Fish Island compromise closer Settlement terms to be published in agenda Thursday

Fish Island compromise closer

Settlement terms to be published in agenda Thursday

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 05/05/09

The terms of a possible settlement of the Fish Island dock dispute will become public later this week, only days before St. Augustine City Commission votes on the issue May 11, officials said Monday.

City Attorney Ron Brown said negotiations with Fish Island Development LLC were conducted "in the shade," meaning they were exempt from the Sunshine Law and did not allow public attendance.

"We anticipate some type of formal document (to be presented) by the Fish Island people," Brown said.

The property is just south of the State Road 312 bridge on the east side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

"But this may not be the final offer. They could always come back with something (new)," he said. "I haven't seen anything final, and the commission has to accept it (before it is final)."

The dispute between the city and the developer began in 2007, when Fish Island asked to build a 1,200-foot boardwalk over the marsh to a 100-slip dock that would handle 50-foot yachts.

The city balked when it saw a scale schematic of how much waterway those yachts would take up. One commissioner said they appeared to be a "hazard to navigation."

Fish Island's attorneys pointed out that they had the right to build homes all over the property, each with its own little dock on a stream going through the property. They wanted to cluster both development and docks.

The current settlement offer will be published in the commission's agenda on Thursday.

Brown said the issue will be discussed during "Attorney Comments" at Monday's commission meeting.

City Manager Bill Harriss said the city's been negotiating a settlement so it doesn't have to go to court.

"They proposed a 100-slip dock. We said no, and they took it to court," Harriss said. "The judge told us, 'You have the right to say no to that dock.'

"But we might have to pay something under the Bert Harris Act."

Fish Island LLC sued under that act, which allows property owners compensation if a government entity takes the value of their land. In this case, Fish Island said the city's refusal to allow them a dock cost them $9 million -- $2.7 million in value loss to the property and $6.2 million in value loss in marina sales.

The dock's size will most certainly a negotiable issue as well as the amount of compensation paid.

The 4 million-square-foot property has been owned by the developer since 2003. It features 3,500 feet of Intracoastal Waterway frontage that contains tidal marsh and mud flats.

Jim Young, managing member of the developer, said that, in the 1990s, the city granted zoning rights covering the property's upland buffer, and those rights allow for office, retail, hotel and marina.

"The property (also has) zoning rights for single-family residential lots, which could allow individual docks," he said.

In February 2007, the city kicked it back to the Planning & Zoning Board, and the multiple reviews began. Commissioners heard strong testimony by residents concerned about the river view being ruined, the local fishing destroyed by giant boats filling the river and by the lost pristine beauty of the city.

Young said the company was trying to preserve as much as it can, such as a wharf built for the mid-1700s plantation in the area, he said.

City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt said Fish Island was once owned, and is named after, Jessie Fish of St. Augustine, a British citizen who died in 1790 and who owned its houses, barns, wells, orchards and fields. He also owned 17 slaves at one time.

Fish became wealthy by inventing a novel -- at the time -- way to transport citrus to Europe that kept it fresher. He wrapped each orange in paper and sealed them in casks.

His former homestead -- once surrounded by orange trees -- sits on the property now owned by the development. A coquina well used by Fish's household was on that site until 2001 and perhaps later.

Halbirt said the Fish house was also made from coquina and stood right up until the 1950s.

"We believe that somewhere (near the house) is a small cemetery where slaves were buried," he said.

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