The Nine Mile Road region is growing fast. Is it growing better?

Northwest Pensacola continues to be a hotspot for growth, with more than 800 of the nearly 1,600 home permits approved in Escambia County in 2023 falling in the area of Beulah, Cantonment and the West Nine Mile Road corridor.

Along with the bevy of new houses, apartments and townhomes, the area is also slated to receive numerous new commercial developments ranging from shopping centers to hotels.

There is no denying the region is growing fast and that businesses and homeowners in the area are seeing many benefits, but there is also concern that the ongoing growth might end up being too much, too fast.

“(The area) has changed a lot, when I first got here seven years ago the road was being redone for four lanes,” said Armando Rodriguez, the owner of Armando’s Barbershop near the intersection of West Nine Mile Road and Pine Forest Road.

“When we were looking for a location (to set up), we were looking for an area where we saw potential for growth,” Rodriguez said. “All of the realtors seemed to push us this way saying this is where the growth was coming. There weren’t too many rentals on this road before this area was built up, so we were lucky just to find a place.”

Both Armando and his son Richard say that the shop’s business blossomed alongside the community.

“From seven years ago to now, it’s just incredible as far as growth,” Richard said. “New people every day, every week. We get new people moving to town from all over, too. Obviously being a military area, we get a lot of military as well.”

Armando added, “We constantly get new clientele on a daily basis … our business has grown from 20 people a day to about 60-70 people that come in each day, we started off slow. The only problem we really have now is our ability to get in and out of our (plaza).”

Still, considering the rapid pace of the area’s development, Richard wondered if issues like infrastructure and livability are being overlooked.

“I think most of the locals do feel like (development) is going too fast, too quickly. Things are getting more expensive and wages aren’t coming up with them too, it’s tough for anybody,” Richard said. “Even raising prices a couple bucks here just to cover rent will turn into a hassle because we will lose a lot of locals, they just can’t afford it a lot of times.”

He noted that their rent "goes up 3% percent every year by contract," because the building owners were expecting the growth before Armando even signed the lease.

“It’s too expensive for a lot of people in this area, a lot of people are moving further up to Alabama or to places like Cantonment," Richard said. "I don’t think a (development) pause is a good thing but I also don’t know … I think everything is happening too fast.”

Armando added, “I think the development is not going too fast, I think the county just has a hard time keeping up with it.”

Beulah master plan may help offer relief

County officials are working to start getting ahead of the growth, with one of the primary methods being the forthcoming Beulah Master Plan.

The plan, billed as "Beulah 2045: A Community Vision for the Future," has a stated goal to "establish a vision to allow continued growth in the area while preserving the quality of life and sense of place enjoyed by current residents." Essentially, the document will chart out the growth and development of nearly 30,000 acres between the Perdido River and Interstate 10.

A firm called Sigma Consulting Group is developing the master plan alongside a number of partner agencies, and a Beulah Master Plan website includes some key data points and community perspectives on the Beulah area.

Beulah has experienced 5.35% population growth between 2020 and 2023, reaching a population of 21,794 in 2023. There are an estimated 388 businesses and 121 residential developments that range in size from just a few homes to expansive neighborhoods.

A greater number of people drive through Beulah each day than live there, according to the data. Nine Mile Road has an annual average daily traffic count of 6,300 between Mobile Highway and Beulah Road, 20,500 between Beulah Road and Navy Federal Way, and 26,500 between Navy Federal Way and Interstate 10.

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A common refrain from many of Beulah's longtime residents is they moved to or stayed in the area because of its quiet, country way of life.

Some 31% of Beulah resident have lived there 21 years or more – predating the catalyst for the massive growth, the expansion of Navy Federal Credit Union – while 19% of residents have lived there between 11 and 20 years. About 50% of area residents have moved in during the past 10 years.

According to the master plan website, when polled on what they like most about the Beulah community, 27% of respondents said the rural feel, 23% said the green spaces, and 10% each said the access to major roads, the quiet, and the kind people, respectively.

Discussing what they like least, 36% of Beulah residents said traffic, 24% said residential growth and development, 11% said lack of restaurants and 9% said road and sidewalk conditions. Some of the other answers that rounded out the field included lack of amenities, retail and medical services.

Javier Omana, vice president of land planning services at CPH Inc., one of the firms assisting with the master planning process, touched on the challenges of meeting everyone's needs and wants during a design "charrette" to gather community input on the master plan Dec. 5, 2023.

"Y'all know, as residents, the pressures of the community itself: transportation, too much housing, not enough housing, too much retail, not enough retail," Omana said to attendees of the charrette. "The preservation of y'all's feeling of place, which is mostly rural in nature, and how do you balance development – people coming in – and preserving the character of your neighborhood? And that's always a challenge, this (has been) a challenge since the beginning of time, how do you balance those two things?"

Omana said citizen participation in the master planning process is the key to striking that balance.

Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who represents the area, echoed the sentiment at the design charrette, noting that "a lot of people are very frustrated that we're just now doing (a master plan)," but adding the master plan was a hugely important, collaborative effort that would be a gamechanger for the community.

"I've been a long-term resident, 20 years," Bergosh said. "This area has changed. Many of you guys have lived here a lot longer than me. But this is the culmination of many year's effort trying to get a plan put together to address this growth."

The benefits of getting bigger

The epicenter of the growth in the corridor has been Navy Federal Credit Union, which decided to expand its Pensacola operations, specifically its Contact Center’s operations, in 2003 to diversify its workforce and capitalize on Pensacola’s military connection.

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“Our vision was really only 300 team members at that time and one building,” said Kim Aderholt, Navy Federal’s vice president of Greater Pensacola operations. “We’ve had such success with the workforce, and our workforce has also enjoyed Pensacola so much, that we’re nearly at 10,000 team members.”

She said that Pensacola’s Navy Federal Credit Union has an agreement with the state to achieve 10,000 team members by 2026. Navy Federal Credit Union has over 24,000 employees worldwide.

“The majority of our team members are not people who relocated here,” Aderholt said. “While we do have people who have relocated here, many of the people you’ll meet here in Greater Pensacola operations had some other connection to our area and just found a great career home.”

Navy Federal has a mission to empower and assist the local community as a guiding principle, she said. From education programs to recreation facilities, the organization has poured substantial resources into community and employee satisfaction.

“Our team members are very passionate about our community and service,” Aderholt said. “We have school partnership programs that’ve had big effects.”

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Navy Federal’s efforts to improve local education include reading pal programs, mentorships and even professional development opportunities.

“We’ve been very engaged in our community throughout our whole 20 years, but I’d say 15 years ago is when we started focusing on our school programs,” Aderholt said. “We knew at that time that our future team members were going to be, at that point in time, kids who were in kindergarten.”

Navy Federal recently developed a 30-acre recreational center for both employees and local residents to share. Aderholt says their new development is an open-air facility with picnic tables and other multi-use items. The facility also has basketball and pickleball courts, multi-use fields, an outdoor fitness courtyard, a sand volleyball court, a yoga lawn and walking trails, according to Aderholt.

“I think really our mission serving our military members and passion for service in general goes hand-in-hand with our passion for our community,” Aderholt said.

The Rev. Donald Harris, a northwest Pensacola resident who preaches at Houser Memorial AME Zion Church, moved to the area from Galveston, Texas, due to his marriage and the Air Force.

“It has grown tremendously, it didn’t have as much when we first moved out here but this area has boomed,” Harris said of the area. “Ten years ago it wasn’t anything like this, Nine Mile Road had not been developed as it is now so we have a greater traffic flow and more houses built in the area.”

Harris believes that Northwest Pensacola’s rapid development could have it end up as “another little city” or social hub for residents of the Greater Pensacola area.

Harris says that as the area’s development has continued, essential services such as dentists began settling in as well about two to three years ago.

“All the things you see on Nine Mile Road is practically new,” he said. “It’s really exciting to see what’s happening and even more exciting to see what’ll happen in the future."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Northwest Pensacola's rapid growth centered around West Nine Mile Road