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🔧 The Okaloosa County Commission unanimously voted to repeal the Crab Island vessel exclusion zone due to shifting sands and lack of use by first responders.
🚤 Emergency services, including the Destin Fire Control District and the Coast Guard, indicated they have adapted to operating without the zone.
🏛️ The discussion reignited a broader debate over how county-wide assets like the bay should be governed and maintained.
Bye bye, vessel exclusion zone on Crab Island. Hello, continued power struggle over who gets to determine what happens with County assets.
The Okaloosa County Commission voted unanimously after a short public hearing to end the exclusion zone on Crab Island that was initially created to make sure first responders could get to life threatening situations around Crab Isand quickly – but have not used it, according to Mike Norberg with the Okaloosa County Coastal Resource Team, for several years due to shifting sands just under the water at the submerged island spot.
“It’s also been a maintenance burden,” Norberg added, “We’ve spent over the last 10 or so years over $100,000 just trying to repair, replace and maintain buoys and hardware out in this in this area because of the shifting sands, we reached out to local emergency services, including the sheriff’s office, Destin Fire [Control Distrcit] and the Coast Guard – the ones that would actually use this zone for its intended purpose, and they’ve all expressed that they haven’t used the zone in a number of years.”
Norberg added that various agencies have learned to live without the exclusion zone. Destin Fire Control District, for example, now uses Jet Skis more frequently.
Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel mentioned that part of Crab Island is in her district. Voters vote for all commission members, regardless of where they live. “I’m in favor of this [change], Ketchel added, “we did it [opened the exclusion zone] out of good faith, hoping to be able to save more lives.”
Commissioner Trey Goodwin, who has advocated for commissioners to treat public assets deemed valuable to the whole community as a shared responsibility for each commissioner, noted Ketchel’s ‘my district’ comment and responded. “This is located in the [Choctawhatchee] Bay, which is a district-wide asset, important to all five districts, of course, because of its magnitude and impact on our community,” Goodwin began, “Instead of government just leaving a regulation on the books or having a regulation that we simply don’t enforce or maintain, we’re taking the step of doing what I think the responsible government does, and says, ‘let’s look at what we have. Is it necessary? Is it functional? And should it be repealed?”
County Commissioner and Baker Resident Sherri Cox took the opportunity to commend the TDC for their initiative to remove the regulation from the books.
“I have to say, what a wonderful testimony this is to the benefit of what the TDC can actually be to its community. It’s time right now to try to defend [the TDC]. And I just wanted to say, on record, that we sure appreciate ours.”
