HAHarvey Walden
5 hours agoWalton County Wraps Up Roundtable Meetings on Permitting, Land Development Code
Walton County – 06/04/26 – Walton County officials have wrapped up their Roundtable meetings between residents and the county’s Planning and Development Department, and Commissioners hope to use that input to rewrite sections of the Land Development Code (LDC) and streamline the permitting process for private citizens and builders. Sabrina Dugan, SwiftGov, acted as moderator for the series of meetings held in each county commission district, overseen by that commissioner. Ms. Dugan pronounced the effort as unqualified success. “I think it was great. We were so excited to have every commissioner present for each of their Roundtables and we had over 106 attendees,” she said. “It couldn’t have been better – lots of community input and feedback.”Compatibility issues were among the most discussed topics. “Compatibility with neighboring properties and how we can better define things within the Land Development Code. There were a few items, such as sidewalks, that were discussed – sidewalk widths, and whether they were needed on both sides of the street,” said Dugan. “Some really interesting topics, wetlands and wetland mitigation, and we’ll be doing another workshop on that later on.”Deputy Planning Director Kelly Schultz noted that, “We had a lot of citizens who were just interested in learning more about the development review process. That means a lot to our department because we want to service everybody. Complexity of our process and confusion over what forms apply to them, because there are different issues south of the Bay than there are in the north end of the county, and we have every intention of trying to address those to make the process better.” District 1 Commissioner Dan Curry said he thought the District 1 session was a success. “It was great seeing the community come in here and ask questions. They were very clear on some of the issues they’ve had over the years. It was a great Roundtable, to listen to everybody on both sides. I think we had some common denominators that we need to focus on,” he said. “We’re probably going to hit some stumbles along the way…but the public needs to know that there’s a better way or a better process that streamlines all of those more efficiently. “I would love to minimize the gray areas when it comes to the Land Development Code, Comprehensive Plan, policies. I think the end user needs to feel comfortable with the information they’re getting online. I’m hoping that a lot of these processes can be viewed online, instead of showing up in person,” he said. “If you can go on there without 20 keystrokes to get your answer, I think that’s a plus-plus.”Commissioner Curry also praised SwiftGov for their role in the LDC re-write process. “I think they’re going to be essential. They’re almost the glue to bring staff, citizens and the county as a whole together so that we’re all working in the same direction.” District 2 Commissioner Danny Glidewell said he was pleased with the turnout and the issues that came to light. “We discussed some issues that don’t get a lot of attention countywide because the north end is different from the rest of the county. So, we need to have a discussion about things that apply to the north end. “The discussion today was about the fear of government regulation and the desire to keep regulations down. That’s valuable to us because so much of our northern area is agriculture and the land use rules for agricultural land are so different than the land use rules for a subdivision or a town,” he said. “So, our citizens got a chance to express their desire to keep our ag land with different freedoms than other places.”Commissioner Glidewell noted that the Comp Plan and LDC are extremely important components of county government. “We deal with that more, probably, than any other issue on a regular basis and people need to understand the rules, but they also need to have the opportunity to define the rules and this, today, gave people the opportunity to define the rules for their way of life. I appreciate that and I am glad we were able to provide a forum for them.” Building Plan Review Manager Donnese Way was also pleased with how the sessions went. “I’ve been impressed with the amount of people that have come to the meetings,” she said. “I think that the collection of comments that have been made in each District is a good indicator of what is important in each District. Those are things we need – to shape and change and make things better.“Different Districts produce different needs and mindsets about what a community should look like and feel like. These issues need to be addressed because they do have different assets. They may have more water bodies, they may have more wetlands, they may have more open space for folks to enjoy in the county. That’s what we need to look at,” she said.The next step is to collate the issues and insights into directives meant to streamline the LDC. “First, we go back and look at what our current LDC says. We do have conflicts and we do have items that need clarity because the whole area is being redeveloped or is changing,” said Ms. Way. “So, we need to address some of the outdated items and lessen the conflicts between the codes that we use,’ she said. “We’ll take those details and make changes within the language of the LDC and then bring that back for adoption.”
