Will PZB Reject "Daytona Beach" Architecture?

"We don't want St. Augustine to look like Daytona Beach" or "Myrtle Beach."

So spake JERRY DIXON, term-limited PZB member at his next-to-last meeting August 2, 2016.

"We don't want St. Augustine to look like Daytona Beach." Longtime PZB member JERRY DIXON, while often supporting controversial developments, drew the line with destroying our "vista." Destroying the view of our San Sebastian River with what looks like a shopping center backside fronting our Sebastian River." "We don't want St. Augustine to look like Daytona Beach… or other places, where you can't even see the beach.

Cathy Brown opined that Diane's looks like a fort.

Ms. Brown said there has been "bait and switch" by developers, "ever since hospital torn down on Marine Street.
Mr. Dixon said, "once it's there, it's there. In the past, crossing U.S. 1 on S.R. 207, you would "see marsh." That vista is now gone for all future generations. "You guys did this, including him."

Carl Blow said, "I'm not proud of that vote, based on what I'm seeing out there" at Diane's.

Ms. Brown called it a "breach of faith. Mr. Dixon replied, "of course it is."

Mr. Dixon lamented a certain too tall hotel whose developer "wanted to hire him, he didn't do what they wanted him to do," and voted against it. Dixon excoriated lack of architectural guidelines and failure to require full scale models, resulting in ugly"corporate architecture," "gross things," including ugly motels and th condos across from Gypsy Cab restaurant, a boxy condo project that Ms. Brown pronounced "awful!"

Mr. Dixon condemned as examples of inappropriate "corporate architecture"
on U.S. 1 the CVS and Walgreen's twin big box drug store, which Dixon termed "tacky ... looks like it belongs in Myrtle Beach or something."

Ms. Brown asked, "what's the remedy instead of complaining.

Mr. Dixon replied, "look at and think about it in the future."

Mr. Dixon questioned priorities, stating PZB was "hung up on the Dow property for six months," which he "think[s] it's going to be a fine project when it's done but was it worth it? …. "Rome's burning while you're fighting these little battles."

Mr. Blow disagreed with the prevailing "attitude that PUDs are bad -- PUDs are fantastic planning tool."

Mr. Blow said on Diane's the he "was focused on access for adjoining condos."

Ms. Brown said while PZB is "not the taste patrol…. What you just showed me I don't think I voted for."

Mr. Dixon said "all of you … blocked [the] vista, which he called "an atrocity" excoriating a three story box on corner

Chair Matthew Shaffer said, "we definitely appreciate the admonition" and "look forward to your being at that podium.

Mr. Blow said that some municipalities require scale models, which "Sue [Agrsta] once built.


Mr. Dixon called the group's attention to Google Earth's excellent online modeling.