Crowded Navarre Beach gets more residential development
Though it may sometimes seem as if every square foot of the barrier island that is Navarre Beach has been developed, a business calling itself Mer Sea on Navarre Beach LLC has managed to find 8.5 acres of sandy soil on which to build a private subdivision.
Plans call for Steve and Ann Hering, the limited liability corporation's managing partners, to develop 47 single family homes on lots on the north side of Gulf Boulevard at the northwest corner of White Sands Boulevard and South Carolina Street.
County records indicate Mer Sea will be the first new subdivision built on the island since By the Sea on Seaside Circle was platted in 2005, according to county staff. That would have been a year after Hurricane Ivan made landfall west of Navarre Beach and heavily damaged many of the residences on the island.
County Commissioner Ray Eddington, whose District 4 encompasses Navarre Beach, said he's leery of more residential construction coming to the crowded island, but noted that the development order allowing construction of Mer Sea was issued Nov. 6, 2023, ahead of his taking office.
"I saw the construction going on and I called code enforcement, but they had all the permits," he said. "I don't like it. We don't need to keep building on that beach, but when something was brought in some years ago there's nothing you can do."
There are approximately 1,971 existing residential units on Navarre Beach, including single family homes, townhomes and condominium units, according to Santa Rosa County Planning Director Shawn Ward.
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Unlike other areas such as Perdido Key or Pensacola Beach where county limits have been placed on the number of residential units that can be developed, there are no guidelines restricting the number of structures that can be built on Navarre Beach, Ward said.
Plans for the new subdivision call for two paved roads, to be known as Grand Mer Boulevard and Oceana Way, to provide access to the homes being constructed. Both roads will end in cul de sacs.
Like all homes on Navarre Beach, the new subdivision will be accessed by Gulf Boulevard, the single road running east and west along the beach and through Gulf Islands National Seashore to Pensacola Beach.
Eddington said it could still be several years before two-lane Gulf Boulevard is widened to accommodate increasing traffic loads, and for him the first priority is getting a new bridge built onto the island.
"We should have had a new bridge built a long time ago," he said. "No one's pushed it, so now I'm going to push it."
The Navarre Beach Causeway Bridge is, like Gulf Boulevard, a two-lane span. It was built in 1960 and is listed by the Florida Department of Transportation as "functionally obsolete," which is a term given to roads that "do not meet the state's current roadway design standards."
Eddington said the county now has the funds to conduct a Planning, Development and Environmental study that is required before it can replace the bridge. He said he expects the County Commission to discuss funding the study at its next meeting.
FDOT spokesman Ian Satter has estimated the cost of a PD&E study to be about $1.4 million and projections indicate it could take at least two years to complete. The county also owns the roadway that crosses the Navarre Beach Causeway Bridge so it will be responsible for footing the bill to cover the cost of bridge replacement.
Eddington said he wants to see a five-lane bridge built to replace the existing structure.
Mer Sea subdivision is not the only pending development on Navarre Beach that can be expected to impact traffic on and off the island. Developer Christopher Ferrara has received county consent to put an upscale RV Park on 23 acres he owns on the island.
Ferrara, who took the county to court to win the right to develop the controversial RV Park, argued that the high end park would support approximately 150 visitors, bring value to Navarre Beach and prove to be less impactful than condominiums, which he was approved under his lease to develop.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Navarre Beach new subdivision adds to crowded landscape
