BRYAN HUGHES Florida Freedom Newspapers
Tuesday August 28th, 2007
CRESTVIEW - While it's exciting to announce, the fact that the county seat is now officially Okaloosa County's largest city is no shocker to officials.
"It's just not a surprise," said Crestview Mayor David Cadle. "We can see in the city that the growth is coming daily."
The Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida put the estimated Crestview‘s population at 21,149 as of April 1. The estimate was released earlier this month.
The population estimate for Fort Walton Beach, Crestview's rival for the county's biggest city, was 21,008, according to Len Mitchell, the city's long-range planner.
In his Monday memo to city officials announcing the new population estimate, Crestview planning official Eric Davis said the count "represents a population increase of 8 percent" over the 2006 estimate of 19,494.
But since the April estimate, Crestview's daily count of utility and water department customers has grown by 505.
"And that's just in the city limits," said Cadle. "This is just the harbinger of things to come. All of north Okaloosa County is going to continue to grow."
"The city's growth is something the council has been planning on for quite some time," said City Council President Chip Wells. "What we need to keep doing is the forward thinking, not just for today and tomorrow, but we have to continue planning for the future of the city."
DEVON RAVINE | Daily News
A subdivision stretches south of Interstate 10 in Crestview in this photograph taken in March 2006. A large amount of land available for development has contributed to Crestview's boom.
Ted Corcoran, executive director of the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, said Fort Walton Beach can reap benefits from the north-county growth.
Crestview's push for affordable housing attracts a workforce that includes people who work in Fort Walton Beach or Destin and are attracted by shopping outside of Crestview, he said.
"People are coming from Crestview to shop at Uptown Station, Santa Rosa Mall," Corcoran said.
Tom Rice, owner of the Magnolia Grill restaurant in downtown Fort Walton Beach, recalls going to the Hub City often as a youngster.
He said his father-in-law banked there and his wife routinely caught a train from Crestview to Pensacola to shop.
While Crestview's location along Interstate 10 makes it a logical growth area, Rice said he's still astounded at how the once-small city has grown.
"It was a quiet little town," he said. "The county seat is now truly the county seat."
Fort Walton Beach Mayor Mike Anderson said he didn't follow Crestview's growth closely over the years, but added that city had land available for development. Fort Walton Beach now redevelops land because there is no room to expand.
"It does not surprise me," he said of Crestview's growth. "Everybody knows they're growing. They had more room to grow."
With the growth of the north county comes the hope that business and industry will follow.
"Hopefully, it'll bring new industry to the city with better paying jobs that will hopefully encourage our younger people to stay here, said Cadle.
"That growth brings challenges to the city that we're going to have to be proactive to meet," he added.
Crestview officials feel up to the challenge.
"The focus of the council is to keep planning for the future while taking care of both the immediate needs and the future needs of the people of the city," said Wells.
Being the county's largest city is quite a feather in Crestview's cap, said Cadle.
"It's an exciting time to be a citizen of Crestview."
