Letter: How to keep 7-Eleven fiasco from repeatedly happening

John Valdes
St Augustine, FL

Dear Editor:

The most frustrating meeting of my eight years on the City of St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board was the day the developer’s attorneys brought a request for permission to remove two trees from the vacant lot at the intersection of San Marco Avenue and May Street — now the infamous “7-Eleven Project”.

As I recall, one tree was near dead the other was an invasive species. That was the only permission needed from the Planning and Zoning Board. My board had no choice but to grant permission for the tree removal while being fully aware of the long-term detrimental impacts this development would have on the surrounding neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

Once again I found myself sitting at the PZB table trying to look after the interest of our neighborhoods and our citizens and finding myself totally unable because of the lack of applicable regulations to prohibit a terrible idea from coming into existence.

The question all of us have is could the 7-Eleven have been avoided?

The answer is absolutely “YES.” Albeit after-the-fact, the present City Commission has now disallowed filling stations on all of San Marco Avenue and greatly regulated them on King Street and Anastasia Boulevard.

However, in restricting land use, you have to get ahead of the sale unless you want to be defending zoning modification litigation or a Burt Harris Act claim.

Property rights are very clear and the time for citizens to successfully stop inappropriate development by zoning code modification is before the property goes under contract for sale. By changing the zoning after a property is under contract, or after it is sold for a specific allowed use, litigation, particularly a Burt Harris Action, is almost automatic.

The solution is to identify problem zoning areas through a comprehensive zoning review and then take reasonable steps to intelligently and fairly mitigate those problems before trouble comes knocking.

Hundreds of permits have been issued since the entry corridor guidelines were adopted. Only six have been disputed, and all of those were resolved without legal action. Fears of lawsuits over property rights were unfounded. I believe that property owners will make efforts to conform if they know the will of the community.

The city, obviously, must work in good faith with affected property owners to make sure that their property rights are respected. But, if the stakes are high enough, the city must be willing to purchase critical properties to remove the threat of catastrophic development. Many people find that option distasteful and I believe that recourse should be held as an absolute and last resort. After all, the last thing we need is to take property off the tax rolls any longer than absolutely necessary; so, after modifying the zoning to allow for a more suitable use, the city must sell that property back into the private sector as quickly as possible.

I applaud and support those citizens whose dogged resistance and hard work has gone into trying to stop this project. I hope your effort will not be a case of “too little, too late”. Let this be a “wakeup call” to the citizens of our city. We have more zoning “land mines” out there that must be identified, discussed, and solutions found; or, we will be dealing with other bad ideas in bad locations, soon.

I am running for a non-partisan seat on the St Augustine City Commission, and I need your vote on November 4th to win. If elected, I will work with you and the other commissioners to find the correct solutions. I have the experience, I have the skills, I know the system, and I have the courage and intelligence to change it where necessary.

I have chafed under the burden of trying to do a good job without the right tools; and, with your help, I can make sure that future zoning board members have the right tools to govern our city fairly and for the benefit of all our citizens. I have approved and paid for this message to be published. Find out more about me and my campaign at vote4johnvaldes.com