RECORD EDITORIAL: Don’t knuckle under to Embassy Suites (SAR)

I agree with Jim Sutton's excellent editorial in the July 25, 2018 St. Augustine Record:



RECORD EDITORIAL: Don’t knuckle under to Embassy Suites

Posted Jul 24, 2018 at 5:01 PM
Updated at 6:01 AM
St. Augustine Record

St. Augustine Beach faces what amounts to a lawsuit by Embassy Suites Hotel.

The issue is, from where we sit, not one of feet or inches of a water slide, or development agreements, or legal premises set or not set by earlier litigation from years past.

No. The legal tussle upcoming is about one thing, and that should be the only thing on the Beach Commission’s minds as this matter unfolds.

The issue is whether or not a commission, clearly acting with support of a great majority of its residents, can “just say no” to big development. And that’s exactly what it did June 4 when it voted unanimously on behalf of the business owners and residents of the beach community to turn down a request by Embassy Suites to build a water park on its property.

The basis for the refusal was the water park plan was not a part of the final development order with the big hotel. Additionally, it ran afoul of height restrictions (finally) in city codes. And it wasn’t consistent with the City Commission’s view of what “belonged” in St. Augustine Beach in terms of use, scale and simple aesthetics.

Embassy Suites is pitching a hissy-fit, stomping its corporate foot and demanding its new request be allowed — which, if you think about it, makes it anything but a request. And, this, from a corporate entity that got its way in the first place by playing the “good neighbor” card.

The minutes of the meeting are only six pages long. But we think a couple of sentences could have summed the whole thing up.

At the meeting’s end, Mayor Undine George asked this question of Embassy Suites’ attorney: Might a compromise similar to one offered by Commissioner Don Samora be agreed upon by the hotel? The answer was “no.”

Samora interjected that it would be, at least, a starting point — and continued that the compromise would allow the applicant 95 percent use of equipment already purchased.


The attorney, again, said “no.” (Notice, too, that the equipment purchase was made prior to the request to allow it.)

Betting is a big industry. You can find a line on just about anything these days — who will come in third for best supporting role in a Gothic documentary film at Cannes. But you don’t see bookies handicapping court cases because anything can, and often does, happen.

What we’d love to see happen is this ...

Beach Commissioners, stand your ground and be certain now to retract the offers of compromise thrown back into your faces. Keep your eye on the prize. That’s whether or not a corporation can bully a town and its people into submission. Don’t hire outside counsel. Let Jim Wilson earn his keep. You have your reasons for denial. Wilson can outline them as clearly as anyone. They are short and to the point. Go to court. Tell them to the judge. See what the judge says.

If you lose, you lose little — a couple extra feet of water slide.

But if you win, you’ve said something important about the will of a city and the rights of its residents; issues that seem to be in constant conflict with development all over the county.

You’re saying that neighbors and neighborhoods have some relevant standing in how they live their lives — where they live their lives.

That’s a mouthful — and one well worth giving voice to, as elected advocates of them all.