Okaloosa United Residents for Saving Our Irreplaceable Land

Background & Current Situation

Here is the Recent Background:

  • After years of over development beyond what our infrastructure can handle and multiple developments being proposed that are completely inappropriate for our area, citizens began publicly pushing back. Several Developments were proposed in the Baker Area that Citizens strongly disagreed with.
  • In March of 2024 we had the first Town Hall for the Inspire Study at the Baker Community Center at BARA where over 400 very concerned citizens showed up to express their displeasure at what was happening.
  • Immediately after that Baker Town Hall, signs were posted by Okaloosa County on numerous properties declaring their intent to approve the developments.
  • Numerous Baker residents on Buck Ward Road and in the Baker area filed petitions opposing the Buck Haven development as well as the Arbor Grove development in April of 2024 requesting a public hearing.
  • The petitioners also submitted Memorandums of Error citing specific violations of the Land Development Code and the County Comprehensive Plan in May of 2024.
  • The Planning Commission of Okaloosa County, which is a volunteer advisory board appointed by The Board of County Commissioners of Okaloosa County, held a public hearing on August 8th-9th 2024. This was a quasi-judicial hearing to hear the objections of residents and the defense of the developers. However, the problems with how the hearings were conducted were significant and too numerous to list here. Basically, clear violations of the Land Development Code were overlooked and violations of the Comprehensive Plan were not even considered in this hearing, and the developments were approved. It is Florida State Law that Counties must enforce their Comprehensive Plans and Land Development Codes.
  • No further process was available to residents to present their case to the Board of County Commissioners, or to have any violations of the Comprehensive Plan heard except to file a lawsuit against the The Board of County Commissioners of Okaloosa County, which was done in September 2024. 
  • The process of objecting to this development happened with the backdrop of The North Okaloosa Planning Study conducted by Inspire Engagement from March to October of 2024 which included many town hall meetings and online comments from thousands of residents which resulted in a study showing the same concerns as those who are objecting to the Buck Haven development and a sense of alarm at how development was occurring.
  • Board of Commissioners of Okaloosa County, the Growth Management Department and the Planning Commission have consistently claimed that they can’t enforce the law on developments without getting sued by developers. Yet, counties are required, by Florida State Law, to enforce their comprehensive plans.  Does it make any sense for local government to be afraid to enforce the law and protect the citizens of the county? The citizens have repeatedly observed developers being given preferential treatment over the citizens of the county.
  • Work on the Buck Haven development began in the fall of 2024 and has already resulted in property damage to multiple neighboring property owners. 
  • In Jan 2025, the developer joined the County in the Lawsuit defending against the plaintiff (OUR-SOIL) in this lawsuit.
  • The lawsuit is in discovery and lining up witnesses. The trial date is not yet set.
  • Keep this in mind – OUR-SOIL is made up of local residents with very limited budgets. We took legal action because we felt that we must and that we have a strong case. If not now, when? If not us, who? The county pays their team of attorneys with our tax dollars. The developers also have vastly greater financial resources than OUR-SOIL or any group of local residents. This is why citizens rarely challenge local government to court. This is why this has never happened in this county before. This is why things get the way they are where developers are treated as more important than residents. But if the people believe this is important and stand with us, this can be won.
  • Join us in this fight so that together, the citizens who live here, can create the community we want for our future.