October 8, 2026
"Moving here in the next year, year-and-a-half, we're going to solve a lot of problems in this area," Walton County Administrator Brian Kellenberger said when work started on the Driftwood Road Municipal Parking Facility in Miramar Beach. Work began in June 2025. A year and a half from that start brings you to December 2026. That is nearly the exact date the county's contract now sets for completion, even though the published target for most of the past year was June 2026.
The gap between those two dates says a lot about what is being built at 76 Driftwood Rd. The county lists it as a parking lot. Most of the work, though, and every bit of the delay, sits in the drainage system under the asphalt.
The county awarded construction Contract 24-34 to Elite Building Group for $2,210,719.12. When WMBB covered the groundbreaking in June 2025, it reported the full project cost at about $4.5 million once property, design and permitting were included, with an estimated 11-month build. An 11-month build starting in June 2025 matches the June 2026 finish the county had been promoting.
Then came the delay. A change-order report later presented to the Board of County Commissioners lays out the timeline:
An exfiltration system lets collected stormwater soak back into the ground. The aggregate is the stone bed that makes that possible. If the stone is wrong, the system can't do its job, so the county stopped work before anything was paved over it. The county's change order kept the contract price the same and added time.
The Walton County Tourism projects page now says the facility "is expected to be completed this winter." That fits the December 27 contract date. The page is a live page with no date on it, so the contract date is the firmer marker.
The stormwater piece was always a central part of this project. A November 2025 operations update to the Tourist Development Council called the stormwater component "major." The same update described sidewalk connections to Miramar Beach Regional Beach Access. WMBB reported that the system on the facility property is designed to collect and treat runoff from both Driftwood and Ellis roads, not only from the new lot.
That same plan reshapes the streets around the lot. According to WMBB, Driftwood and Ellis roads are planned to run as a one-way pair, with sidewalks. The county framed the project as an answer to stormwater and pedestrian safety concerns as much as parking. Kellenberger listed the goals in this order: "parking, stormwater, pedestrian conveyance, beautification." He said the work would make the area "better for people who live, do business and have short-term rentals here, as well as the visitors who stay in their accommodations."
The coverage we reviewed doesn't include a count or layout for any new on-street parking along Driftwood or Ellis. Until the county publishes one, assume the one-way pair and sidewalks are the planned changes to those streets.
The current county description calls for 82 spaces on a 1.25-acre parcel, with dedicated parking for ADA users, low-speed vehicles and bicycles. The county's June 2025 groundbreaking release described 67 spaces, including four EV charging spaces. WMBB's groundbreaking report gives the rest of the count: 67 standard spots, four of them for electric vehicles and three for handicapped parking, plus 15 more for low-speed vehicles. Together those make the 82 that appears in the November 2025 update and on the current project page.
For scale, the county's beach access chart lists Miramar Beach Regional Beach Access at 2375 Scenic Gulf Dr. with 200 spaces: 138 in the main lot and 62 in the north lot. Driftwood sits about a quarter mile from that access. Adding 82 spaces to the 200 already at the RBA means about 41 percent more public parking in that stretch of Scenic Gulf Drive.
| Miramar Beach RBA | Driftwood Road MPF | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 2375 Scenic Gulf Dr. | 76 Driftwood Rd. |
| Parking | 200 spaces in two lots | 82 planned spaces |
| Restrooms | Yes, ADA | Air-conditioned building planned with transit stop |
| Status | Open | Contract completion Dec. 27, 2026 |
Visit South Walton lists beach wheelchairs, an ADA boardwalk, ADA parking, restrooms, a water fountain, a conditions flag and seasonal lifeguards at the RBA. The building planned for Driftwood is about 1,011 square feet and combines a transit stop with restrooms.
That transit stop matters because of a service most Miramar Beach residents haven't been able to use close to home. Walton County Tourism's free Beach Tram expanded on March 1, 2026. It connects municipal parking facilities to regional beach accesses at 393 Municipal Parking Facility and Grayton Central. The same announcement named Driftwood as the third location. Planned service there includes "a direct route to Miramar RBA and additional stops along Scenic Gulf Drive," with "final route details" still pending.
The routes running today show what that could look like. Under the off-season schedule that began October 1, the Ed Walline Express from the 393 facility runs every 10 minutes from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The Grayton Express runs every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. No timetable has been published for Driftwood, so those frequencies are only a guide to how the county runs its other routes.
The November 2025 update also mentioned a separate 4.5-acre Miramar Beach parking parcel. Its development was to be folded into the overall design and permitting for the Driftwood and Ellis corridor. That suggests the county is planning this corridor as one system, and Driftwood is the first piece of it.
Walton County started paid parking on April 3, 2026, at three lots: Van Ness Butler, the 393 Municipal Lot and the Grayton Beach Municipal Lot. Tram rides from those lots stayed free, WJHG reported. The current rates on the county's parking payment page are $5 an hour or $15 a day from March through October, dropping to $5 a day from November through February. Payment is required from 5 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. year-round.
Driftwood doesn't appear on the county's paid-lot list, and neither does Miramar RBA. The county hasn't announced whether the new facility will charge. If it ever does, two existing programs would apply:
The county's next Miramar Beach project is at Legion Park, 119 Crest Dr. Proposed upgrades include a splash pad, new playground equipment, two launch piers, another pickleball court, a resurfaced basketball court, shade pavilions and more parking for cars, trucks and trailers. Its status is listed as "pending permit," with no completion date. Driftwood went from a signed agreement on May 12, 2025, to a June groundbreaking in about five weeks. Less than four months after that, the stop-work notice came, and it added 243 days to the schedule. That history suggests treating any future Legion Park date as a goal until a contract says otherwise.
For Driftwood, the contract does say otherwise. All work on the stormwater system, the transit building and the 82 spaces above them is due by December 27, 2026, with tram routes and any fees still to be announced.
Public projects like Driftwood Road change how a block works long before they show up in property records. Keeping track of that is part of how Coastal Heritage Realty advises Miramar Beach owners. If you want to talk through what the Driftwood and Ellis changes could mean for your street, Schedule Your Complimentary Consultation.
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