ONCE-DOMINANT WHETSTONE FAMILY LOSES YET ANOTHER ROUND ON THEIR MISBEGOTTEN DEMAND TO BUILD A DOCK ON CITY BOTTOMLANDS

James 1:8
He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.



Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012
City: We own the property
By PETER GUINTA
St. Augustine Record
peter.guinta@staugustine.com

Whetstone dock application tabled

A dispute between St. Augustine city officials and an attorney representing Virginia Whetstone caused the Planning and Zoning Board on Tuesday to again table the Whetstone family’s application for a Matanzas River dock.

The family’s application has been tabled several times already.

Whetstone and her husband, former St. Johns County Commission Chairman Bruce Maguire, contend they have evidence going back to 1795 that backs their claim to ownership of the property east of the Bayfront Inn at Bridge Street and Avenida Menendez.

That property consists of the roadbed of Avenida Menendez and a speck of land where the present seawall stands.

However, Assistant City Attorney Isabel Lopez said that the Whetstone letter they claim is their evidence of ownership was presented to her one hour before the hearing and that she hasn’t had time to read or examine it.

“You have to have a complete application to have a hearing,” Lopez said. “The public has a right to see the supporting documents.”

That statement was backed by PZA Chairman James McClure.

Whetstone’s attorney, George McClure of St. Augustine, said he anticipated the city disagreeing with the letter.

“(But) I believe you have the responsibility to hear the application just like any other dock application in the city,” he told the PZA. “I simply want to be treated the same as everyone else.”

Mark Knight, director of planning and building for the city, told McClure that he was being treated like anyone else.

“It would be an administrative nightmare if everyone applied for a dock but had no evidence of ownership to the water,” he said.

The Whetstones have applied to build a low-profile dock just east of the Bayfront Inn so their motel’s patrons can lounge right on the water and enjoy the city’s riverfront vista.

But the city contends that the property east of the inn is theirs and that the Whetstones have not documented their ownership claims.

George McClure said the ownership questions is separate from the dock question.

“That (issue) is not for this body to decide,” he said, explaining that he would send both deed and title of that property to the city.

Lopez said, “It’s not so much if the city owns the property. It’s whether (the Whetstones) own the property to the waterfront.”

PZA member Carl Blow made the motion to table the application. It passed unanimously.

Attorney McClure said, “I just don’t want the city to play games with me and waste our time.”

Whetstone told the board that she has previously applied for docks at the Edgewater and Anchorage inns, which she owns, and has never had to prove she owned the property before.

PZA member John Valdes said, “There’s never been an ownership dispute before.”

Most applications include a survey delineating the boundaries of the property, he added.

After the hearing, Maguire said that their search of the property records found that Avenida Menendez sits on an easement that crosses people’s property, including theirs.

“All the property under the road belongs to all the property owners down the street,” he said. “We can prove our chain of title.”