By Brian Nelson
What might have been dismissed as a therapy session for disgruntled cranks, NIMBYs and environmentalists, Tuesday evening’s public meeting on a planned storage unit on the edge of Marsh Creek surprised a few people. But not St. Johns County Commissioner (District 3), Roy Alaimo.
“I’m not surprised. I’ve gotten a lot of emails”.
In truth, the folks behind the efforts to build a boat and vehicle storage unit on 10 acres of land at the corner of Mizell Road and 16th Street hoped this public meeting would defuse local opposition to their development plans ahead of later appearances before county commissioners. Instead, they hit a wall.
“We didn’t expect this many people”, said Senior Planner, Autumn Martinage, who struggled to get her voice above a barrage of angry questions from Marsh Creek, Commodore Club and Ocean Cay homeowners.
In fact, more than 200 lined up to squeeze inside the Anastasia Library meeting room. Others stood outside a fire door hoping to follow the proceedings. But without microphones or speakers, it was all in vain.
THE PROJECT
What’s at stake is the fate of a stretch of land running from Mizell Road westward along 16th street. It faces the county water treatment plant to its north, the county water retention pond to its south. To its east, across Mizell Road, is the Commodore Club, and 340 feet from its western most extremity is the closest home in Marsh Creek’s The Villas.
An Anastasia Island resident, Brad Runk, is co-owner of the project. His group is seeking to develop this land into a 187 unit outdoor RV and boat storage facility, and to construct up to two buildings for use as private vehicle condominiums and/or medical facilities. Each building could stand up to 35 feet high, according to county zoning laws. The land is currently zone rural, and the group’s upcoming appearances before the county commission will seek approval for a Planned Unit Development (PUD), rezoning the land to “Neighborhood Business and Commercial”. The audience was told this category also includes corner stores and barber shops.
“We don’t want anything obnoxious”, Runk assured the group.
THE REACTION
Many of the homeowners had done their homework and strafed Runk and his team with volleys of environmental, zoning, tax questions. What about the lighting codes? Will the RV and boat owners wash and service their vehicles and what are the plans for dealing with the hazardous material? Do you realize you will destroy the only bird sanctuary in the county? Will the increased traffic affect our car insurance premiums? Our property taxes? Will you reimburse us for any increase? Where will the deer go? How many trees will you cut? (Runk didn’t know). Do you know that losing those trees will let more of the water treatment odors through to Marsh Creek! What about the trash on Mizell? There’s already a lot now.
“This will create horrible, horrible environmental conditions”, one of the project’s critics complained.
While it only took a few minutes into the meeting before the first boo’s greeted the project’s co-owner, one homeowner drew rousing applause as he seemed to read the room 30 minutes later:
“This is just not compatible with the area”, he said.
Applause came again when another attendee appealed to Runk to offer the land up to the State of Florida for conservation, as was done with nearby Fish Island.
THE NEXT STEP
The storage project took some heavy bruises at this meeting, and they were witnessed live by a county commissioner. When it goes before the full County Commission, the rough treatment likely won’t get any easier.
“I can assure you there will be massive opposition at the public meetings”, warned one angry homeowner, not long before time ran out on Round One.
Great to hear many are against this, what would be a huge eyesore. I agree with selling this parcel of land to the state of Florida for conservation tosave not only the wonderful bird sanctuary but all the other animals that call that piece of land home.
Besides all that where would our officers hang out to do their paperwork?
GREAT SUMMARY, Thanks and we agree with all your points!!
Bravo to all of the residents who turned out to oppose this project. It was a tremendous amount of people who did their homework and presented excellent reasons why this project makes no sense for this piece of land.
187 parking spaces for boats, RVs and trailers right next to Meisel Road! Another area for either indoor parking garages or office buildings 35 feet high! It is both a large eyesore to our community but more importantly, a total destroy of precious green space on a very small island. It will absolutely impact our environment and fragile ecosystem,
These presenters along with the ownens of the land, who claim to have been working on this project for a couple of years, fumbled to answer questions from crowd. How high will the 20 foot buffer be? How many trees will be destroyed by all of the construction? What are the plans to protect the environment from all of the chemicals, including hazardous chemicals, from people washing and performing services on their boats and RVs? What exactly will the nighttime lighting look like? What impact will this construction have on the ecosystem and the environment? What are the plans for the roads with the increased traffic in the immediate area? They either didn’t know or admitted to not thinking about the impact. They were just not prepared.
It was rather surprising to hear that this group had NOT yet discussed any of this with the City of St Augustine. Most likely a tactical move to keep further opposition from a project this group appears to want to jam through the approval process in the weeks and months ahead. The next step is to present their plans to St Johns County so the zoning can be changed to support this project as outlined. The zoning must be officially changed by the County to allow this specific development. These meetings with the County have not been established yet.
Stay tuned, stay organized, stay informed and do everything to fight this huge parking lot that will have a permanent impact on our environment, ecosystem and
Community. Anastasia Island deserves better than this and so do the residents. Together, we have a solid opportunity to change the trajectory of this proposed project as it truly does not belong on this piece of land. We all need to embrace our inner David as we come together to fight this Goliath of a development plan. .