Shaping the Future Growth of Walton County

Earlier this month, residents came together at various workshops to voice their thoughts and contribute to shaping Walton County's future through the Community Engagement Workshop series, which ran from May 1-8, 2024.

If you missed the workshops, you can get caught up with presentations, meetings, and updates on the official web page Plan For Walton 2040.

The Residents and businesses in Walton County can help plan the future of their communities through the initiative "Plan for Walton 2040". The series continues with more opportunities for involvement, especially focusing on critical areas such as transportation, infrastructure, and community services.

"Walton County is a unique place, with world-famous beaches and resort towns, charming historic sites, large areas of conservation, and beautiful rural farmland," says Plan for Walton 2040 Project Lead Marina Khoury. "Those areas all have their own character and a sense of community. Future growth in these communities and the intensity of that growth should reflect those values. Walton County also is a special place for DPZ as we have been helping to guide development there for the past 40 years."

Plan for Walton 2040 is part of an Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) of the county's Comprehensive Plan, a state-mandated long-range plan that must be updated every seven years. The planning effort includes a major emphasis on community outreach and engagement to ensure that residents, businesses, and stakeholders have the chance to share their ideas and opinions. This input will be combined with the technical team's assessment to create a long-range vision plan to guide Walton County's future growth and development.

To conduct the review and planning effort, the Walton County Commission has engaged a team of consultants led by DPZ CoDesign. DPZ may be familiar to long-time residents as they helped author the Trust Plan in the 1980s and also planned and designed the town of Seaside, among others. The consulting team includes experts in transportation, green infrastructure, environmental planning, land economics, zoning analysis and legal review.

On the website, www.PlanForWalton2040.com, residents can learn more about the planning process, sign up for email updates, and take an initial SURVEY to share their ideas and preferences for Walton County's future. 

Plan for Walton 2040 also has a Facebook page of the same name where residents can ask questions and engage in the process.

For more information, visit www.PlanForWalton2040.com or email info@PlanForWalton2040.com.