Okaloosa Island Boat Basin revamp almost complete with new boardwalk, fishing pier
Tony Judnich
OKALOOSA ISLAND — A major development project at the Okaloosa Island Boat Basin/Sound-side access No. 2 is set to be completed in September, Okaloosa County spokeswoman April Sarver said Thursday.
The basin and the 2-acre county-owned access stand just east of Cobia Avenue directly across Santa Rosa Sound from Fort Walton Landing and across Santa Rosa Boulevard from the county beach access No. 2, known as the Emerald View Boardwalk.
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The first version of the boat basin reportedly was built in 1970. The county leased the nonprofit facility to the Okaloosa Island Leaseholders Association (OILA) from about 1982 to 2018.
That’s when the county closed the then-18-slip basin because of its rundown, unsafe condition. Its hazards included a collapsing sea wall, electrical problems and a dock in disrepair.
Last December, the County Commission approved a contract with Dalton Brothers Inc. of Shalimar to improve the basin, convert much of the Sound-side access No. 2 into a parking lot and make other changes.
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Sarver said the new basin will feature an updated boardwalk, accommodate about eight 25-foot boats and include materials to better withstand wave erosion. It also will include a fishing pier, beach-access area, ADA-accessible floating kayak/canoe launch, and a living shoreline of salt meadow and smooth cord grasses that will help slow shore erosion.
Most of the Sound-side access No. 2 property stands south of the basin. Once the current project is done, this larger area will include a 20-space parking lot and sidewalks, an enhanced stormwater swale, and landscaping — such as Yaupon and sand live oak trees, cabbage palms, saw palmettos, parsons Juniper and cord grasses — found at county beach accesses.
The project cost of a little more than $1.1 million is funded by $973,426 in county bed tax money and a $150,000 grant from the Florida Boating Improvement Program, which is administered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The county has seven long, narrow accesses that front Santa Rosa Sound. They were given to the county when they were platted, perhaps as far back as the 1950s.
Except for the westernmost parcel, each 100-foot-wide Sound-side access stands directly across from a county beach access. The Sound-side accesses vary in length, and most of them are used to absorb stormwater runoff from Santa Rosa Boulevard.
County officials currently have no plans to pursue the development of any of the six other Sound-side accesses.