Destin City Council approved a major development order on Monday night for a 320-room Drury Plaza Hotel on Highway 98 East following more than an hour of debate over landscaping, traffic safety, parking reductions and whether the city’s own codes are producing the kind of development residents want.

• The council voted to approve the project with two conditions: at least 80% of required landscaping must consist of native trees rather than palms, and the developer must include a designated pet relief area on the property. The approval came only after the Drury Representative Eddie Robinson made a phone call during a brief recess to secure authorization for the tree requirement.

Choctaw Engineering, on behalf of Drury Destin LLC, submitted the application to construct a six-story, 225,615-square-foot hotel and conference center at 1001 Highway 98 East, on a site adjacent to Big Kahuna’s Water Park.

The project includes approximately 4,000 square feet of conference space, an outdoor pool, 333 parking spaces, stormwater improvements and pedestrian infrastructure on the 10.27-acre site.

The property carries a Town Center Mixed Use zoning designation, and city staff determined the project meets all minimum requirements under the comprehensive plan and land development code.

Parking concerns

Much of the discussion centered on parking reductions the developer received under current city code. Councilman Dewey Destin initially calculated the project received a 35% reduction in required parking, citing a 20% reduction allowed under the Multi-Modal Transportation District and an additional 15% reduction through a joint-use parking analysis that assumes some conference center attendees will be hotel guests.

Staff later clarified the overall reduction was 22%, explaining the 15% reduction only applied to the conference center calculation, not the entire project.

Without the reductions, the project would have required 426 parking spaces. The approved plan includes 333.

• “When the hotel is full, we do not even have one space per room at the hotel, not including whatever activity may be going on at the convention center,” Destin said, also referring to spots needed for employees. “It looks to me like we are still reducing parking to the point that it may not be adequate.”

When Destin asked whether staff has discretion to deny such reductions, staff said no.

“Per the code, as long as they have an engineered shared parking analysis, the city manager shall approve it. So there’s really no discretion. If they apply for it, we have to give it to them,” the planner said.

Staff further confirmed the limitation. “Not the way the code’s written currently. We need to change the code,” he said, adding that changes are included in the ongoing land development code rewrite.

Traffic and the Highway 98 intersection

Mayor Bobby Wagner expressed concern about traffic flow at the hotel’s Highway 98 entrance, which is designed as a full-access point allowing left turns in and out.

“My fear for the guest overall experience is if they’re flying into VPS and they don’t want to take the toll, they’re gonna come from Fort Walton, which means they’re gonna be going eastbound,” Wagner said, describing an “uncontrolled intersection” that could create significant congestion.

• The city’s engineer told the council he had raised the issue with the Florida Department of Transportation in July, expressing a preference for a right-in, right-out configuration, but said FDOT declined to close the median.

Mark Siner of Choctaw Engineering noted the property has secondary access through Porter Lane, connecting to the new development that allows traffic to exit via Palm Street. He said the left-turn stacking lane being constructed will be approximately 165 feet long.

“You could probably put 10 cars easily in there,” Siner estimated.

Councilman Torey Geile explained the council’s concern by referencing the old Chick-fil-A location on Highway 98.

• “Do you remember the traffic jam when people were trying to pull in there and the line would carry off into 98 and 98 was busy during rush hour, you’re blocked down to one lane. People cutting people off,” Geile said. “That’s the train of thought that we were trying to avoid on that left hand turn.”

Councilman Jim Bagby was more blunt about the implications.

“What we’re allowing to be created here is the worst intersection,” Bagby said, adding he lives near another dangerous intersection in Crystal Beach “where we seem to have a rollover accident and have had fatalities.” He noted the location next to Big Kahuna’s means increased summer pedestrian traffic crossing the road.

Landscaping: code requirements vs. final plans

The most contentious exchange came over landscaping plans. When Bagby asked why the council couldn’t see what the final landscaping would look like, Siner explained they haven’t engaged the landscape architect yet.

“Because at this point in time, we haven’t gone to the effort of having the landscape architect design the whole entire thing because of the fact that we’re trying to get this project approved to see if it’ll even go forward,” Siner said. “If you approve it tonight, then we will have the landscape architects do their thing and finish the project. It happens all the time. To me, this is standard practice.”

Siner said the submitted plans show only the minimum 119 trees required to meet code.

• “What you saw on those drawings is what’s required by your code. It looks very amateurish, stick figure,” Siner said. “What they’re gonna do compared to what my plans show is gonna be drastically better.”

Bagby pushed back, saying Siner’s own description of the plans as minimal “stick drawings” contradicted asking the council to approve them.

“I’m not voting on something that’s going to amaze me, and quite honestly, I’m a little upset that you’re asking me to vote for a plan which is not the plan you say is gonna be out there,” Bagby said. “But what we’re supposed to be voting on is what is actually going to get built.”

Siner clarified the code-minimum plans represent a floor, not a ceiling.

“What we have shown you is the minimum number of trees that’s required in order to meet your code,” Siner said. “We will supplement that with other landscaping around that.”

Frustration with city codes

Several council members expressed frustration that developers are simply following codes the city itself wrote.

Councilman Rodney Braden was particularly direct.

• “We’ve sat here and talked about these palm trees for the last 30 minutes, and if we’ve had an issue about it, why is it not in the ordinance?” Braden said. “You’re getting this huge reduction – 35% reduction in parking. You don’t even have enough parking for what you have. Staff’s just going by what we’ve put in place. If we don’t like it, let’s change it.”

Siner agreed the project highlights code issues but said that’s not the developer’s fault.

“The property owner spent a lot of money to buy a piece of property in the city of Destin and develop it and use your code as a guideline to do it by, which he’s done,” Siner said. “All we would ask tonight is you approve the project as it is right now, go ahead and change your code however you want.”

Wagner acknowledged the frustration.

“As everyone’s already said, these plans are exactly what’s wrong with Destin and why the majority of our citizens are trying to see a change in a different direction,” Wagner said. “Because what our code is allowing and what we need — and I hope we’re all taking notes for this LDC — is this not to happen, because this is exactly what’s destroying the community.”

Councilwoman Teresa Hebert urged faster progress on the land development code rewrite.

• “We shouldn’t drag this out and we shouldn’t put these people through this kind of grilling when it’s not their fault they followed what we’ve got written,” Hebert said.

The recess and final approval

As the discussion stretched into the hour, Councilman Kevin Schmidt moved to approve the project as presented in an effort to move the meeting along. Councilwoman Teresa Hebert seconded.

But the topic of landscaping kept coming up and Robinson said he lacked authority to commit to the 80% native tree requirement on the spot.

• “If you’ll let me make one phone call, I can give you an answer right now,” he said.

The council took a brief recess. When they reconvened, Robinson asked what conditions would secure approval that evening. Councilman Dewey Destin responded by reintroducing his 80% native tree requirement as a substitute motion to Schmidt’s motion. Bagby seconded, and Robinson agreed to the terms.

“I’ll agree to that. And go ahead and put the dog park in it,” Robinson said.

City Attorney Kimberly Kopp clarified for the record that the motion included two conditions: 80% native trees and a pet relief area on the property.

Impact fees and timing

The project will pay approximately $395,200 in impact and mobility fees. However, Kopp noted the developer submitted the application during a statutory period before the city could apply newly adopted mobility fees.

• “Had they submitted a couple of months later, they’d be paying millions of dollars,” Kopp said. “Anyone that comes in now will be paying the new mobility fees.”

Siner estimated the new fees would have been approximately $3.6 million to $3.9 million.

“Congrats, guys, you made it under the wire,” Destin told the applicants.

According to a traffic analysis, the development will generate 209 vehicle trips during evening rush hour. The current level of service on that segment of Highway 98 is already rated F, meaning the additional traffic will not lower the existing rating.

The development order will come back for second reading on Dec. 16.