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 FDACS closed for harvest in 2022 because of bacterial testing. “Oysters are the baseline for the health of the bay,” Alford said, and she warned that inadequate stormwater and sewage systems would increase sediments, nutrients and microbial contamination that threaten aquaculture.

Several speakers — including Christina Walden, who said she submitted more than 400 petition signatures — urged commissioners to require safety and environmental studies before any site plan moves forward. “96 RV Park does not belong tucked inside our quiet neighborhood,” Christina Walden said, citing children’s safety at bus stops, constant comings and goings of transient visitors and possible impacts to property values.

Other residents highlighted wildfire and evacuation risks, the presence of propane tanks on RVs, and the absence of nearby services such as gas stations and convenience retail that would force additional vehicle trips. Jeff Miller requested a formal safety study at a blind corner where a school bus stops; several speakers said school buses and delivery trucks already must pull off the road to pass each other.

A neighborhood representative showed commissioners a site plan submitted by the developer and told the board the Santa Rosa County Planning and Zoning board had not given commissioners a conceptual drawing when the 2019 rezoning was approved. Residents said they had been told at the time the rezoning would be for a modest, high‑end campground but that the developer later sold the parcels.

Commissioners said they would review archived records and the 2019 approval. At the meeting chairman (name not specified) told residents he was “surprised” to see the rezoning recorded from 02/2019 and said staff would pull the records so the board could determine next steps. No formal county action on a new site plan or rezoning was taken at the Sept. 25 meeting; residents’ remarks were part of the public forum.

Why this matters: The parcel sits on a shoreline and adjacent to documented shellfish leases and stormwater outfalls; residents argued that a dense RV development could increase pollution, complicate emergency evacuations and change a long‑standing residential character of Garcon Point.

Residents asked for a range of county responses: traffic and safety studies at key corners and along Pearson Road and Avalon Boulevard; limits on long‑term occupancy or special permit conditions to prevent conversion to permanent mobile‑home housing; restrictions on open fires and grills; and verification of what was approved when the property was rezoned in 2019.

County response and next steps: Commissioners verbally acknowledged the volume of public comment and said staff and zoning records will be reviewed. One commissioner said he will request the archives and the zoning board packet to determine what was approved in 2019; another commissioner asked staff to look at possible mitigations. The board did not vote on any land‑use permit or site plan at the Sept. 25 meeting.

Community context: Speakers repeatedly referenced past storm impacts — Hurricane Ivan (2004) and Hurricane Sally — and neighborhood flood and drainage issues that followed. Oyster leaseholders and aquaculturists told the board the bay has lost oyster acreage since 2010 and that microbial and sediment loads have contributed to declines. Several environmental and first‑responder concerns referenced state programs that regulate shellfish and stormwater, which residents asked the county to address before new approvals.

The meeting record: Public comments on the proposed RV park were delivered over multiple speakers during the Sept. 25 public forum; commissioners said the matter traces to a 2019 zoning decision and that staff will assemble the earlier records for board review.