Fort Walton Beach — Fiscal Year 2020-21 Adopted_Budget — reading text

Liza Jackson Water Quality Improvements Responsible Department: Utility Services Neighborhood/Loc Citywide Responsible Division: Stormwater Project Manager: Daniel Payne Project Category: Infrastructure Project Type: Multi-Year Project Number: 5019 Estimated Useful Life (years): 25 Criteria Type: Improve Existing Svs/Infrastructure Projected Date of Completion: 09/30/21 Project Description/Justification: This program involves a water quality initive to improve Choctawhatchee Bay. The addition of oyster reefs, living shoreline and other material waterward. The captial schedule includes partnerships with the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) and Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Program (CBEP). FY 2021 Oyster Reef Living Shoreline in Liza Jackson Park FY 2022 Oyster Reef Living Shoreline in Sound Park FY 2023 TBD FY 2024 TBD FY 2025 TBD BUDGETED EXPENDITURE SCHEDULE FY FY FY FY FY Five Year Total Project Elements: 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Total Project Improvements 25,000 25,000 50,000 Furniture/Fixture/Equip. - - - - - - Operational Impact - - - - - - Total Expenditures 25,000 25,000 - - - 50,000 353,812 Expenses From Prior Year(s): $303,812 Funded from Prior Yr. Revenue: Prior Year Activity on Project: FY 2020 FY 2019 FY 2018 FY 2017 FY 2016 FY FY FY FY FY Five Year Total Revenue Funding Summary: 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Total Revenue City Funding 25,000 25,000 50,000 Grant Funding - - - - - Debt Financing - - - - - - Other Outside Funding - - - - - - Revenue Enhancements - - - Total Revenue Funding: 25,000 25,000 - - - 50,000 50,000 Strategy #1: Economic Diversification & Resiliency Insert Picture Here 192 191 Statistical Information HISTORY & PROFILE The City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida prides itself on being a small, family-oriented seaside community boasting a downtown area that was home to a significant prehistoric Native American community on the Gulf Coast of Northwest Florida. Situated at the junction of two major highways - US 98 (Miracle Strip Parkway) and SR 85 (Eglin Parkway) - Fort Walton Beach enjoys the benefits of its crossroads location along the coastal portion of the Northwest Florida regional transportation network. The City offers a full-service government providing police and fire protection; cultural and recreational activities including parks, a library, a museum, and two championship golf courses; planning and zoning; public works such as street, sidewalk, right-of-way, and cemetery maintenance; utilities service including water, sewer, and storm water; and garbage and recycling collection to a coastal community of 20,869 full-time residents. The City has an exciting and romantic history. As early as 600 B.C., Indian tribes were attracted to Fort Walton Beach from the Mississippi and Tennessee River Valleys and the Southeast Georgia coast. The beginning for the City occurred following the War Between the States when Alabama war veteran John Brooks selected a site of 111 acres where he built a three-room cabin in 1867. Other settlers soon followed. By 1884, the population of the area required establishment of a small schoolhouse. In 1902, the first hotel, Brooks House, was built along the sound and shortly thereafter the first post office was built in 1906. The Montgomery, Alabama, Maxwell Field military base developed an airfield in Fort Walton in 1933 on 137 acres of land and used it as a bombing and gunnery range. The most significant factor in the City's growth was the creation and later expansion, of that airfield, which is now Eglin Air Force Base (the largest military installation in the world) in 1937, the year the City Charter was adopted. Originally chartered as a municipality under the laws of the State of Florida, actual formation of the City was in 1941 when the Florida legislature First Schoolhouse officially named it the Town of Fort Walton. In 1953, the Florida Legislature granted the City a new charter at which time the name was changed to Fort Walton Beach. The name Walton originates from Colonel George Walton, who was Secretary of the East-West Florida Territory in 1822-26 and son of George Walton, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Georgia. The presence of the military base provided the key economic stimulus for the City's early growth, supplemented by the attractiveness of the location. The City enjoyed a substantial population and economic boom from the 1950's through the end of the 1970's. Subsequently, things started to slow down. The military base became less important to the City's economy than the growing tourism industry. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Fort Walton Beach began to experience a decline in economic prosperity, some of which can be attributed to the utility and transportation infrastructure getting older and commercial and residential structures becoming deteriorated. New development began to take place in the surrounding communities. The City, having nearly run out of developable land, started to focus attention on finding ways to induce private enterprise investment in the City and thus capturing a greater share of the local and regional market. The City’s premier gathering place along the Santa Rosa Sound has been the Fort Walton Landing Park since its purchase in 1986. Building upon that with the complete reconstruction of Brooks Street, including the Brooks Bridge Park in 2013, the City’s downtown waterfront was opened up to an extent never before realized and spurred economic growth downtown. Outside of downtown, the City completed construction of a new recreational complex, which has added to the attraction of the City. Downtown Redevelopment: Brooks Bridge Park Recreation Complex – opened Summer 2015 City of Fort Walton Beach, FL 193 Statistical Information DATE OF INCORPORATION: June 16, 1941 FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Council & Manager PAVED STREETS: 93.12 miles GEOGRAPHIC AREA: 7.60 square miles SIDEWALKS: 63.67 miles TAXABLE ASSESSED VALUE: $1,533,134,670 WATER & SEWER LINES: 282.82 miles CITY MILLAGE RATE: 5.3293 STORM DRAIN: 43.18 miles POPULATION: 22,740 POLICE STATIONS: 1 FIRE STATIONS: 2 EMPLOYEES: 351 positions, 312.64 FTE’s LIBRARIES: 1 MUSEUMS: 4 SWORN POLICE OFFICERS: 52 18-HOLE GOLF COURSES: 2 FIREFIGHTING PERSONNEL: 44 ACRES OF PARKS: 206 CITY NEIGHBORHOODS (un-shaded portions are not in the City limits) City of Fort Walton Beach, FL 194 Statistical Information BEAL PARKWAY CHARACTERISTICS: Mostly Residential, CRA District BOUNDARIES: The Beal Parkway Neighborhood includes much of the City’s central core. It includes all lands between Eglin Parkway and Beal Parkway north of Second Street and north of First Street west of Harbeson Avenue. It extends north to Hughes Street and also includes the properties that lie between Robinwood Drive and Beal Parkway and between First Street and Hollywood Boulevard. All parts of the Kelly Subdivision and First Addition to Kelly Subdivision in the area of Comet Street are also included. ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES: The Beal Parkway Neighborhood is home to the City's new Public Safety Complex housing police and fire services. The neighborhood includes most of the City's areas in need of code enforcement and rehabilitation activities. The area has one of the highest crime rates in the City. Not surprisingly, the City has targeted funds into this area from the HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Through diligent code enforcement and crime prevention activities, which are presently centered in the Police Department’s Community Policing Program, much progress has been made to improve conditions in this neighborhood. However, there are still many improvements needed. To meet those needs, the City’s Redevelopment Area was expanded to include this area in order to provide additional funding sources to remedy the blight in this area. Substantial land use changes encouraging mixed-uses and de-emphasizing heavy commercial activities will encourage expenditure of private capital in this area. New development is needed to infill parcels which developers have ignored due to lack of infrastructure, which is available in the newer neighborhoods of the City. EAST MIRACLE STRIP CHARACTERISTICS: Primarily Commercial, CRA District, Waterfront BOUNDARIES: The East Miracle Strip Neighborhood lies entirely within the Community Redevelopment Area. The boundaries are Elm Avenue extended to Choctawhatchee Bay to the east; Choctawhatchee Bay to the south; the common property line between the St. Simon’s Episcopal Church/The Boat Marina on south side of US 98 and Beal Parkway on the north side of US 98 to the west; and to the north following First Street from Beal Parkway east to Harbeson Avenue then Second Street and then east to Chicago Avenue. ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES: The East Miracle Strip Neighborhood is the former MainStreet area, also referred to as Downtown. This area encompasses the oldest areas of the City and, not surprisingly, is the location of most of the City’s historic structures and sites. Land use is primarily business, which caters to both the local population and the needs of tourists which