NICEVILLE — The notion of building a bypass around Crestview has leapt from 10th to third on the Okaloosa-Walton Transportation Planning Organization’s list of priorities.
It happened the same day Crestview, now Okaloosa County’s largest city, secured a third voting member on the 19-person TPO board and had two more members installed on the organization’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee.
“We’ve needed some help up here. This is a giant step for Crestview,” city councilman and TPO member Mickey Rytman said. “Now we’ve got a little more say in getting streets and roads for the north part of the county.”
Eric Davis, Crestview’s planning official, said he’d noticed “kind of a little bit of a groundswell” of support for the bypass as county officials and cities in south Okaloosa recognize the need to move vacationers to and from the area’s beaches.
The plan the TPO moved up seven spots prioritizes only one-fourth of a complete bypass, Rytman said. It calls for widening P.J. Adams Parkway to four lanes south of U.S. Highway 90.
It’s the same $100 million road project a group called the North Okaloosa Transportation Committee intends to seek tax increment financing to support.
TIF sets aside a portion of property taxes for a special purpose. The committee must obtain approval from the Okaloosa County Commission and Crestview City Council to implement a TIF to fund the P.J. Adams project.
Davis, one of the committee members, said the group’s efforts to find a funding source likely helped bump the Crestview bypass up the TPO’s priority list.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.