2007, 2010, 2020 and beyond
SRIA leaders look to the future
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Hank Newell/Gulf Breeze News As Pensacola Beach continues to repair and rebuild from hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, officials are looking to the distant future for planning purposes.

Should Pensacola Beach offer a parking garage with a restaurant atop right in the middle of the business district? Should there be sidewalks and bike paths connecting both ends of the beach? Would visitors use a trolley system and leave their cars at hotels and condos if one was running continually all year long?

Those were just a few of the questions raised and discussed at last week's Visioning Workshop held by the Santa Rosa Island Authority.

Pensacola Beach has been through a lot in the last 12 years, since a series of hurricanes have hit again and again. Now that some progress is being seen from reconstruction and the beach is gearing up for a bigger season this year, the Santa Rosa Island Authority Board wants to form a clear vision of where any new Beach development should be headed. Last week the board held a twohour workshop with staff and board members all brain storming together to try to figure out what the next steps should be in Pensacola Beach development.

Board member Kelly Robertson said, "Since I have been on this board I have said we need to define Pensacola Beach. Do we want to be the jewel of the Gulf Coast, or do we want to be just one of the diamonds in the jeweler's case?"

Dave Hemphill from Baskerville- Donovan, Inc. presented a document titled "Overview of Past Visioning." It outlined planning attempts and issues raised at past workshops for the future development of Pensacola Beach, beginning in 1984 right through 2006.

Hemphill pointed out that there have been 14 studies done since 1984. He pointed out that in the days before the reconfiguration of the road there were many more traffic problems than today. "If we had a rain at 3 p.m. on a busy Sunday, it would take two hours to clear the beach, much to many people's frustration. Now it takes much less time, " he said. "And we used to get calls from Pensacola police and officials when traffic would back up over both bridges, clear into Pensacola. That does not happen anymore. And now, as we speak, Bellsouth and Gulf Power and Mediacom have been working to get as much as possible underground. By this season we should have most of the "spaghetti in the sky" underground. So we have made progress on some of the issues that 1993 workshop pointed to. But between storms it has taken this long and there are still things not addressed."

"Parking, parking, parking. That has always been a concern, and it is still a problem," Board chair Vernon Prather said. "My vision is to take this property where we are sitting (the SRIA office and public meeting building) and make it into some sort of parking garage, with our offices on a higher level, and a restaurant at the very top. It is in the core area of the beach, and a multi-story building here would fit into the other buildings. You could make the bottom floor a walk-out straight onto the beach and boardwalk.".

Prather also said the trolley system didn't work the way they had envisioned it. "We initiated a trolley system to get outside riders onto the beach without their cars, and it didn't work. People want to bring their own cars to the beach. We should encourage this as a healthy beach, and encourage walking and riding bikes. We could try to encourage hotels, for example, to offer more rentals on bikes, etc."

Other ideas brought up at the meeting:

More bike paths (Board Member Kelly Robertson)

Hiring professional planners to make a new land use map (Board Member John Peacock)

Developing a year round public/private attraction to the beach such as an aquarium (Citizen Dan Green)

Building a performance theatre in association with the Beach school to host artistic events and attract people to the beach (Citizen Dan Green).

Board Chair Prather said he thought that would be a good idea. He also opened the discussion to people in attendance from the community to give input in what they would like to see. Jack Kirk stood and told the board, "I have lived out here 25 years now, and still feel like one of the new guys. But I have heard boards like these talk to many times, over and over, with big ideas but they don't ever find a way to make them happen. We hear about Casino Beach being a 'family beach', as it was even said at least once here today, and it is not. Anyone who has come out here any weekend of the summer and seen the beer drinking all times of the day, and has heard the foul language, knows better. If you are actually thinking this is a family beach, and thinking you can walk Casino Beach with your one-year-old and lay them down next to someone on the beach and not hear foul language - well, it's just not happening. I was in the Marines for 26 years and I don't use language like that. Most of the people making the decisions for the future of the beach do not even come out here on weekends, let alone live out here year round. We need to keep those thing sin mind, realistically, when deciding what direction you want to go and what needs to be done."

Prather said the more discussion will occur at the February SRIA board meeting.