By Bob Henderson
Correspondent
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Seated around a conference table Monday, March 15, Green Cove Springs City Council members and staff met once again with Reynolds Park representatives.
Again they tackled the issues involved in clearing the way for a massive development envisioned for the Reynolds Park and Clay Port properties. Two of the three items on the special workshop agenda concerned a pending Land Use Plan amendment and consumed more than 80 percent of the three-hour session.
Roughly two years ago Reynolds representatives approached City staff with an ambitious plan for redevelopment of the former naval air station and port along both sides of SR 16 East. Encompassing more than 1700 acres, the proposal includes residential areas, commercial and office development, industrial development and, of course, recreational, conservation and government-related uses. The project, when complete, will be large enough and diversified enough as to constitute a "city-within-the-city."
The scope of the proposal is far beyond anything the City has encountered before and is not addressed in the City’s Future Land Use Map (FLUM). To even begin consideration of the plan necessitated invention of a brand new land use category. Densities, uses, locations of uses in relation to one another and provision of basic services all had to be considered. It took hours of negotiations, returns to the drawing board and more negotiations between the City and Reynolds before they had finally hammered out a document that could be submitted to the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for its approval and/or comment.
The FLUM amendment was returned by DCA generally approved but with a few recommendations. Unfortunately, in the meantime other questions had arisen and the parties to the proposal found themselves facing each other again across the conference table.
Because the development is so large and so new to the City, it was necessary to retain planning, electricity, water and wastewater consultants and expert legal counsel to guide staff through the thorny path of creating something entirely new. Costs of all these consultants and counsel far exceeded the fees usually charged by the City for FLUM amendments and City Manager Don Bowles asked the applicant to pay the overage.
Monday evening, Reynolds Counsel Rob Bradley delivered a check for $24,845.50 to the Council and committed to another $5,000 for planning and legal services. The applicant also offered additional funds for future electric and wastewater fees but tied them to provision for credits for these fees.
City Attorney Jim Arnold advised the Council to accept the offer with one exception; change the $5,000 to $10,000 because the money had already been spent. "We’re not recommending credits, of course," he said. Council agreed.
Bradley explained that Reynolds was willing to pay for planning and legal consultants but not electricity and wastewater because those infrastructures, "…are not related to growth management."
Bowles disagreed. He said the City would not be facing provision of expensive electric infrastructure if the proposed development had not arisen.
"We can debate the electric issue," Councilperson Bob Page said, "but the wastewater issue is part of growth management and has merit to discuss as to how to share the costs."
Electricity continued to be the sticking point.
Bradley repeated, "Electric infrastructure is not a growth management issue but the City cannot supply electricity at present."
He continued, "We are this close to having a use people have been talking about for 30 years. It would be a shame if the FLUM goes down on the electric issue."
Electric Consultant Ed Wisser suggested the Council might want to consider a "Contribution in aid of construction," as provided for in State legislation.
Vice-Mayor Ron Snow objected that the current customer would not want to foot the bill and Wisser replied that phased construction would considerably reduce the impact.
Councilperson Mike Kelter said he would like to, "…ask the attorneys, planners and the family to help."
Following a decision to table the item to a public hearing scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, Councilperson John Buchanan cautioned council members to consider not only the upfront costs of Reynolds redevelopment but the millions of dollars a year in taxes that the City would receive.
In a final action, the Council tabled discussion of an employment contract with the City Manager to 5:30 p.m. April 7
At a regular meeting the next evening, March 16, the Council:
• Agreed to a request from Marilyn Haddock to name SR 16 East "Leonard C. Taylor Parkway" in honor of the founder of Taylor Concrete;
• Approved, on first reading, ordinances modifying water and wastewater rates and;
• Approved schematic design plans for a new police station and payment of $30,612 for them.
March 17th 2010 - 1:18PM