Annexation: How far can Destin reach?

“Annexation politics is not just about what piece of land will wind up in which jurisdiction. It’s about who controls what happens on the land, who reaps the fiscal benefits and who pays the cost of shifting that control.” — Rob Gurwitt, Government Magazine.

Before Destin incorporated, some residents said there was no point if the city limits fell short of the Walton County line.

“All the other things are not worth much to me” if development there lay outside the city’s control, Dewey Destin said in 1982, shortly before the community voted against incorporation.

Two years later, however, the city incorporated without including that area, which now holds Destin Commons, Kelly Plantation, Emerald Bay, Regatta Bay and Calusa Bay. Ever since then, bringing that part of unincorporated Okaloosa County inside city limits has been one of the goals of many City Council members.

 “If you look south of Highway 98, city limits go all the way to the county line,” City Councilor Jim Wood told The Log last month. “North of 98 it’s a hodge-podge, very confusing.”

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Stay tuned to The Destin History Project this weekend as we roll out our Progress Edition, "Destination Incorporation." In it we are chronicling the city's 25th anniversary in words and pictures

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Wood said annexation would benefit the city by boosting the tax base, and also the county, by relieving county government of responsibility for the unincorporated area: “It would seem to be easier to let everything south of the bay be Destin, and let Destin take care of everything south of the bay.”

The catch to annexing? Finding a benefit to entice landowners to agree when water, firefighting and police services are all provided by organizations outside city government.

“In my 17 years of experience ... the only reason a property owner annexes is for water and sewer utility service,” Lake Wales City

Manager Tony Otte told the Okaloosa Economic Development Council in 2004.

In 2003, Councilor Jim Foreman thought he had a solution: Put an  annexation referendum on the March 2004 ballot. Under Florida law at the time, if 70 percent of a neighboring unincorporated area belongs to resident homeowners rather than commercial or out-of-state owners, a majority vote by those residents will make the entire area part of Destin. By the end of the year, however, it turned out that resident homeowners held only about 60 percent of the unincorporated land.

Since then, annexation has popped up on the council’s agenda several times:

•In 2004, HBT agreed to annex 11 acres on the north side of Commons Drive into city limits, in return for an agreement on HBT’s proposed condo/townhouse project. The agreement didn’t guarantee approval, but did accept the developer’s standards for open space, setbacks, building mass, roofline and other features.

The council approved the deal, despite objections from then-Councilor Larry Williges that the council was selling out citizens by allowing

HBT to put too much traffic on Commons in return for increasing the city’s tax base.

HBT eventually requested and received a revised agreement allowing them a luxury motor-coach park and an apartment complex instead.

•In 2004, Legendary’s Peter Bos proposed annexing the 76 acre site for his planned Turnberry Harbor project in return for the council’s guarantee that the condo towers could be 250 feet tall, 50 feet more than the county would accept. Bos dropped the annexation deal shortly after the city’s first hearing on Turnberry.

•In 2006, the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce voted to annex its headquarters into the city.

“The chamber believes and supports annexation of the entire Destin community,” CEO/President Shane Moody said. “We felt like if that’s something we’re going to support, we should be leaders, step up and annex our property into the city.”

In addition to the wider unincorporated areas, City Hall seems almost surrounded by unincorporated areas. Among these “enclaves” of unincorporated land inside city limits is the site of the DAG Architects offices.

Former Sen. Charlie Clary, a founding Principal for DAG Architects, said his father and Bob Bonezzi decided to go through the county for development approval because at the time “It was easier to get it approved and permitted in construction by taking it through the county.”

Since the firm already works with the city and shares its parking spaces with the Recreation Department, Clary said, it may be time to reconsider annexation.

“It probably would be a good time to sit down with the city manager and look at what it would take to bring it into the city and find that carrot,” he said.

Wood, who stated his support for annexation when he ran for a council seat, said that hasn’t changed.

“I’ve got three years left, and I’d like to see if we’re able to do it,” Wood told The Log. “Is it going to be easy? No, it’s not going to be easy.

I want an honest debate on the pros and cons and I don’t know where it’s going to go right now. I don’t have a crystal ball ... We’ve got to do our homework first and cover all the bases.”