The Okaloosa County Commission today unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with Santa Rosa County for the study project. The Santa Rosa County Commission approved the agreement on Oct. 9.

For many years, officials from both counties have talked with Florida Department of Transportation, Hurlburt Field, and Eglin Air Force Base officials about traffic congestion on U.S. 98: In particular, the section of this four-lane highway between Navarre and Hurlburt Field is overcapacity, and funding to widen the highway is not imminent, according to Okaloosa County officials.

Through the ongoing talks, officials from both counties have identified potential alignment upgrades off U.S. 98 that could improve traffic options through the corridor, according to Jason Autrey, Okaloosa County’s deputy county administrator of development services.

Specifically, Okaloosa County is working on the “98 Parallel Collector Road,” which would run parallel to U.S. 98 from the area north of Green Drive east to Solar Drive, Autrey said in a report to the County Commission. If all goes as planned, this collector road would be about three miles long.

“Included with this alignment is a second ‘back’ access point to Hurlburt Field,” Autrey said in the report. “Creation of this alignment will provide a new access option for residential areas along Hwy 98 and more importantly relocate the school zone for Florosa Elementary from Hwy 98.”

He said the 98 Parallel Collector Road project currently is in the Project Development and Environmental study phase.

In their jurisdiction, Santa Rosa County officials have a similar concept known as the “Navarre Community Access Road,” which also aims to identify an east-west corridor that’s parallel to U.S. 98, offering a different route for access, according to Autrey.

He noted that a gap exists between the two project locations. The $4 million study will look at whether connecting the projects is feasible and, if so, what alignments can be created.

District 4 Okaloosa County Commissioner Trey Goodwin, who at today’s meeting made the motion to approve the interlocal agreement, said going forward with the study is appropriate.

“I’ll caveat my motion to approve with all the safeguards that we’ve talked about before: that we’re being respectful of private property rights as we do this,” Goodwin said. “We’re not looking to force anyone out of their property or anything like that. That’s not what this is. We’re moving to approve this as a coordination effort, but … there’s no government strong-arming any of this. This is a benefit to everyone, and we’re looking for the most-effective path with the least impact to the people that live there.”

“I appreciate that, and we are so far away from knowing what, or if that corridor is even possible,” Autrey said. “This is the absolute very first step, but I think those words are very well heeded.”

That’s when the commission, in a 3-0 vote, approved the park’s master concept plan, which was developed by Kimley Horn & Associates, county staff, and input from residents who live by the park. Commissioners Carolyn Ketchel and Trey Goodwin had excused absences from the meeting.

The Patriot 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.

The park property covers 165 acres of land – mainly lowlands – that Patriot Ridge LLC donated to the county in January 2024.

Patriot Ridge 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.

Patriot Park will be developed in two phases. County officials have earmarked a total of $1.6 million to develop the park, with $800,000 set aside in this year’s budget for the park’s western portion and $800,000 budgeted in fiscal year 2026-2027 for the park’s eastern portion.

The park will have a west trailhead by the Live Oak Church Road-Shoal River Drive intersection, an east trailhead near the Timberline Drive-Shoal River Drive intersection, and a total of 1.6 miles of paved and unpaved trails for walkers and runners. Peters noted that county workers have already replaced many of the old, former golf course bridges at the park.

In addition to trails, the western part of the park property will have a parking lot, playground, pavilions, restrooms, a dog park, and open spaces. This part of the park might be completed sometime next spring.

The eastern part of the property that will open later will have trails, a parking lot, a pavilion, restrooms, open space, and pickleball courts. Also opening sometime after the western part of the park is completed will be various obstacles and challenge structures, scenic overlooks, benches, and educational displays.

The overall park site later could provide public recreational access to more than 2,200 adjacent acres of county-owned and currently undeveloped land.

That’s according to information from the Engineering Division of the Okaloosa County Public Works Department. While the Freedom Walk property stands within Crestview’s city limits, Old Bethel Road is maintained by the county.

Plans call for Freedom Walk to have 474 single-family homes on 156 acres south of Old Bethel Road, east of Normandy Road and west of Jones Road.

The sharp curve on Old Bethel Road stands half a mile west of Davidson Middle School and 0.7 of a mile west of SR 85. A portion of Old Bethel Road in front of and next to the school often gets congested with vehicles at the start and end of each school day.

The owner of the 156 acres is RL Prop 2012-1 LLC, of Pensacola. Plans call for Freedom Walk to be developed in three phases and have two roads connecting to Old Bethel Road, two to Normandy Road and two to Jones Road.

Construction of the subdivision is anticipated to start in 2026 and last until about 2030.

“The development has proposed improvements to the curve east of Davidson Middle School as their traffic impact mitigation requirements,” county Public Information Officer Nick Tomecek said on Wednesday in an email to the News Bulletin. “Their final design isn’t quite completed yet, but the developer’s engineers are working on it. The developer intends to construct the improvements to Old Bethel unless the construction cost exceeds their mitigation requirements of approximately $500,000. In that case, they would contribute the dollar amount of their mitigation and turn the final design of the curve over to the county. Public Works required that both lanes of travel remain open, barring any short-duration closure, for the duration of the project.”

Tomecek added that the county currently has no plans to widen Old Bethel Road between the Freedom Walk site and SR 85.

This past April, the Crestview Planning and Development Board and the City Council approved Freedom Walk’s preliminary plat, or drawing of the subdivision’s layout. In July, city staff issued a development order for the subdivision.

At the P&D Board meeting in April, Board Member Joseph Warren asked city Planning Administrator Nick Schwendt about the potential traffic impact from Freedom Walk.

“My question is on a subdivision being that large in size, being on the north end, what’s the impact for our roadway infrastructure to be able to support it?” Warren said. “Because you do the math on 470-something (planned homes), just at a guess you’re adding another 1,000 vehicles to the roadways.”

Schwendt noted that Freedom Walk’s developer, or the county using money from the developer, would improve Old Bethel Road’s sharp curve.

P&D Board Member Bryan Follmar said at the April meeting that he is pleased that plans for Freedom Walk call for two road connections apiece to Old Bethel, Normandy, and Jones roads.

The developer “went with entrance and exit points versus putting in other houses on lots,” Follmar said. “I know there’s concerns about Old Bethel, but when you have multiple ways in and out of the neighborhood, you’re going to distribute that traffic, depending on which way they want to go.”

To the south and southeast of the Freedom Walk site stands the 121-acre property of the city-approved White Wolf Run subdivision, which is now under construction and will have 332 single-family homes.

The White Wolf Run property will include a realigned portion of Jones Road. The north end of Jones Road will continue to connect with Old Bethel Road.

The purchase of the property on the south side of Destin Harbor came as DeSantis and the Cabinet also moved forward with 10 other land deals. The Cabinet is made up of Attorney General James Uthmeier, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.

The 11 parcels total 30,478 acres and include a $278.14 million price tag, with the money mostly coming from the state’s Florida Forever and Rural and Family Lands Protection programs. The projects primarily involve purchasing easements, which allow ranchers and farmers to continue agricultural operations in exchange for limiting future development.

The Destin deal drew the most attention. The property, owned by Pointe Mezzanine LLC and Point Resort LLC, is next to a row of condominiums and had been eyed for development.

DeSantis and the Cabinet approved the deal as part of a bundle of projects. Ingoglia said during the meeting he had reservations about the Destin proposal but declined to elaborate afterward.

“I just wish to say I have concerns,” Ingoglia told reporters.

Pointe Mezzanine and Pointe Resort, registered in state corporate records to Louisiana developer and political donor Rodney Guidry, acquired the land for $7.9 million in 2016 and 2017.

The land is zoned for high-density residential use.

After the meeting, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson defended the deal as a land protection measure.

“I wonder what it would look like with 250 condos on it,” Simpson said. “Now, we will never have to imagine that.”

A Cabinet staff report said buying the land would improve public access, with plans for 100 parking spaces and opportunities for boating, fishing and swimming.

Okaloosa County has pledged $5 million to support the new park.

“If the state buys this property, it means that the public will always have access to it, and I think that’s a beautiful thing,” Okaloosa County Commission Chairman Paul Mixon wrote to the state Department of Environmental Protection in August. “The public — our residents and visitors — will get to participate and experience our beautiful coastline and our natural resources here in Okaloosa County.”

Fine print in the state budget that took effect July 1 directed purchasing the land, though it did not include a dollar amount.

Among the other deals approved on Sept. 29:

• $68.15 million to purchase an 1,893-acre easement at 4G Ranch in Pasco County. The county is expected to cover half the cost.
• $32.1 million for a 5,940-acre easement at Remlap Ranch in Okeechobee County.
• $25.1 million for a 5,631-acre easement on property owned by Hoot Holdings in Collier and Hendry counties.
• $17.169 million to purchase a 1,670-acre easement at Bar-B Ranch in Martin County.
• $9.47 million to purchase a 2,559-acre easement from Bentley Ranch Inc. in Hardee County.
• $6.477 million to purchase a 1,889-acre easement from Finca Vigia, LLC in Hendry County.
• $6.3 million to purchase a 1,400-acre easement from Lake’s Place, LLP in Osceola County.

The property eventually could be developed for a single-family home subdivision.

The parcel, which stands across from the city’s Blackwater Golf Club at 4927 Antioch Road, is owned by Hardball Holdings LLC, of DeFuniak Springs. The new ordinances will lead to the parcel’s current future land use designation of commercial being changed to residential and the property’s current zoning designation of commercial low-intensity district being changed to the single and multi-family density dwelling district classification.

City officials said the city has not received a development application for the vacant property but has received a conceptual plan for a proposed residential development at the site. A rendering provided by an engineering firm working with Hardball Holdings shows the conceptual layout of a potential 31-lot single-family home subdivision.

The City Council unanimously approved the new contract on Monday.

This past June, Leavins marked her sixth year of employment with the city. After working in other city jobs, she began serving as deputy city manager this past January, then was promoted to interim city manager on May 1, the day after Tim Bolduc worked his last day as Crestview’s first-ever city manager. After a little over six years in that role, Bolduc left it to become Adams Sanitation’s CEO.

Leavins was promoted to city manager in July. While serving as deputy and interim city manager, she received an annual salary of $144,400.

Her new city manager contract was negotiated by City Attorney Jon Holloway and Mayor J.B. Whitten. The employment agreement is retroactive to Aug. 1, the first day of the month following the council’s approval of her appointment as city manager.

Among other benefits, the new contract provides Leavins with the option to select between a $400 monthly vehicle allowance or the use of a city vehicle, with all maintenance and expenses to be paid by the city. Following Monday’s council meeting, Leavins said she will keep using the city vehicle she used when she was the deputy and interim city manager.

According to the new contract, Leavins would receive no severance pay if she is fired or resigns in lieu of being terminated during her first year as city manager.

She would receive severance pay equal to five weeks of her base salary if she is fired or resigns in lieu of being terminated during her second year, and would receive higher severance pay amounts if such separation occurs in her later years of service.

Leavins must give the city 90 days advance notice if she decides to voluntarily resign. In that scenario, she would not receive any severance pay, according to the contract.

The overall contract “represents a mid-range compensation package compared to other similarly situated municipalities and takes into account an upward salary trend in Florida to retain high level city and county managers,” Holloway wrote in a report to the council.