Council sets STR condo fee tier, adopts social media policy, reschedules concrete contract bid, advances Joe's Bayou no‑wake study

(Note: Individual speakers will be limited to 3 minutes. At the discretion of the mayor, this 3 minute allowance may be adjusted depending on the level of business coming before the City Council)

Parks and Recreation would like to replace the 2013 field pro with money that was budgeted and saved in our renewal and replacement budget. The FY 2025 renewal and replacement fund budgeted $1.3 million to replace lights at the MSC athletic fields and parking lot. Actual encumbrances and expenditures to date project over $500 thousand in remaining budget balance. Parks and Recreation would like to use some of this remaining budget to replace the 2013 Field Pro that will take better care of our athletic fields. The Toro Field Pro 6040 incorporates new and improved technology. The Field Pro plus accessories and shipping is $48,543.30. Giving our staff the tools to be the best at their job, making our fields the best!!! | attachments=1 | reports=1

The City of Destin entered into a continuing services contract with S.H. Hayes Enterprises LLC on September 20, 2021, for the provision of miscellaneous concrete services. This agreement has been extended annually under the terms of the original contract. | attachments=6 | reports=1

Per Ordinance 23-01-CN, the City Council must declare property as surplus prior to the items being disposed of via Online Auction. | attachments=1 | reports=1

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Announcements

The City of Destin has expanded its Short-Term Rental Registration Program. On March 3, 2025, the City Council held a Second Reading of Ordinance 24-23-CC, Requiring short-term rental registrations of multi-family units, including condominium units, within the City of Destin. The ordinance was approved by a 7-0 vote. Resolution 25-17, which establishes the associated registration fees, is up for discussion. Council will also consider the implementation strategy for the resolution—whether administration should be handled in-house or outsourced to an external vendor. The attached Revised and Restated Schedule of Fees incorporates four updates: 1. Adds a section regarding short-term rental registration fees for Condominiums (redlined version page 27). 2. Increases Public Records Request fees from $21 per hour to $28 per hour (redlined version page 30). 3. Adds an alert at beginning of each section regarding 3% fee collected by merchant service providers for payments by credit card (Council motion of February 3, 2025) (redlined version pages 4, 7, 22, and 29). 4. Adjusts library service fees to replace video cases or audiobook cases from $1-$3 to "Replacement cost" (redlined version page 4). 5. Fixes a number of scrivener and formatting errors. Adds back the page numbers, updates the table of contents, and adjusts account numbers to match the new accounting system. The most significant change and impact is related to the Short-Term Rental Registration Program. | attachments=3 | reports=1

The City Council previously approved an agreement with Sea Chase for a TEMPORARY EXCEPTION to the livery vessel moratorium and regulations that allowed Sea Chase to maintain ten (10) City livery registrations which were assigned to the following ten vessels: FL 7753RU 119 FL 7756RU 120 FL 2365RJ 121 FL 7748RU 122 FL 7759RU 123 FL 7755RU 124 FL 2363RJ 126 FL 7761RU 127 FL 7750RU 131 FL 7763RU 132 This Agreement terminated on June 30, 2025, but may be extended by mutual written agreement of the Parties, including approval by the City Council. This item has been postponed until the August 18, 2025 regular City Council meeting. | reports=1

The City Council directed the City Attorney and City Manager to prepare a social media policy for compliance with Sunshine and Public Records Law. The City Attorney and City Manager have worked together and respectfully submit the attached Resolution 25-15 for consideration by the City Council. | attachments=2 | reports=1

Council directed staff to look into options for an additional No Wake Zone in Joe's Bayou. | attachments=5 | reports=1

During the July 21, 2025, Regular City Council meeting, the following motion was made and passed: | attachments=1 | reports=1

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City Staff and Okaloosa County Staff have been collaborating on a mutually beneficial and code compliant parking lot for the Shores at Crystal Beach public access since December 2022. The Shores at Crystal Beach is to be located at 2942, 2966, & 2970 Scenic Highway 98. As recently as April 21, 2025, Staff have provided City Council with the most recent draft of the civil plans for the Shores at Crystal Beach to ensure that the proposed work is compliant with the Land Development Code (LDC), while still meeting the intent of the original purchase of the property, to which the Council provided positive feedback. The Shores at Crystal Beach access consists of two (2) separate parking lots, with the westerly parking area designed for standard vehicle parking spaces only, while the easterly parking area is designed to accommodate parking for only Low-Speed Vehicles (LSVs). To date, the City does not currently have adopted ordinances that govern the minimum parking stall widths/depths and/or drive aisle widths for LSV parking. Therefore, Staff was directed to bring back draft design standards in regards to LSV parking areas for LPA and Council consideration. | attachments=1 | reports=1

Proposed Ordinance 25-05-CC requires additional training and safety measures for livery vessel operators and their customers, codifies the livery vessel cap within the City, and makes clarifications to permit transferability. The cap on the number of livery vessels is based on the current number of livery vessels legally registered and expected to register based on the recent clarifications related to bareboat yachts and the existing boat club within the city. Proposed clarifications on permit registration transferability include the ability to transfer permit registrations provided the vessel is transferred with the permit, but prohibits separate permit transfers if detached from the vessel to which the permit is registered. Abandoned permits would be required to be returned to the City. The Ordinance initially was discussed by the City Council on May 19, 2025, and again at the Harbor and Waterways Board on May 22nd. Comments obtained from both the Council and HWB have been incorporated into the proposed Ordinance before the Council this evening, and the Ordinance is now before Council on first reading. | attachments=1 | reports=1

Article 20.06.00 of the Land Development Code (LDC) – Unsafe Building Abatement was adopted in 2015 and was modeled from the 1985 Standard Unsafe Building Abatement Code . Staff have found that these regulations do not fully capture all elements of public health, safety, welfare and the preservation of neighborhoods, as they apply only to structures and do not address a property's general site conditions. Due to the limits of these regulations, the City's Code Compliance efforts are limited. Therefore, staff are seeking to expand the regulations to include the property as a whole, including exterior elements (yard). | attachments=2 | reports=1

Legal arguments may include but not be limited to: SB 180 is unconstitutional and invalid because, among other things, it: (a) embraces more than one subject and matter properly connected therewith in violation of Article III, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution; (b) includes a defective title in violation of Article III, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution; (c) requires municipalities and counties to spend in the aggregate an amount that exceeds an insignificant fiscal impact fails without including a finding that the law fulfills an important state interest as required by Article VII, Section 18 of the Florida Constitution; (d) constitutes a sweeping intrusion on home‑rule authority, threatening local ability to enact land use, zoning, flood‑resiliency, and environmental protections, contrary to Article VIII, Section 2(b) of the Florida Constitution to a degree that renders the constitutional provision hollow; and (e) contains provisions that classify political subdivisions on a basis that is not reasonably related to the subject of the law in violation of Art. III, Section 11(b) of the Florida Constitution. | attachments=1 | reports=1