Valdes begins his term with focus on flooding. (St. Augustine Report)

From St. Augustine Report, by former Mayor George Gardner, concerning St. Augustine City Commissioner JOHN OTHA VALDES's interest in working on one of his longtime passions on reforming our dated laws on planning, building and zoning -- the prevalence of impermeable surfaces in the built environment in the City of St. Augustine.  Good work!

I sincerely hope that Mr. Valdes will be our local thermal equivalent of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

FDR hired JPK, Sr. to run the Securities and Exchange Commission to plug the legal loopholes he used to become rich as a stock market manipulator.

Valdes knows where the loopholes are -- I look forward to his helping plug them.   Now.

On a related note, St. Augustine Beach Commissioner and hotelier RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN told me Monday night after the SAB Commission meeting that he's spending $85,000 to redo his parking lot with permeable pavers.  Good action.  Merry Christmas!

Valdes begins his term

with focus on flooding

Newly seated City Commissioner John Valdes is bringing a lot of experience to the table, and at his first meeting last week let it be known he wants to use it to focus on some basic issues. 

Basic like development that contributes to neighborhood flooding.

"I'd like to have the staff bring back to the City Commission the conversation about fill, foundations and permeable surface we're taking away," said the commissioner, a contractor with years of experience on city boards.

"Every time we put concrete slabs on the ground we're taking away permeable surface. I've been talking about it for 15 years and in 15 years we've had probably 100 houses built that have usurped our ability to manage rain water."

Over city campaigns in 2014 (he lost to Todd Neville) and 2018 he presented his case in a series of briefs.

"The truth is," he writes in one, "unlike St Johns County and the City of St Augustine Beach, we, the City of St Augustine, have no zoning regulations that prohibit an owner from paving their property from boundary to boundary, as in 100% impervious coverage.

"It would be a wise choice to put Impervious Material Lot Coverage limits into St Augustine's Zoning Code, a precaution to help ease the likelihood of future flooding of our neighborhoods and city streets," he writes.

Two of Valdes' briefs can be found here.