New housing planned adjacent to Midway protected land stokes overbuilding concerns
More development has made its way to Santa Rosa County as seven lots on the sound side of the Gulf Breeze peninsula have received zoning approval from county staff.
The collection of lots partially includes a conservation easement that was established in 2009, which means those sections of the parcels are protected by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The county's planning and zoning director, Shawn Ward, confirmed to the News Journal that any development on the parcels must sit outside those identified protected areas.
He said building plans have not been submitted to the building department yet, and that the collection includes an eighth parcel that cannot be developed at all because of the conservation easement and wetlands. All together, the parcels encompass about 12.5 acres.
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The parcels sit in the Midway area off Ocean Breeze Lane, just north of Soundside Drive, an area that experienced a cross-connection error last year that contaminated the drinking water of hundreds of homes when a sewer line was mistakenly connected with a water main at a new house.
According to Ward, plans for the lots include single-family residential structures. Already, environmental advocates in the south end of the county are raising alarms about the effects further development on the peninsula will have.
"Now it's just adding to the flooding issues. That's another thing that the area has been trying to maintain — all the stormwater runoff," said Liz Pavelick with the environmental group Save our Soundside. She called the decision to permit projects on the parcels "unbelievable."
The lot lines were originally drawn back in 2020, but nothing came to fruition then.
In addition to the environmental concerns, Pavelick said she sees logistical issues regarding the ease of access down Ocean Breeze Lane.
"It is so narrow, you can only get like one car down the road to where it finally dead ends," she said, adding she believes it would create particular issues during emergencies.
She said her concern for development in the area is not just tied to the sound side of the peninsula, saying she has seen a snowball effect in the past few years with development picking up in this area of the county.
"I'm equally frustrated by anything that they're building, because I love the sound and I love East Bay, and both of our waterways are being destroyed by all this over development," Pavelick said.
The early stages of this proposal come at a time when the peninsula is facing a surge of new projects. A new high school across the street from the Gulf Breeze Zoo is planned to welcome its first students in 2025. Almost 300 townhomes are planned across two parcels off of U.S. 98 in Midway and an "upscale" 58-lot subdivision on Bergren Road is also in the works.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Seven Midway lots to be developed next to protected land
