On Monday night, Destin City Council-member Dewey Destin made a motion to direct Mayor Gary Jarvis to work with city attorneys on preliminary research as it pertains to purchasing the property where Old Time Pottery is located.
- The reason: Expand the city’s sports complex.
The discussion surrounding the much-needed expansion of the sports complex in Destin is not a new discussion. Over the last few years, the council has had discussions on buying the Old Time Pottery property and turning it into a multi-use sports complex.
- Combined, the parcels would net the city roughly 20 acres, according to the Okaloosa Property Appraiser’s website.
As it currently stands, the city is busting at the seams with the existing Morgan’s Sports Complex, as sports tourism continues to grow, along with the city’s rec leagues.
“I think we need to pursue a little more strongly the Old Time Pottery property,” said Destin. “After all, it was added on to our list at the visioning session. I would make a motion to direct the Mayor, and whichever attorney is available, to try to track down who owns that and ask them about a purchase price.”
The rest of the council agreed.
As part of the city’s Strategic Plan, researching the viability of a Multi-use Convention/Sports/ Community Center is number six on the priority list. In fact, the city has earmarked $75,000 to go toward a Phase 1 Feasibility Study.
Earlier in the meeting, former City Councilman Parker Destin implored the council to look more seriously into purchasing the property.
“You need to look and prioritize what will eventually be some sort of medium-to-high density growth that’s going to occur in some of these vacant parcels and prepare for it,” said Parker. “Get ahead of this, because it’s going to come down to you. I don’t want any of you to be in a seat when eventually something as big as the Old Time Pottery parcel comes before you and wants to build 300 units with 600 cars.”
Parker told the council that he would like to see that property become a new center for the youth to be able to utilize everything from a community center, activities and facilities, along with a new sports complex.
“It can all happen, but it needs to happen sooner than later,” he said.
The city of Destin is slated to have their Visioning Session sometime in late January.
