Community Roundtable - Planning Public Workshop - May 20 2026 8:30AM

The Walton County Community Roundtable held on May 20, 2026, focused on planning and improving the public workshop process related to single-family home development and land use. The meeting included discussions on streamlining the building permit review (BPR) process, clarifying land development code requirements, and enhancing transparency and efficiency in permitting. Key procurement-related topics included the use of SwiftGov AI tools to support internal review workflows, updates to forms and compliance documents, and efforts to reduce review times, particularly for environmental reviews which have been a bottleneck due to limited staffing. The county is actively hiring additional planners and environmental specialists to address these delays. The meeting also highlighted ongoing development of GIS-based interactive maps to help applicants easily identify zoning, environmental restrictions, and required permits for specific properties, aiming to reduce human intervention and improve user experience. Feedback from community participants was solicited to guide revisions to the land development code and operating procedures, with plans to present standardized procedures to the Board of County Commissioners for approval.