Abare: Flagler College building a 'dead issue' -- Cordova site is possible new classroom location

Abare: Flagler College building a 'dead issue' -- Cordova site is possible new classroom location

By ANTHONY DeMATTEO
Special to The Record
Publication Date: 06/03/09

A building proposed for Carrera Street by Flagler College and called "too big," "too close to the street" and "obtrusive" by nearby residents is off the table.

On Tuesday, the college's president, who proposed the building, called it "a dead issue."

A 12,000-square-foot building at 15 Carrera St. that would have housed classrooms and offices was taken off the table by Flagler College before Tuesday's meeting of the City of St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board. The proposal drew the ire of some living close to the property, who complained the building would be too large and add excess traffic to Carrera Street.

Though PZB Chairman John Valdes announced at the start of the meeting that plans for the building were removed from the Planned Unit Development request, language stating the college reserved the right to revisit erecting the structure remained.

Flagler College President William Abare told board members and residents at the meeting that the language was a mistake.

"We will remove the language and I hope you will not consider it again," Abare said. "As far as I'm concerned, it is a dead issue."

Four members of the board were present, and they voted to table a request by the college to incorporate the parking lot at 15 Carrera St. into a PUD.

Voting to table the request were Valdes, chair; Carl Blow, vice chair; Bill Leary; and Grant Misterly.

The college plans to eliminate parking in front of Wiley Hall and relocate it near Lewis Hall, build a covered structure for parking bicycles, and improve drainage around the campus. To do the work, the college needs to modify a decades-old PUD.

The four board members agreed the PUD should be granted but asked Abare and college officials to return with more details before a vote is taken. Their concerns included who would use the parking lot and the effect landscaping of another proposed parking area near Lewis Hall would have on trees.

College tables project

Abare said that whether the PUD is approved, the project is "tabled" until next summer. He said 600 Flagler students now park at the Visitor Information Center.

"We obviously have to do something about parking," Abare said.

Abare and the project's landscape architect, Sharon Fowler, said they will be at the July 7 PZB meeting with project details requested by the board. Requested details include a wall proposed to separate the Carrera Street parking lot from neighboring properties, a tree survey and landscaping on Carrera.

Abare said he has no plans to build a parking lot on Carrera Street only to tear it down in the near future. The focus for a new classroom building turns to property on Cordova Street where Flagler's communications department sits.

"By city code, we would be allowed to build a building that would be roughly 15,000 square feet (on Cordova Street)," Abare said.

Cordova site first choice

Abare said the Cordova Street location was the college's first choice for the classroom building, but plans changed because the structure would have to be erected in phases, with a construction time of approximately three years.

Some residents asked that the parking lot on Carrera remain zoned residential, but PZB members and city staff said the city would have greater control over Flagler's plans if it became part of the PUD, which was originally adopted in 1985.

"I'd rather see it be a PUD," Valdes said. "I think we'd have more control over it in the long term."

Abare said after improvements are made to the parking lot, spaces will be used by students living in college dorms. The lot is currently used mostly by commuter students.

At the meeting, several residents complained that the parking lot is often stuffed beyond capacity with cars and creates excess traffic on Carrera.

Anne Boccieri, whose home is at the corner of Carrera and Sevilla streets, said she is relieved that talk of the Carrera Street building, which would have been about 10 feet taller than her house, seems over.

Flagler College plans to build a wall that separates an area including Boccieri's property from the parking lot.

"Our biggest issue was that the building was too large and too close to the street," Boccieri said. "It's important for the college to bring a clear plan to the board. And it's important that the parking lot be brought up to code -- no matter what else happens."

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