A months-long title search has settled at least one piece of a long-running argument between Okaloosa County and the City of Fort Walton Beach: the two school-zone speed cameras on Hollywood Boulevard were installed in county right-of-way, and the county never issued a permit for them.
County Commissioners, meeting Sept. 16, voted unanimously to notify the city to take the cameras down within a working week and to let Chairman Trey Goodwin negotiate over who should own and maintain the road going forward — with one condition: any transfer must include an enforceable restriction barring speed-zone cameras.
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Who owns what on Hollywood Boulevard in Fort Walton Beach?
The update on the title search came from Deputy County Administrator Jason Autrey, who said the agenda item returned before commissioners because of a conversation earlier in the year. “There was some confusion between the county and the city in terms of ownership,” he said. “One of the items was to have a title search done of Hollywood Boulevard between Mary Esther Cutoff and State Road 85 or Eglin Parkway. That ended up being quite voluminous.”
Autrey walked the board through a simplified map produced from that search. “It is confusing because there are a couple of ways the county has received ownership, and then there’s other areas that are a blend between city and county,” he said.
Ultimately, the county’s title safari, begun after the city installed traffic cameras to ticket speeders, proved the county owns the right-of-way for the land.
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Asked by Goodwin whether the county had ever permitted the cameras, Autrey said: “That is correct. No, sir. The county has not issued permits for those cameras.”
County Attorney Lynn Hoshihara said the title search was the city attorney’s idea and that the two governments split the cost. “The title search results took way longer than any of us expected, given the length of roadway, the complexity of the history of this,” she said. County attorney Kerry Parsons turned the results into the map, which has been shared with the city.
Why ownership matters
Autrey framed the practical problem as one of permitting and maintenance. “The one thing we do need to figure out is: is it going to be a city road or is it going to be a county road?… so we don’t have the confusion of the city of Fort Walton Beach issuing permits on a county roadway or vice versa,” he said.
Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel, who mentioned that part of the corridor is in her district, was ready to hand it over. “If they want to take over the maintenance of Hollywood and run it, let them have it,” Ketchel said. “That’s how I see it, because it is so confusing. Do we pave here? Do we have lights here?”
Goodwin, who said at least one and possibly both cameras are in his district, said he could support a transfer only with a camera prohibition attached. “We as a board have voted that as a policy matter, we do not believe these cameras are proper for our jurisdiction and our citizens,” he said. “I don’t think I can knowingly hand the keys over to that right of way if I haven’t made sure that those violations of due process cannot be reimposed upon the citizens that I represent.”
He also renewed the county’s request that the city refund money collected through the cameras, calling it “a public trust restoration effort.” The board took no action on that request.
Commissioner Sherri Cox asked whether such a camera restriction on land transferred from the county to the city would hold up. She said she wanted legal advice on “the durability of us being able to impose regulations on a municipality’s use of that thoroughfare, once we deed it back.”
Hoshihara said the county could use a deed restriction or, because much of the corridor came to the county by dedication, a written agreement with a reverter or a specific-performance clause: “In the event the city violates those terms, then it would be like a suit to enforce those terms.”
Mixon urged that maintenance standards be written in alongside the camera ban, warning the road could otherwise come back to the county in disrepair.
What happens next
- The cameras come down. The county will ask the city to remove the two cameras within “seven days or a working week” — commissioners settled on “by next Friday.” If the city does not act, county crews will, as they did previously with cameras off Denton. “This is property of somebody else,” Autrey said. “I’d like to give them the opportunity first to remove it.”
- Negotiations begin. The unanimous motion — Ketchel’s, with friendly amendments from Goodwin and Mixon — directs Goodwin, as district commissioner, to work with staff on a possible transfer of the right-of-way that includes possible stipulations for maintenance and the inability to use speed cameras on the right-of-way.
