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FSDB, city nearing agreement on neighborhood issues | StAugustine.com
A compromise of a long-standing zoning dispute with the city of St. Augustine over the 4,154-square-foot Collins House on Nelmar Avenue was approved Friday morning by The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind’s board of trustees.
This agreement will not take effect until both the city and the school approve the final details.
FSDB attorney Sid Ansbacher, of Gray, Robbins, Jacksonville, added two additional modifications.
The first is to ask for a better definition of the “Mediterranean style” architecture requested for the eight small cottages, each holding four students, on Genoply Street that the school plans to build.
The second was more of a request: Keep the agreement language consistent with FSDB’s development plan.
“The (city negotiators) did not officially recommend (its provisions) but felt they could take it back to the commission,” Ansbacher said. “(But the city) did nothing official.”
Ansbacher said the 12-hour meditation was intended to find common ground to end a standoff on a three-count code enforcement action by the city against the Collins House, renovated into a student dormitory at a cost of $1.38 million last year by the school.
The city didn’t reject the mediation but came up with four extra conditions: Make the deal permanent, not the 10-year-long, automatically renewable agreement proposed in the mediation; require the architectural style of the Genoply cottages to be “Mediterranean”; city officials would retain oversight of the Genoply development to check compliance with city codes; and the city would monitor the project to assure consistence of technical requirements and its general standards.
If the school accepted these, the code violations concerning the Collins House would go away.
‘Part of neighborhood’
Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Wagner of Bradenton told the approximately 50 or 60 city residents there, “I see the Collins House as part of the neighborhood. We want to maintain a relationship with our city and our neighbors.”
But Friday’s meeting opened on a different note.
Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood Park residents asked the board to withdraw a bill sponsored by state Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, giving the school eminent domain.
For example, Beth Sanders said eminent domain would “displace families who have lived in the neighborhood for generations.”
Melinda Rakoncay, president of Nelmar Terrace Neighborhood Association, said, “These old houses cannot be replaced. We have front porches and sidewalks and neighbors who care for one another.”
Matthew Shaffer, a Realtor who lives in Nelmar Terrace, said Proctor’s “spite and ego” pushed him to sponsor that bill against the neighborhoods which has resisted FSDB expansion for years.
“It’s unfortunate that the board hasn’t reined in Proctor,” Shaffer said.
Proctor did not attend.
Anger lingers
Two neighborhood residents, former St. Augustine Mayor George Gardner of Fullerwood and Steve Alexander of Nelmar, both mentioned the 30 seconds that a legislative committee in Tallahassee gave each member of the St. Augustine delegation to speak against Proctor’s bill.
“In Tallahassee they respect procedure more than people,” Gardner said. “Your neighbors don’t understand why all your expansion needs can’t be done within your 80 acres. The city is not asking anything more of you than it asks of anyone else.”
Lisa Lloyd, also of Nelmar, said the resentment against FSDB in the community is growing.
“And that’s sad, because we really love FSDB,” she said. “It’s going to get worse if this bill goes through.”
But the board did not address that issue because the agenda listed the mediation agreement as its only action item, despite a request by Ed Slavin to add discussion about the school’s lobbying efforts.
City Attorney Ron Brown said the school and the neighborhood have an obligation to one another.
“We need to undergo a process of understanding, healing and reconciliation,” he said. “We need to recognize and give credibility to one another. There’s a perception, ‘We really don’t care what you want. This is what we’re going to do.’ That’s what the neighborhood feels and that’s what the City Commission hears from people in the neighborhood. Homes are not just a piece of real estate that you buy and sell.”
FSDB’s newest board member, Yolanda A. Rodriguez, assistant city manager for the South Florida city of Margate, made the motion to approve the mediation and send it on to the city.
“I share the passion of the neighbors, but this is what we have on the table today,” Rodriguez said. “We ought to show that we’re willing to compromise.”
A compromise of a long-standing zoning dispute with the city of St. Augustine over the 4,154-square-foot Collins House on Nelmar Avenue was approved Friday morning by The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind’s board of trustees.
This agreement will not take effect until both the city and the school approve the final details.
FSDB attorney Sid Ansbacher, of Gray, Robbins, Jacksonville, added two additional modifications.
The first is to ask for a better definition of the “Mediterranean style” architecture requested for the eight small cottages, each holding four students, on Genoply Street that the school plans to build.
The second was more of a request: Keep the agreement language consistent with FSDB’s development plan.
“The (city negotiators) did not officially recommend (its provisions) but felt they could take it back to the commission,” Ansbacher said. “(But the city) did nothing official.”
Ansbacher said the 12-hour meditation was intended to find common ground to end a standoff on a three-count code enforcement action by the city against the Collins House, renovated into a student dormitory at a cost of $1.38 million last year by the school.
The city didn’t reject the mediation but came up with four extra conditions: Make the deal permanent, not the 10-year-long, automatically renewable agreement proposed in the mediation; require the architectural style of the Genoply cottages to be “Mediterranean”; city officials would retain oversight of the Genoply development to check compliance with city codes; and the city would monitor the project to assure consistence of technical requirements and its general standards.
If the school accepted these, the code violations concerning the Collins House would go away.
‘Part of neighborhood’
Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Wagner of Bradenton told the approximately 50 or 60 city residents there, “I see the Collins House as part of the neighborhood. We want to maintain a relationship with our city and our neighbors.”
But Friday’s meeting opened on a different note.
Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood Park residents asked the board to withdraw a bill sponsored by state Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, giving the school eminent domain.
For example, Beth Sanders said eminent domain would “displace families who have lived in the neighborhood for generations.”
Melinda Rakoncay, president of Nelmar Terrace Neighborhood Association, said, “These old houses cannot be replaced. We have front porches and sidewalks and neighbors who care for one another.”
Matthew Shaffer, a Realtor who lives in Nelmar Terrace, said Proctor’s “spite and ego” pushed him to sponsor that bill against the neighborhoods which has resisted FSDB expansion for years.
“It’s unfortunate that the board hasn’t reined in Proctor,” Shaffer said.
Proctor did not attend.
Anger lingers
Two neighborhood residents, former St. Augustine Mayor George Gardner of Fullerwood and Steve Alexander of Nelmar, both mentioned the 30 seconds that a legislative committee in Tallahassee gave each member of the St. Augustine delegation to speak against Proctor’s bill.
“In Tallahassee they respect procedure more than people,” Gardner said. “Your neighbors don’t understand why all your expansion needs can’t be done within your 80 acres. The city is not asking anything more of you than it asks of anyone else.”
Lisa Lloyd, also of Nelmar, said the resentment against FSDB in the community is growing.
“And that’s sad, because we really love FSDB,” she said. “It’s going to get worse if this bill goes through.”
But the board did not address that issue because the agenda listed the mediation agreement as its only action item, despite a request by Ed Slavin to add discussion about the school’s lobbying efforts.
City Attorney Ron Brown said the school and the neighborhood have an obligation to one another.
“We need to undergo a process of understanding, healing and reconciliation,” he said. “We need to recognize and give credibility to one another. There’s a perception, ‘We really don’t care what you want. This is what we’re going to do.’ That’s what the neighborhood feels and that’s what the City Commission hears from people in the neighborhood. Homes are not just a piece of real estate that you buy and sell.”
FSDB’s newest board member, Yolanda A. Rodriguez, assistant city manager for the South Florida city of Margate, made the motion to approve the mediation and send it on to the city.
“I share the passion of the neighbors, but this is what we have on the table today,” Rodriguez said. “We ought to show that we’re willing to compromise.”