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    • COMMUNITY

    COMMISSIONERS VOTE TO UPHOLD CONDITIONAL USE

    By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor

    Wakulla County commissioners voted 4-0 to uphold a conditional use granted by the planning commission for a pickleball court to be constructed at a proposed RV park on U.S. Highway 98 and Spring Creek Highway.
    Linda Alexander, who lives on property adjacent to the proposed RV park, filed the appeal with an expectation that she was challenging the proposed RV park, not just the pickleball courts.
    Alexander’s appeal alleged that staff and the planning commission did not do due diligence on the issue.
    “I did not file an appeal because of the pickleball court – that would be a little crazy,” Alexander said. “I filed the appeal because of the effect on my neighborhood.”
    The 20-acre lot adjacent to Alexander’s home has already had 13-acres rezoned to Commercial Travel Trailer Park in September 2022, and the site plan calls for 171 RVs.
    “Nobody wants that next to them,” Alexander complained. She said the planned RV park had already caused potential buyers for her home to look elsewhere.
    The site is also located next to the Richardson Cemetery and the developers of the property, the Boyd family, using ground-penetrating radar, found 28 unmarked graves. The property with the unmarked graves, about a half-an-acre, is being donated to the Wakulla County Historical Society, which owns the cemetery.
    The original site plan called for pickleball courts and a pool, but the land being donated with the unmarked graves led the developer to decide against a pool.
    Several people spoke out against the RV park and its impact on the area – also expressing concern about traffic safety. The Highway 98-Spring Creek intersection is the most dangerous in the county.
    There were also numerous people at the meeting concerned about the potential impacts on the cemetery by people visiting the RV park. There were also questions about whether all the graves had been found.
    Alexander was also sharply critical of developer David McQuary, who sold the property to the Boyds after getting the CTTP zoning. Alexander said that McQuary had promised her a 70-foot buffer from her property and only 40 or 50 RVs on the land.
    But commissioners were only considering the conditional use and Chair Ralph Thomas and commissioners Chuck Hess, Mike Kemp and Quincee Messersmith all voted to uphold it. Commissioner Fred Nichols was absent.