The Destin City Council rejected a proposal Monday night to allow beach bonfires on private property after a public hearing where residents voiced strong opposition to the plan.

• Councilman Kevin Schmidt made a motion to direct city staff to draft an ordinance allowing beach bonfires on private property, but the motion failed when no other council member provided a second.

City Manager Larry Jones presented detailed regulations modeled after Walton County’s successful bonfire program, which generated $936,000 in revenue split between the county and fire district in fiscal year 2024. Jones said Destin would not see anywhere near that level of revenue.

“No way is that going to be a reality in the City of Destin,” Jones said. “But there is some magnitude there that shows there’s some demand for fires.”

Jones recommended limiting bonfires to private property only, saying public beaches are too narrow to accommodate both fires and other beachgoers.

• “I think it would be unfair to have a 60 foot wide public access and have someone go build a fire at dusk and say nobody else can come to the beach tonight, because that’s basically what would happen,” Jones said.

The proposed regulations would have required fires to be placed in containers no larger than four feet in diameter, positioned at least four inches off the ground, with flames no higher than four feet. Fires would need to be at least 25 feet from property lines, 100 feet from inhabitable structures, and 200 feet from sea turtle nests.

All bonfire materials would need to be hand-carried to the site, and operators would be required to obtain permits through the Destin Fire Control District at a cost of $105.

During the public hearing, residents who spoke were opposed to the proposal, citing concerns about inadequate code enforcement, potential environmental damage to beaches, and the city’s limited coastline compared to Walton County’s 26 miles of beach. Speakers questioned whether the city could properly monitor compliance and worried about visitors ignoring regulations.

After the motion failed, Schmidt expressed frustration that only opponents spoke during the public hearing.

“So the business owners, the residents, the people that did talk in favor of it, nobody cares anything about them,” Schmidt said.

The council took no further action on the bonfire proposal.