Fish Island developer gets options

Fish Island developer gets options

City Commission trying to block threatened suit

By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 06/24/08

St. Augustine City Commissioners agreed Monday to give the Fish Island developer four options in hopes he will drastically change his originally proposed massive dock.

The developer, Jim Young of Jacksonville, now has until mid-July to either change his project or go through with his threat of suing the city for $9 million, said City Attorney Ron Brown.

The potential lawsuit would be filed under the Bert Harris Act, a property rights protection law, which requires that both the city and the developer first show they attempted to find a compromise before a lawsuit is filed.

The commission worried that even if the developer does change his project, it won't be "significant" enough. They were reluctant to work with the developer without knowing what or if he was willing to redo his project.

Neither Young nor his attorney, Richard Maguire of Rogers Towers, attended the City Commission meeting Monday.

Commissioner Errol Jones said it seemed the city was giving Young "wide-open parameters, and we will back here debating it again."

"It seems we're standing here and seeing who is going to blink first," Jones said. "We really don't want to give them anything, but we're just trying to abide by the law."

Commissioner Don Crichlow said the options the city is giving to the developer are "nebulous." Commissioner Susan Burk agreed.

"What if we say, 'Reduce your number of boat slips,' and they eliminate one and say, 'OK, we did what you asked,'" said Burk. "The offer isn't specific."

Burk requested the phrase "significant decrease in boat slips" be added to the recommended options to Young.

In April, the city's Planning and Zoning Board met with Maguire and recommended four changes the developer could make to the proposed dock in the Matanzas River.

The options were reducing the number of slips, adding more public use and access, moving the dock closer to State Road 312 to reduce the environmental impact and having the city buy the land from the developer.

That last option would call for state funding.

The board then met with Maguire again in May, expecting to hear a response from the developer. But Planning and Zoning Board Member Bill Leary told the commission Monday that wasn't what happened. He said there was nothing offered from the developer, and, "It was clear he was not in good faith trying to work with us."

But Brown said, by law under the Bert Harris Act, the developer was not required to respond to the city's recommendations.

The original proposed dock was more than 1,200 feet long and 10 feet wide. It would have been part of an upscale development on Anastasia Island south of the State Road 312's Mickler O'Connell Bridge of S.R. 312).

Fish Island Development gave the city notice on Jan. 17 that it would file a lawsuit, and the city had 180 days to either settle with the developer or look at other ways the developer can use the property.

Court documents say the developer claims the city's denial of the project will cause $2.7 million in loss of value to the property and another $6.2 million in value loss of future marina sales, totaling $8.9 million.

The city will send the four recommendations to the developer today.

"Procedurally we're complying with the bare minimum," said Mayor Joe Boles. "We'll see if we get sued or not."


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