Besides erecting other roadblocks, Senate Bill 180, which was recently passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prevents Okaloosa County from implementing any of the recommendations from the nearly $1 million North Okaloosa Planning Study.

Last October, the Okaloosa County Commission acknowledged receiving the study’s final report. The study, which was conducted by Inspire Placemaking Collective, of Orlando, and is also known as the Inspire study, aimed to help guide growth in the unincorporated area north of the Eglin Air Force Base reservation.

Early in the study process, then-county Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert said the county intended to use the study’s final report as the basis of substantially updating the county’s comprehensive plan, which serves as a blueprint for growth.

“When it comes to future development, “There is a glaring need for clarity in the existing comprehensive plan about what’s allowed and what’s not,” Inspire President George Kramer said last August at a town hall session on the planning study.

While the commission acknowledged receiving the study’s final report, it did not vote on going forward with any of the report’s recommendations, such as phasing out conditional density allowances within the county’s Agriculture and Residential Rural land use designations.

Because of SB 180, action on such recommendations will not occur anytime soon.

Analysis of the bill

On Friday, Watkins, who lives just north of Crestview and is a passionate advocate for protecting the north county’s rural and agricultural areas, shared an analysis of SB 180 by Richard Grosso, a land use attorney in the Broward County city of Plantation.

Grosso prepared the analysis for the Tallahassee-based nonprofit, smart-growth advocacy organization called 1000 Friends of Florida.

The new bill “has an immediate and drastic impact on the authority of local governments to amend their comprehensive plans and land development regulations, or issue development orders with conditions opposed by any person or entity,” Grosso said in his analysis. “This new law, which went into effect on July 1, 2025, is extremely limiting. Section 28 of the law, citing federal disaster declarations for Florida counties from Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, immediately renders ‘more restrictive or burdensome’ comprehensive plan and land development code changes adopted by every local government in the state of Florida after July 31, 2024, subject to judicial invalidation, and precludes local governments from adopting such measures until October 1, 2027.”

He said all 67 of Florida’s counties were identified in a federal disaster declaration for at least one of Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, which struck Florida last year.

“Each of those 67 counties, and every city within every county, is subject to the Section 28 prohibition,” Grosso said. “Going forward, whenever a future hurricane makes landfall, the law’s prohibition on new substantive restrictions or procedures that are more restrictive or burdensome will kick in for any counties within 100 miles of the track of the storm (and their cities) and last for a year.”

A ‘bad bill’

Watkins said by approving SB 180, the state took away the power of residents and their local government officials “to control planning and zoning as well as your opportunity to provide input on development and planning during the public review process on such matters. This was a bad bill and needs to be repealed or modified.”

Watkins urges residents to “talk this over with your state representative and senator to make sure they support either repealing this bill or at lease making major modifications to the worst parts.”

At an Okaloosa County Commission meeting in March, District 3 Commissioner Sherri Cox told residents the commission did address the Inspire study.

Because of the Bert Harris Private Property Rights Protection Act “and the restrictions that it gives us on how we can implement the Inspire study legally, we had asked collectively to put this on our (2025 state) legislative priorities (list) so that we could put it before the Legislature,” Cox said.

SB 180, however, prevents the county from implementing the study until at least Oct. 1, 2027.

Grosso’s full analysis of the bill is available online at https://1000fof.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SB-180-detailed-grosso-analysis-.pdf.

It’s part of the city’s Community Development Block Grant 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan. The city has received a total of $164,652 in CDBG money for projects in the first year Annual Action Plan.

The funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and used for projects designed to benefit low- and moderate-income people or areas, or aid in the prevention and elimination of slum and blight.

City staff worked with Crestview’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee and the public to develop the action plan. The City Council on Monday approved the following allocations of CDBG money:

• $43,878 for the design of a paved multi-use recreational path that would run adjacent to Industrial Drive and the railroad tracks and extend between Main Street and Twin Hills Park. The proposed path would provide safer, more accessible multimodal connectivity between downtown and the park.
• $32,930.40 for planning and administration: Among other duties, the city Community Development Services Department administers the CDBG Program and is responsible for conducting all public hearings and meetings, advertising for and accepting applications, reviewing applications, staffing the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, administering funds to sub-grantees, and preparing the Annual Action Plan.
• $32,000 for improvements to the nonprofit Crestview Manor assisted living facility on North Pearl Street. The upgrades include replacing ceiling tiles and ceiling fans throughout the facility and repairing/repainting parts of the facility’s exterior, such as a back door.

• $31,145.80 for security cameras at downtown city facilities, such as the Community Redevelopment Agency office building on Main Street, Wilson Street Park, and the future Arts and Learning Center at 198 N. Main St.
• $12,348.90 toward the operational costs of the nonprofit Crestview Resource Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Among other types of help, the center provides counseling, legal, and veteran services, HIV testing, and training in financial literacy, job readiness, and basic computer skills.
• $12,348.90 to buy equipment, such as tables and chairs, that is necessary for instruction, and to pay for specific types of instruction at the future Arts and Learning Center.

The City Council approved the funding allocations in a 4-0 vote. Mayor Pro Tem Doug Capps had an excused absence from the meeting.

“I believe FPL dropped the ball” by allowing the solar farm breach to occur, Gaetz said at the meeting, which took place at Holt Fire District Station 21, 490 U.S. Highway 90.

The Kayak site, which has significant slope, encompasses about 500 acres south of Interstate 10 and off Trawick Creek Road. The breach occurred on June 8 after 7 inches of rain fell in a three-hour period.

The largest of the ensuing sediment discharges occurred along the Kayak site’s east boundary, where the east berm and embankment of a stormwater conveyance swale eroded.

Among other areas of concern, up to 5 feet of sand interspersed with red clay from an uncontrolled release of stormwater was found in a wetland nearly spanning the Wilkinson Creek valley.

“This sediment discharge completely filled and covered the channel of Wilkinson Creek to the extent its original course was difficult to visually discern,” officials said in FPL’s wetland and stream restoration plan for the Kayak site.

Gaetz, R-Niceville, and District 3 state Rep. Nathan Boyles, R-Holt, hosted Monday’s meeting, which focused on what led to the breach, what FPL is doing to fix it, and what the company will do to prevent another breach from occurring.

“We’re going to make sure FPL doesn’t fail at making it right,” Gaetz said.

Boyles, whose property in Holt was impacted by the runaway sediment, said the overall issue “is just as important to me, both personally and as your state representative.”

Later during the meeting, he said, “There were zero other stormwater ponds that failed in northwest Florida the day we had this rain event.”

Boyles added that he thinks FPL gets the message that it doesn’t receive a pass by chalking up the massive June 8 rainfall to “an act of God.”

J.T. Young, vice president and general manager of FPL Northwest Florida, and Mike Sole, FPL’s vice president of environmental services, answered questions from many of the more than 80 residents who attended the meeting.

“We are certainly focusing on making this right by strengthening and restoring our stormwater system at the Kayak Solar Energy site,” Young said.

The June 8 breach wasn’t the first time that residents living near the Kayak site had to deal with runaway sediment from the site.

In early 2024, when the solar energy center was being built, heavy rains led to large amounts of sediment being pushed into adjacent creeks and wetlands. An FPL official apologized for that particular mess and said the company would clean up the affected areas and continue to implement its stormwater management practices.

At Monday’s meeting, Young and Sole said that after the June 8 breach occurred, FPL crews began working seven days a week to remove sediment from affected areas, repair the Kayak site’s stormwater system, restore Wilkinson Creek, and make other improvements.

“It is unacceptable for these types of events to occur,” Sole, who once served as the secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said of the breach. “We acknowledge that.”

He said crews have restored the Kayak site berm that failed and have placed sod to help stabilize it. Work continues on the installation of 2,000 linear feet of 24-foot-long sheet pile along the berm that failed “to ensure and give you the comfort that you’re not going to have that kind of breach again.”

The sheet pile goes 20 feet underground, and only 4 feet above grade, resulting in “a very strong, armored berm,” Sole said.

He said crews have also begun creating more capacity in the site’s existing stormwater ponds so more water can be held back and have installed more outfall structures along the site’s northern pond to improve the controlled release of water after a major rainfall.

A copy of the Kayak Solar Energy Center Wetland and Stream Restoration Plan is available at fpl.com/kayakrestoration.

In addition to other completed and ongoing interim improvements, the Kayak site’s overall stormwater system will undergo a complete redesign, which will be reviewed by an independent engineering firm, Sole said. The firm is HDR Engineering, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska and has offices in Crestview and Pensacola.

“Once the third-party engineer finishes their review, they’ll give us the results,” Sole said. “We will make any final changes to that final stormwater design, and we will then submit it to the DEP for their review and approval. Hopefully this will happen in a very quick period of time.”

Sole thanked residents at the meeting for their patience.

“None of you asked for this,” he said of the solar farm breach. “None of you deserve having this disturbance in your life. Again, we thoroughly apologize but appreciate your patience as we move forward to try to make this right.”

Near the end of the meeting, Gaetz encouraged residents to contact him or Boyles if FPL fails to give the residents straight answers to their questions about the restoration of the Kayak site and adjacent areas.

“We will hold FPL accountable and get a straight answer,” Gaetz said.

District 3 Okaloosa County Commissioner Sherri Cox, who was unable to attend the meeting in Holt because of a personal matter, said at Tuesday’s commission meeting that residents also can contact her with any concerns they might have about the restoration work.

Cox said she has visited the Kayak site several times and has talked with several homeowners who have been affected by the breach.

“I’m pleased to say that, by my best estimates and the hundreds and hundreds of dump trucks and (pieces of) earth-moving equipment that are out there, they do appear to be making their best effort and being a good community partner in this,” Cox said of FPL. “It will take time and patience.”

The more than $14.5 million facility will stand on a 2.5-acre parcel at 1448 Commerce Drive, west of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce office. Construction could be completed in late fall of 2026.

The demand for services provided by the tax collector, property appraiser and other government functions at the county owned Brackin Building on North Wilson Street in Crestview has grown to the point where it is appropriate to develop new offices, according to county information.

“As we all know, the north end of the county has had extraordinary growth, and the future is even brighter than what we’ve had,” Anderson said. “And we’re very excited to expand our offices to fill the needs, and with this new facility that (the Tax Collector’s Office is) building in partnership with the county, we anticipate bringing our call and processing center to the north end of the county (from Niceville), and we’re also going to expand our branch services and lobby area in order to handle the customers.

He added, “We’re not building just for today’s needs: We’re looking to the future. On behalf of the county, were’ going to have space (in the new building) for them to expand, and also we have another (adjacent) site that will be able to bring administrative government services to the north end.”

Besides standing next to the Chamber of Commerce office, the new facility will be adjacent to the Crestview Community Center and Crestview Public Library.

County staff is considering future uses of the current tax collector and property appraiser spaces within the Brackin Building once they’re vacated.

The new office building represents “a solid indication of the cooperation between the county and the city of Crestview as we all strive, working together, to meet the needs of the citizens in the north end of this county,” Anderson said.

Bear General Contractors, LLC, of Pensacola, will build the new structure. County officials are using bond money to pay for the construction cost, with repayment coming from annual reimbursements from the Tax Collector’s Office.

“This is really an exciting opportunity to see the tax collector expand services to our constituents,” District 4 County Commissioner Trey Goodwin, who is the commissioner liaison to the tax collector, said during the ceremony. “Thank you all for showing up on this toasty July morning to celebrate what’s really going to be an excellent opportunity for the constituents of Okaloosa County, because that’s really what this is about.”

District 1 County Commissioner and Commission Chairman Paul Mixon was unable to attend the ceremony.

In a 3-0 vote, the County Commission today confirmed the appointment of Kristen Shell to the position. Commissioners Carolyn Ketchel and Sherri Cox had excused absences from the meeting.

In her most recent job, Shell had served as Niceville’s deputy city manager since March 2024. Prior to that, she served as the deputy planning director and environmental planner for the Walton County Planning and Development Services Department from March 2016 to March 2024.

Overall, Shell has more than 25 years of public sector experience in the fields of planning and government administration, according to Okaloosa County information. She has a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Florida, a master’s in business administration from the University of West Florida, a master’s in urban and regional planning from Florida State University, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from FSU.

Her starting annual salary with Okaloosa County is $145,600.

Former county Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert served in the role for almost 18 years. This past April 1, he was promoted to the new county position of strategic planning and development manager, in which he oversees large initiatives directed by the commissioners.