GOBSMACKED: St. Augustine City Commission Refuses to End PUD Status for Sebastian inland Harbor

Developers and our pro-developer City staff were gobsmacked September 13, 2021 when Commission refused by 4-1 vote to end the 2007 Planned Unit Development zoning for Sebastian Inland Harbor.  Good action!  Thank you, Mayor Upchurch, Vice Mayor Sikes-Kline, Commissioners Horvath and Blonder. 

Site of the former polluting coal-to-gas plan owned by Atlanta Gas Light, the parcel was a Superfund site.  

To create an artificial wetland to replace 4.3 acres of wetlands destroyed by the project, City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS --in a hurry to make a developer happy --, had contaminated solid waste removed from the south end of Lincolnville and dumped in our Old City Reservoir. 

No permits.  

Twice the St. Johns River Water Management District directed HARRISS & CO.  not to dump without a permit.  

The environmental criminal did it anyway.  

I reported the crime, sharing video with criminal investigators from EPA and FDEP on February 27, 2006. 

The City was eventual fined.  

The egregious environmental criminal BILL HARRISS retired in 2010, only to go to encumber a $1500/month sinecure with his former Chief of Police, corrupt St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, 2010-2021.

When the Atlanta Gas Light coal-to-gas plant pollution was remediated, the City sold it to dodgy developers, whose corrupt corporate lawyer, the late GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE, claimed there was an agreement for a Westin Hotel.  When I asked for a copy of the agreement, McCLURE did not need to answer -- mendacious Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. said that was private information and need not be disclosed.   

The developer corporation went bankrupt. 

The property remained vacant for years.

Purchasing the property, Abbas Abdulhussein's corporation then demanded to end the PUD!

The presentation by the developer was arrogant, as if it had a right to end the 2007 PUD.

As Capt. Lee Geanuleas, U.S.N. (Ret.) wrote on St. Augutine Residents Count: 

In a surprising outcome, last night, the City of St Augustine City Commission voted 4-1 (Valdes in favor) to disapprove Abbas Abdulhussein's Sebastian Inland Harbor rezoning request. 

In another surprise, it approved Charles Cox's rezoning request for the San Sebastian Winery. The Winery used to be part of the combined Abbas-Cox Sebastian Inland Harbor PUD. Abbas' property is still a PUD. 

That means the city retains significant control of how his development (large hotel) will look and how it operates. Cox's property is not a PUD. Just when you thought you had things figured out.