We, the People of St. Johns County in our righteous wrath, say Enough! Enough greed. Enough clearcutting, Enough corruption. Enough unjust stewards, de facto serfs and vessels to corporate Oligarchs. We mEust stop the overdevelopment of Florida's tiniest town. Greedy developers have no respect for our precious environmental and cultural heritage here in God's Country, St. Johns County. Enough overdevelopment already. What do y'all reckon? (Quo vobis videtor?)
Footnote: The late, great United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY), JFK's nephew and President Trump's HHS Secretary-designate said at UC Berkleley* in 1967, "It is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from. We dissent from the willful, heedless destruction of natural beauty and pleasures."
* I was honored to be invited, and I spoke at UC Berkeley in 1983 to federal-state scientific conference about San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program, about scientific whistleblower rights. First time proceedings were not printed. Wonder why? Still have a UC Berkeley t-shirt.
Good story by Lucia Vitti from St. Augustine Record:
UF marine lab clashes with developers over the future of tiny Marineland
Included within the tiny town of Marineland, south of St. Augustine along A1A in St. Johns and Flagler counties, stands the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, a biomedical marine research institute established in 1974.
The research conducted at Whitney Laboratory is significant. Faculty-led laboratories use marine organisms for biological research that can be applied to human health. The lab also provides training for future experimental scientists, educational programs for students of all ages and monthly lectures for the community.
As reported by The St. Augustine Record earlier this year, the Whitney Lab is in the midst of constructing a new Marine Research Institute building and Sea Turtle Research Center and Hospital on its grounds. Not only is Whitney Lab in the market for investing in additional expansion, it is determined to save one of Florida’s few remaining virgin ecosystems.
But those dreams of an unspoiled sanctuary for research and learning on Florida's Atlantic coast could be under threat from familiar tidal forces: not water, but development.
Jacoby Development, an Atlanta-based real estate and commercial development company that owns most of the land in Florida's tiniest incorporated town, published tentative plans earlier this year to transform 32 acres into 241 residential units, 35 condos or beachside hotels and a town center, with the potential of adding 300-plus additional units, according to its website and a report by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. A Marineland Marina would also be built as a “cruising destination” between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach with a marina building with showers, restrooms and laundry plus 20 new slips of concrete floating docks.
While touting the development as an eco-tourism paradise, Jacoby is also promoting the Whitney Lab as a “potential partner with various other educational and research institutions.”
But according to Mark Martindale, Whitney Lab’s professor and director, nothing could be further from the truth.
In an interview with the St. Augustine Record, Martindale said that Jacoby has “stonewalled” the University of Florida’s repeated attempts to purchase the land — or at least part of it — for educational expansion and conservation of the pristine maritime forest.
Martindale described the area as a flood zone.
“So, while it's undesirable to build residential homes with antiquated infrastructure, it’s a great place to have as a modern maritime laboratory,” Martindale said.
Residents show at meeting:Yet-to-be-submitted Marineland development plan stirs up neighboring residents
Martindale said that Jim Jacoby of Jacoby Development keeps stalling the University of Florida's offers, claiming to be "weighing all offers."
He might have one: Martindale said the land appears to be under contract with another large development company, Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes, and a member of UF's real estate team was scheduled to meet with Dream Finders on Friday.
Marineland Mayor Gary Inks insists there are no plans for development. But the project has been discussed at recent public meetings, and more than 5,000 people have signed a Change.org online petition in opposition to it.
“Marineland has not received any applications from any developer to pursue their development within the town limits,” Inks told the St. Augustine Record. “It's not on our agenda, so there’s nothing to talk about.”
Inks described the project detailed on Jacoby’s website as none of his business. He also refused to answer questions about the project, calling them "hypothetical questions.”
Patrick Thompson, Whitney Lab’s assistant director of operations, told The Record that a comp plan that parallels what’s noted on Jacoby’s website was published on Town of Marineland's website but has since been removed, and discussions of the project have taken place at public meetings.
“A comp plan is in place, one that has been approved by the City Commission, so in essence a facsimile of the comp plan can be built,” he said. “Now people need to rally and do their due diligence to speak out about changing the comp plan. Public meetings don't mean anything because the town — the city commissioners — make the final decision."
Thompson said Jacoby has “loaded the deck for himself with the commissioners living on the property" owned by Jacoby.
He said because the area of land is privately owned, “nothing can be done to protect it from being built on as long as it conforms to the comp plan.”
“We have the money in the bank and Jacoby won't sell us this land,” Martindale said. “Every plan to preserve and utilize this area developed by community groups, environmentalists and members of the University of Florida have been thwarted, leaving us at a stalemate.”
Martindale said that he’s even tried to negotiate the sale of seven to 10 acres he described as “scorched earth that’s been previously built upon and ruined from 50 years of malpractice.”
“There’s nothing pristine about those 10 acres we've offered to purchase," he said. "Jacoby could sell the remaining 22 acres as development slots if he so desires or leave the land as it stands now as a maritime hammock."
Martindale said that if the funds appropriated by the Florida Legislature are not used, they will be swept into other accounts.
“We're up against a brick wall,” he said. “We don’t have many options for moving forward because Jacoby is looking for a better deal."
Welcome to Marineland:Florida's tiniest town with a storied past looks to the future
Martindale said that developing the land for residential units will not be a trivial task.
"Issues of climate change and rising sea levels must be factored into the fact that the area is a flood zone with inadequate infrastructure," he said. "Jacoby will need permits."
With stalemate being the word of the day, Thompson said everyone must remain persistent in having their voices heard, especially at town meetings.
“As researchers and educators, we’re in the business of being good stewards not polluters,” Thompson said. “It’s better for us to have influence on the rest of the container. The future of this community and Florida's quality of life deserve to have Whitney Lab preserve this unique maritime ecosystem, rather than to destroy it out of greed."
Jim Jacoby has not responded to The St. Augustine Record's repeated phone calls and emails requesting to discuss the project. Phone messages left with Dream Finders and UF's real estate office on Thursday morning were unreturned by publication time.
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