The Walton County Technical Review Committee on Thursday conditionally approved a major development order for the "Preserves at Santa Rosa Beach," allowing the application to move to the Planning Commission subject to successful resolution of outstanding comments.

Staff entered the project file and recent public comments into the record and described the proposal as a 39-lot single-family subdivision and associated infrastructure on roughly 20.06 acres with conservation residential (CR) future land use. Staff and multiple reviewers had outstanding comments from planning, public works engineering, floodplain and environmental reviewers; fire comments were received and addressed, staff said.

The central dispute at the hearing was whether stormwater detention ponds and other constructed stormwater features may be counted as required open space under the county’s CR director’s determination. Citizen speaker Margaret Landry said constructed stormwater ponds and manmade features should not qualify as conservation open space and warned that the project could jeopardize flood insurance and environmentally sensitive areas. "They can't be considered natural areas," Landry said, arguing the plan "is not — should not be considered a conservation residential."

Representatives for the developer and the applicant said the combined major development order preserves the required percentage of open space across the combined 20 acres and yields fewer roads and less infrastructure than separate minor developments. "We willingly decided to take a year and a half of additional redesign... to combine these two properties under a major development order because it will cut down the infrastructure by half," Camilo Heraldo, representing the developer, said.

Applicant Owen Baker of Baker Engineers told the committee that fire and floodplain comments have been addressed and that environmental approvals from the water management district are effectively in place pending a final order. Baker said the resubmittal included a clearer open-space plan with identified elements such as common areas, landscape buffers, wetlands and recreation areas.

County staff provided the hearing with context explaining that a director's determination issued in April 2024 narrowed what may be counted as open space under CR zoning to favor preservation of natural areas, and that state-level stormwater rule changes had required larger wet detention ponds to meet water-quality standards. Under the current director’s determination, staff said, wet detention ponds and pervious components of recreational areas can be included in open-space calculations if they meet the determination’s criteria.

After discussion and questions about buffer encroachment requests and sidewalk buyouts, the committee moved to conditionally approve the application "pending successful address of all outstanding comments." The motion passed by voice vote.

The Planning Commission will consider the development after the applicant responds to county reviewer comments; the matter would later proceed to the Board of County Commissioners as part of the consent agenda if the Planning Commission recommendation is favorable.