Garcon Point residents urge county to block 96‑space RV park, citing safety, environmental and infrastructure risks

Dozens of residents of Garcon Point pressed the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners during the public‑comment period Sept. 25 to stop a proposed 96‑space RV park planned for a waterfront parcel at the end of Michael Drive.

Residents said the site plan—now tied to land that the county says was rezoned in February 2019—would place heavy RV traffic on narrow, unlit roads with drainage ditches, increase evacuation and fire‑safety risks, and create runoff and sanitation threats to nearby oyster leases and Escambia Bay.

The concerns were raised by a string of residents who said they live on or near Michael Drive, Pearson Road and Avalon Boulevard. “This RV park is proposed to go on 446 feet of waterfront on the end of Michael Drive,” resident Michael Walden told commissioners, describing the site history and prior rezoning activity. Amy Loringer and Franz Carl Byers described local roads as 16–19 feet wide with blind curves and soft shoulders; Byers said a “breakdown of 1 RV on Michael Drive in the event of evacuation… would cause a major backlog.”

Shaina Alford, who described herself as an oyster farmer and director of a local water‑quality lab, told the board the parcel sits adjacent to shellfish leases and is inside an area that…