirements for parks and recreation as provided in the county’s land development code.
The lots the commission approved buying stand adjacent to Annabelle Lane, Live Oak Church Road and Shoal River Drive and on the northwest corner of the park site, and southwest of the Pinnacle Point Drive-Shoal River Drive intersection, near the park site’s northeast corner.
The property to be acquired represent “higher elevated, better-quality property that was formerly used as ends of the golf cart path and will essentially add to the donated property,” according to Deputy County Administrator of Operations Craig Coffey. “The acquisition of these lots will allow the completion of a 1 1/4-mile loop for walkers/runners using much of the cart path of the former golf course.”
The lots to the west will serve as the main park site and as a trailhead, according to county information. Coffey said these lots could provide access to the Shoal River for canoeists, kayakers, and paddle boarders, and could include a parking area, playground, pavilions and restrooms. The lots to the east will likely just have a trail and minor recreational items, he said.
A master plan for the lots to the west, which will have input from nearby residents, might be ready for the commission’s consideration later this year.
County officials plan to use American Rescue Plan Act interest money to pay for the $550,000 cost of the five residential lots and two stormwater parcels, as well as closing costs of up to $25,000, for a total of $575,000. By May 2, they anticipate closing on the overall purchase from Phillips Homes LLC, of Holt, and Patriot Ridge West Owners Association Inc., of Destin.
Currently, county workers are clearing some of the trail areas on the larger property that was donated by Patriot Ridge LLC.
The overall Patriot Park site someday could provide public recreational access to more than 2,200 acres of county-owned and currently undeveloped land to the east.