In the News

NAVARRE -- The Santa Rosa County Commission approved the Navarre Town Center Plan, allowing taller, 100-foot buildings but also calling for an amphitheater, plazas, parks and open spaces to permit views of Santa Rosa Sound. Included in the plan: Sign regulations, increased landscaping, restrictions on building styles and colors.

PENSACOLA -- Sam's Fun City, Escambia County's only amusement park, is adding a $1.5-million water park, Sam's Surf City, to open this spring. The park, launched in 2000, was ranked among the top 10 family entertainment centers in 2003 by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

PORT ST. JOE -- Arts, entertainment and shopping could replace the old St. Joe Paper Co. mill under the redevelopment plan of co-owners St. Joe Co. and Smurfit-Stone. The $345-million project would create a new town center, including a new City Hall and office and retail space. Go-ahead depends on Gulf County Port Authority's willingness to move port operations north of the present site.

TALLAHASSEE -- Jon Shebel has stepped down as president of influential business lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida. Shebel, who served as president for 30 years, will stay on as CEO. Longtime lobbyist and former executive director of the Democratic Party of Florida Barney Bishop has succeeded Shebel.

WALTON COUNTY -- The Northwest Florida Water Management District will buy 3,160 acres along Lafayette Creek near Freeport for $4.5 million from M.C. Davis of Nokuse Plantation. The purchase, protecting an environmentally sensitive water resource area, is also the first public land acquisition at the western end of the Northwest Florida Greenway, a preservation project for a land and air corridor from Eglin Air Force Base to Apalachicola National Forest.