The Destin City Council held a special meeting last Wednesday to approve the city’s initial answers to seven questions from a state lands official, the latest step in the city’s effort to lease and manage the roughly four-acre Holiday Isle State Park property.

• The meeting came after Brad Richardson, chief of the Bureau of Public Land Administration in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of State Lands, emailed City Attorney Kim Kopp on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Richardson wrote that he had recently been forwarded the details related to Okaloosa County’s support of city management of the property and asked the city for several items “in order to effectuate a lease.”

“Please be advised, this will be a direct lease between the Board of Trustees and the City of Destin,” Richardson wrote. He added that once the upland lease is fully executed, the state would need to assign the sovereign submerged lands lease to the city as well.

No lease has been signed yet. The Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, made up of the governor and Cabinet, designated Okaloosa County as the property’s manager when the state acquired it. Any change to that designation would require state approval.

City Manager Larry Jones told the council he read the email to mean the state intended for the city to be the recipient of the lease.

“No sublease necessary, so we were certainly excited about that,” Jones said.

Kopp cautioned that the answers the council approved were preliminary.

“I wanted everybody to know this is the very beginning, not the end of the discussions at all,” Kopp said.

Richardson’s email came six days after the Destin City Council and the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners reached an agreement at a Sept. 16 conflict resolution meeting in Shalimar. The city offered free parking at city lots and parks to all Okaloosa County residents if the city gains management of the property, and the county voted 5-0 to send a letter supporting city management to the Board of Trustees, with a copy to DEP.

Council’s responses

Each motion passed, with Councilman Dewey Destin absent Wednesday.

The council first voted to confirm its commitment to manage the property for conservation and passive outdoor recreation, consistent with the city’s adjacent 14-acre Norriego Point Park. Jones said that commitment was already laid out in Resolution 2026-05, which the council adopted in March.

The concept plan the city will send to the state was drawn by the city engineer. Kopp said it shows three shade structures on the East Pass side, beach volleyball courts, an extension of the Norriego Point boardwalk, parking and the existing docks.

“And of course, there’s nothing commercial on the site, no commercial marina, no commercial T-shirts, shops, no food vending,” Kopp said.

Jones said the plan is largely the same one the council saw several months ago, with the playground removed and additional volleyball courts added. It includes 54 additional parking spaces. Kopp said about one acre would be paved for parking, with the remaining three acres left alone.

Councilwoman Sandy Trammell asked how the shade structures would affect birds nesting on the property. Jones said that would be addressed during permitting to make sure existing uses are not impacted.

Councilman John Stephens made a motion to add vertical oyster gardens, a monofilament recycling program, use of a finger dock near the seawall as a dinghy dock and a kayak launch and pickup area. The motion passed. Kopp said those proposals would be added to the plans before they are sent to DEP.

Costs, docks and revenue

Jones said the city’s engineer estimates the improvements at $3 million to $4 million, including a retrofit of the docks.

Councilwoman Teresa Hebert asked whether that figure was tied to the city’s earlier pledge. Kopp said Resolution 2026-05 committed up to $5 million.

• “That doesn’t mean you have to spend $5 million,” Kopp said.

Trammell asked whether the estimate covered the seawall. Jones said it includes renovation, with replacement where needed, but said some of that would not be known until studies are done.

The city proposes using the docks primarily as day-use docks, with a fee of $5 per hour for the public transient slips. A portion of the docks may also be set aside for fishing. The city’s response to the state says using the docks for boat parking would take pressure off Gulf Shore Drive and reduce how much of the property would need to be paved.

The proposed dock fee matches the parking rate at Norriego Point. At its regular meeting Monday, the council approved $5 per hour parking there, replacing the previous rate of $20 for four hours after many visitors said they stayed for shorter periods and asked for an hourly option. Parking remains free for city residents with a decal. Free parking for county residents, part of the Sept. 16 agreement, is still to be determined as the city and county work through the agreement.

Kopp said the $5 dock rate is not set in stone.

Councilman Chatham Morgan said day use of the docks would bring new responsibilities.

“The day-use is going to be a real challenge for the city, whether it’s from a code enforcement standpoint or a liability standpoint,” Morgan said.

In its proposed response to the state, the city projects about $820,000 a year in parking fee revenue, net of sales tax and processing fees, from the 54 additional spaces and the transient slips. Jones said the actual figure would likely fall “somewhere between the half million and million dollar range.”

Councilman Kevin Schmidt made the motion, seconded by Hebert, to approve the remaining responses to the state in substantially the same form as presented, adding the option for water taxi access at the docks. Schmidt said the addition refers to the water taxi service that already exists, not a new city service. The motion passed.

Parking fund

To help pay for the improvements, Jones recommended expanding the allowed uses of the city’s parking fund, which is limited to parking-related expenses, to include waterfront parks. He said the city would also pursue grants and state appropriations, with the parking fund serving as a backstop. Jones said the fund holds about $3 million. The staff report lists $4 million in available funds, which could be used through an amendment to the city’s 2027 budget.

Schmidt raised concerns about the broader change.

“I just want to be somewhat cautious that our parking fund is not going to turn into the piggy bank for Norriego Point Beach Park,” Schmidt said.

Finance Director Krystal Strickland said the park would add significant revenue to the fund.

“We’re going to be basically doubling the income from parking fees by adding the extra 54 spaces and the extra 49 dock slips,” Strickland said.

Morgan made a substitute motion, seconded by Trammell, to limit the expanded use of the parking fund to the state park property only, rather than all waterfront parks in the city. He said he did not want the fund used for Joe’s Bayou or the beachfront parks in Crystal Beach.

• “I want to keep the parking fund for parking with this exception to get this park done,” Morgan said.

The substitute motion passed.

Trammell also made a motion, seconded by Hebert, to include a real-time sign at U.S. Highway 98 and Gulf Shore Drive showing how many parking spaces are open at the park. That motion also passed.

Attorney general opinion

A day before Richardson’s email, the Florida Attorney General’s Office issued a legal opinion on the property in response to a request Okaloosa County Commissioner Drew Palmer submitted in May. 

On management, the Sept. 21 opinion concluded that a county designated by the Board may not transfer its management responsibilities to a city without state approval.

“Any alteration of the land manager requires the State agency’s approval and, to the extent it modifies the initial management plan, also Board approval,” the opinion states.

The opinion also concluded that the Holiday Isle restrictive covenants do not apply to the state park property, because such covenants do not bind land the state acquires for public purposes unless the state expressly agrees.

What’s next

Kopp said she would send the city’s responses to Richardson on Thursday. At the Sept. 16 meeting, Jones read an email from DEP General Counsel Justin Wolfe stating that if the city and county reached an agreement, “the department as staff to the board of trustees will review the proposal.”

If a lease is executed, Kopp said the city would have a year to submit a final management plan for review by the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council.

“If we get the lease, we will have a year to submit a final management plan with engineer drawings to the state, and there will be lots of meetings with council and the public to talk about details,” Kopp said.

The city is also asking the state for permission to immediately change the property’s future land use and zoning from residential to conservation. According to the city’s response, the conservation designation allows paid parking and public day use of the docks but prohibits commercial activity. Jones said the city could complete those changes in about three to four months with the state’s permission, a process that would include public hearings.

Schmidt told residents that many operational questions, including signs, hours and staffing, would be taken up in public meetings over the coming year.

“There’s about to be a lot of discussions on the very granular details about how this park and parking lot and docking facility’s going to be operating over the next year,” Schmidt said.