Community Redevelopment Agency continues projects in PCB

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Several CRA projects are underway in Panama City Beach, but some have yet to make it off the drawing board.

Right now, Community Redevelopment Agency officials say there is no set timeline for when their list of improvements will be complete.

But they do tell NewsChannel 7 that when everything is finished it will be worth the wait.

“We have sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and transit facilities that will be included on the front beach road corridor. None of that exists today and so safety is a big concern,” Scott Passmore, CRA Assistant Project Manager said. “We will have lighted and signed crosswalks with rectangular flashing beacons. There are certain locations along the beach that have those. The entire front beach corridor will have those. So people wanting to go from north to south to access the beach will be able to do so safely.”

Lots of improvements are in the works for Front Beach Road. While some are complete, there is still more work to be done. Right now, you can see the construction going on at the area commonly known as “the Y”, which is east of Highway 70 to Lullwater Drive and from 79 to Front Beach Road.

“We are at two-thirds complete with that we are hoping within the next 30 to 45 days to open up the new southbound lanes of Arnold Road to two-way traffic and that will also open the roundabout fully in operation,” Passmore said. “We have a partial operation on Front Beach Road and that will also complete the west end of the project down to Cabana Boulevard.”

Passmore said progress for the other segments, is moving forward.

PCB Council members approved some of the next steps for segments 4.2 and 4.3 on Thursday.

“One of the items we had on the agenda today was to authorize appraisals for right-of-way acquisitions so that process will take anywhere from 6 months to a year,” Passmore said.

In addition, CRA officials met with the public earlier this week to talk about the CRA Front Beach Road segment 4.1, which runs from Lullwater Drive to Hills Road. Passmore said construction is expected to start on 4.1 this summer, if everything goes as planned.

If they stay on track Passmore adds it will be done in 2026.

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