North Florida Land Trust
will purchase Fish Island
Historic Fish Island, targeted by developers beat back by public protest at
city planning board meetings, will be sold to the North Florida Land Trust.
The nonprofit organization has been negotiating for a year after the Planning
and Zoning Board rejected a 170-home residential development.
The deal is for 57 acres of the property on the Intracoastal Waterway
southeast of the SR 312 bridge.
North Florida Land Trust President Jim McCarthy credited public support
for preserving the land.
The State of Florida will pay for the purchase with Florida Forever funds if
Governor Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet to approve the purchase.
The land trust cited the property’s history as a citrus plantation in the 1700s,
but the land’s beauty and benefits to the environment also played a role.
The land trust is still asking for help to pay for preservation and staff time
that has gone into the work.
Visit http://nflt.org/preservefishisland
May 15 2019
Concerts return
for 29th season
Concerts in the Plaza, St.
Augustine's free summer-long
music series, returns on May 30
for its 29th season serving up a
variety of musical entertainment.
Two-hour concerts will be held
every Thursday at 7 pm starting
May 30 and continuing through
August 29 with a special
performance on July 4 beginning
at 6 pm.
For schedule visit
www.CityStAug.com/Concerts.
History’s Highlight
Jesse Fish’s hacienda
From Wikipedia.org
According to contemporary accounts, Jesse Fish purported to be the sole proprietor of Santa Anastasia
Island, located across Matanzas Bay from St. Augustine. The island comprised 10,000 acres stretching along
fourteen miles of the coast from the city south to Matanzas Inlet.
Fish built the great house of his plantation, El Vergel (the
Orchard), on the island in 1763, where its orchards and orange
groves produced abundantly for decades. Tens of thousands of
barrels of sweet oranges and hundreds of barrels of orange juice
were eventually exported from the plantation, and before the end of
the British Period, Jesse Fish was renowned for the quality of his
citrus fruit.
In the 1770s his oranges were popular in London and were in high
demand there for the making of shrub, a mixed drink with alcoholic
spirits, sugar and juice.
In a letter dated August 10, 1830 and published in the Southern Agriculturist, George J. F. Clarke, a
planter whose family had owned a plantation on the Matanzas River since 1770, described the careful
picking and handling of the oranges grown by Jesse Fish and shipped safely to London, where they had
found favor for their sweetness.
André Michaux, appointed royal botanist to King Louis XVI of France in 1785, was sent to North America
the same year on a mission to make the first organized investigation of American trees and plants that could
be of use to French building and carpentry, medicine and pasture forage.
On March 12, 1788, he began a botanizing trip on the east coast of Florida at El Vergel, having heard of its
elaborate gardens with lemon and sweet orange trees, and of Fish's experiments with growing olives and
dates.
Michaux called the place a paradise and went so far as to call Jesse Fish the most hard-working and
industrious man in all of Florida.
Fish depended on the labor of African slaves to work his plantation, owning seventeen of them in 1786-
1787; by the beginning of the Second Spanish Period in Florida, Santa Anastasia Island had become a
hacienda (estate) used for cattle ranching as well as the cultivation of sweet oranges, and hundreds of wild
horses ran free there.
Commission seeks details
on Broudy gateway plan
The idea that we could move people back into the city, and
that we have them afford it, was a revelation. To do it we had
to reimagine how it could happen. We would have to
increase density and height.
Property owner Barry Broudy
The City Commission Monday gave unanimous approval to
further exploration of a plan to create workforce housing, a
parking garage, new police station, grocery store and other
features to more than five acres at the northwest corner of U.S.
1 and King Street around Broudy’s Liquors.
Property owner Barry Broudy, whose Broudy liquors occupies
a portion of the property, said he’s been working with City
Manager John Regan on the concept over the past year.
Jeremy Marquis of design consultants Marquis Latimer +
Halback said the workforce housing would be geared toward
couples who make a combined annual income of $70,000 to
$80,000.
A residential tower would be 60-65 feet high and a mixed-use
building with residential and commercial would be 50 to 55 feet
high, and that concerned Commissioner Roxanne Horvath: “The
density of this, the height of this in relationship to West
Augustine is way too dense in my opinion.”
Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman echoed Horvath’s concerns
about height, but for Commissioner John Valdes “This hits all
the buttons,” filling city needs for workforce housing, a parking
garage on the west side of town and a grocery store for West
Augustine.
The concept will be refined for further review by
commissioners.
Final Comp Plan workshop today
The last in a series of community workshops in a nearly year-long process of reviewing and updating the
city's Comprehensive Plan is scheduled for today, May 15, from 6- 8 pm at the St. Johns County Library.
The workshops have been held at locations throughout the city to encourage greater participation by the
public.
Discussions have included current assumptions, local issues, and positive things about St. Augustine, while
common areas of concern have included maintaining a sense of place, recognizing pressures on all areas of
the city, and balancing quality of life with tourism and development.
Find Comp Plan details here.
Names in the News
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline is among more than 100 other municipal officials in
the state to receive The Florida League of Cities Home Rule Hero Award for their efforts during
the most recent legislative session. In addition to other efforts in Tallahassee, Sikes-Kline traveled
there to work against efforts to further restrict the ability of local governments to regulate vacation
rentals.
David Reichbach of Destination Analysts told tourism professionals here last week travel
trends aren’t completely positive for the industry overall, but St. Johns County seems to have more
of what travelers want than much of the competition.
Ed Swift III, co-founder and president of Historic Tours of America, told the same group, “St.
Augustine is the best value in America, and I think I have a pretty broad perspective.” Historic
Tours operates Old Town Trolley here and conducts tours in Key West, Washington, Boston, San
Diego and others as well.
Chester DePratter, University of South Carolina archaeologist and Research Professor,
didn’t find St. Augustine’s second settlement in today’s Davis Shores, but he’ll continue to
research maps and Spanish documents to see if remains of the second settlement might be
somewhere else. The city and homeowners permitted his shovel digs in the Oglethorpe Battery
Park area.
Vacation rental
workshop May 22
Commissioners Monday scheduled a workshop for
Wednesday May 22 at 9 am with public input for an
ordinance discussion on vacation rentals. The workshop
will be in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
In discussions earlier this year Planning and Building
Director David Birchim reported on vacation rental
regulations in seven Florida cities, Tax Collector
Hollingsworth reported tracking rental properties to assure
they are not homestead exempted, and Commissioner
Nancy Sikes-Kline and Birchim both acknowledged
receiving a letter from an Airbnb lobbyist “offering ideas
regarding clients and registration systems.”
Cost/benefit analysis asked
on credit card settlement
Commissioners Monday voted to join a class action
settlement regarding Visa and Mastercard charging of
“interchange fees” but directed staff to conduct a cost/benefit analysis to determine the costs of entering the
settlement against the financial return.
Assistant City Attorney John Cary said, "It is impossible to estimate what the award will include at this
time. If we are accepted by the Court as a member of this class, we would share the award with all other
businesses and entities who signed up for the class, along with the lead plaintiffs and the class attorneys.”
Mayor Tracy Upchurch, an attorney, made the motion to determine whether the award to the city would
likely be greater than the costs of filing a claim.
City video system still out
For several weeks commission and other city board meetings have been televised with a camera on the
commission table only, and Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline wants a return to multiple cameras on speakers
and presentation materials.
City Clerk Darlene Galambos said repair of the system is complex, working with the vendor Swagit
Productions, two local technical companies and the county. A backup system is also being developed, she told
commissioners Monday.
There’s no guarantee the system will be back on line for the commission’s next regular meeting June 10.
The May 27 meeting was not scheduled due to the Memorial Day holiday.
Public meeting scheduled at Coquina Park
The Public Works Department will hold an on-site meeting to gather public input on a possible Coquina
Park design and uses of the area purchased by the city at 91 Coquina Avenue. Those uses will include a
passive park.
The meeting will be 5:30-6:30 pm on Thursday May 16. City staff will be on hand to answer questions and
hear ideas for the space's use.
Find a report by Public Works Director Mike Cullum and Planning and Building Director David Birchim
given at Monday’s City Commission Meeting here.
