Housing boom in Santa Rosa's rural areas: 143 homes planned near Allentown and Chumuckla
A wave of new homes could come to County Road 182 between Chumuckla and Allentown.
As development continues to surge in Santa Rosa County, a development group has submitted a preliminary plat to the county for a new project called Rhett’s Run. The first phased portion of the project includes 143 homes on about 80 acres of agriculturally-zoned land.
“Due to RMS Timberlands selling a lot of their property south of (Highway) 182, the county is seeing a lot of residential development occurring,” the county’s Planning and Zoning Director Shawn Ward told the News Journal in an email.
District 3 Commissioner James Calkins, who represents the northern communities, told the News Journal that, moving forward, the county needs to do what it can to protect rural areas and farmland.
“The people that are moving out there are the kind of folks that are trying to get away from the traffic and want to have a more rural lifestyle. That's what I'm seeing,” Calkins said. “And you’ve got a lot of folks that want to get into farming who move out there.”
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Calkins spoke to the fact that the county needs to encourage farming without interfering with property rights.
“I think we need to do everything we can to protect it as best as we can,” Calkins said.
Using septic to treat wastewater
At this development in particular, environmental advocates have raised red flags over the possible use of septic tanks for wastewater management.
“Septic is just one of those things that they did in the old days, when people had 5- or 6-acre lots,” said Liz Pavelick with the environmental group Save our Soundside.
While Pavelick and her group have mainly focused their efforts on environmental concerns around the county’s southern peninsula, she was adamant that water protection in the north end of the county deserves an equal spotlight.
“I think it's a problem just knowing how (development) went overboard down here in the south end,” Pavelick said. “Now that they're running out of areas, of course, they're looking to the north.”
The health department permits lots as small as a quarter-acre to be on septic systems, and Ward said he was not aware of available sewer hookup in the Rhett’s Run area.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, septic systems have the potential to impact drinking water wells or surface water bodies, although that possibility and extent of impact is determined by the septic system’s maintenance and if treatment capacities are exceeded.
“One area of concern regarding septic also has to do with the proximity to water. And the closer they are to waterways, and the older the septic tanks are, the more of a problem it is,” Calkins said. “There’s always a balancing act on those type of things. But I know that there's a push by some folks in the county that want to just ban septic tanks altogether, and I completely oppose that.”
Calkins added he feels it is best to encourage sewer hookup to treat wastewater but said he does not want to establish a prohibition on septic usage.
“Septic systems have improved in the way they've been designed versus the olden days,” Calkins said. “But overall, I would encourage the use of sewer hookups.”
This comes at a time when, in nearby Milton, the city is working to replace its current wastewater treatment facility with another to handle greater capacity and deter the use of septic tanks.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa housing: 143 new homes planned near Allentown, Chumuckla
