Fort Walton Beach — Fiscal Year 2022-23 Adopted Budget — reading text

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 21,064 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 Recreation 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 204 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: $1,637,147,629 WATER & SEWER LINES: 282.82 miles CITY MILLAGE RATE: 5.3293 STORM DRAIN: 43.18 miles POPULATION: 23,379 POLICE STATIONS: 1 FIRE STATIONS: 2 EMPLOYEES: 351 positions, 311.79 FTE’s LIBRARIES: 1 MUSEUMS: 4 SWORN POLICE OFFICERS: 54 18-HOLE GOLF COURSES: 2 FIREFIGHTING PERSONNEL: 44.25 ACRES OF PARKS: 206 CITY NEIGHBORHOODS (un-shaded portions are not in the City limits) City of Fort Walton Beach, FL 205 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 cannot be met on Okaloosa Island. US 98 and Eglin Parkway (SR85) merge in this area often forming a traffic bottleneck at the foot of Brooks Bridge. The area is central to the redevelopment planning of the CRA and is seeing an upsurge in interest in the redevelopment of prime waterfront properties currently underdeveloped with older single family residences (many locally historic). National historic treasures located here include the Gulfview Hotel site and the Indian Temple Mound. This area includes most of the area forming the designated “Main Street” Program by the Florida Department of State in 1997. The City's museum and new library are also located in this neighborhood. ELLIOTT'S POINT CHARACTERISTICS: Residential, Waterfront BOUNDARIES: The Elliott's Point Neighborhood refers to the southeastern portion of the City. While Elliott’s Point Subdivision and subsequent additions to the original subdivision include lands north and south of Hollywood Boulevard east of Ferry Road, the neighborhood known as Elliott’s Point is that area south of Hollywood Boulevard and east of Chicago Avenue. The eastern and southern boundaries are Choctawhatchee Bay. ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES: The Elliott's Point Neighborhood is almost entirely comprised of residential land use. The waterfront properties are all single family residential as are the more eastern inland properties. The western properties are mostly multi- family residentially, although much of the Ocean City Subdivision portion of the neighborhood still exists as single family residential land use. Many of the city’s older homes and most prestigious newer homes are co-located in this neighborhood which is characterized by its Spanish moss-laden Oak trees which canopy the many streets. Unfortunately, many of the older frame vernacular homes are being razed for development of more modern homes rather than restored or improved, although some are receiving additions and a new coat of paint. There are no public schools located within this neighborhood that form a central public place, but there are several churches that serve as neighborhood gathering places. The neighborhood also features public parks like Villa Russ Park, which is surrounded by homes and is concealed from casual notice by passersby. Waterfront access is available at Hood Avenue, the end of Hollywood Boulevard, at Shore Drive east of Bay Drive, at the south end of Bay Drive and at Walkedge Drive where there is also a small boat ramp facility. FERRY PARK CHARACTERISTICS: Residential, Waterfront BOUNDARIES: The Ferry Park Neighborhood is located in the northeast corner of the main portion of the City. The boundaries are Cinco Bayou to the north; Choctawhatchee Bay to the east; Hollywood Boulevard to the south; and Vine Avenue, Buck Drive, Uptown Station, and the Town of Cinco Bayou to the west. City of Fort Walton Beach, FL 206 Statistical Information ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES: The Ferry Park Neighborhood is comprised almost entirely of single-family residential homes from the most prestigious to more modest dwellings. Everyone knows the prestigious names Sudduth Circle, Yacht Club Drive and Bay Drive. Unfortunately, the neighborhood includes several properties that are constantly on the list of code enforcement violations, properties that have not been properly maintained and therefore devalue the other well-maintained homes. This neighborhood surrounds the City’s Ferry Park/Docie Bass Recreation Center/Elliotts Point Elementary School Complex located at the intersection of Hughes Street with Ferry Road. Other prominent features include Goodthing Lake, formerly Lake Earl, a brackish body of water with a precarious outlet to Choctawhatchee Bay. Land uses also include a few residence-offices along Buck, Staff and Hospital Drives as well as the former hospital site, now an adult congregate living facility (ACLF) and the County Health Department Offices. There is also a small amount of neighborhood convenience commercial uses along Hollywood Boulevard in the southwestern