DOW PUD HEARING MAY BE ILLEGAL 2PM, 7/16 -- HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD NEVER ADOPTED ANY PROCEDURAL RULES FOR OPINIONS AND CERTIFICATES OF APPROPRIATENESS

Sent: Thu, Jul 16, 2015 11:09 am
Subject: July 16, 2015 2 PM HARB hearing -- Illegal to Consider DOW PUD Requests for Opinions and Certificates of Appropriateness -- HARB Has Not Adopted Procedural Rules

Dear Ms. Wallace, Mr. Roark, Mr. Wayland, and City staff:

1. Please delete from today's agenda -- and all future agendas -- any request for any certificate of appropriateness or opinion of appropriateness.

2. "Our Nation's Oldest City" has apparently never complied with its own historic preservation ordinance, Code Sec. 28-88(1), stating inter alia:

Sec. 28-88. - Procedures.
The historic architectural review board shall follow the following procedures:
(1) The board shall adopt rules prescribing the procedure for making and reviewing applications for a certificate of appropriateness or request for opinion of appropriateness.
(2)
….

3. It would be illegal, unethical and unseemly for HARB to grant Mr. DAVID BARTON CORNEAL's and the OLD ISLAND HOTELS, INC. applications -- or anyone else's applications -- for certificate or opinion of appropriateness today.

4. HARB has never adopted rules, as required (Two "shalls" make it mandatory).

5. It is shocking that HARB has done business for so long without complying with our mandatory local laws, for as our United States Supreme Court ruled in Service v. Dulles, 354 U.S. 363 (1957), our governments must follow their own rules.

6. I have shared this e-mail with the Florida State Attorney General and with Mr. Peter Sorgi, the Boston counsel for the Estate of Kenneth Worcester Dow, and also with counsel for the applicants and with resident s of the Old City City neighborhood.

7. Please delete all DOW PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT related certificates and opinions of appropriateness, and any others, from your agenda today.

8. It would be illegal and an ultra vires act for HARB to decide any such applications without complying with Ordinance 28-88(1).

Thank you!
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com